Huckstepps media profile blossomed, but she couldnt give up heroin. In the wake of Rogersons arrest over the Gao murder, the flow of information quickened as people who previously had been reticent to talk all of a sudden really started talking. Credit: Daniel Munoz. His sentencing in August will likely be seen as ending an era of deeply rooted police corruption. He was also a man who possibly, if you were locked up, could walk up to arresting police and crack a deal for you, either through payment of money or say to the copper, by the way, Ive got a brief [compromising information] on you. Set in 1980s Sydney, this acclaimed mini-series tells the story of the relationship between corrupt Detective Roger Rogerson and one of Australia's most infamous criminals Neddy Smith. He and fellow former detectiveGlen McNamara were jailed for life in September 2016 and lost appeals over their convictions in July. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? [14][dead link], Rogerson was responsible for the 1981 shooting death of Warren Lanfranchi. After his latest conviction, he is expected to spend the rest of his life in jail. What an interesting confluence: one man who has an appalling reputation but has rehabilitated himself to genial rogue for hire, and a bloke whos supposed to be pure and downtrodden, McNab says. Rogerson gets jail keyboard at Long Bay jail, Teen feared missing in water at Freshwater Beach. The female roles of Neddy Smiths wife Debra (Joy Smithers) and Lanfranchis prostitute girlfriend Sallie-Anne Huckstepp (Loene Carmen) give this story depth. Im not the only visitor outside his circle of family and friends. Disgraced NSW detective Roger Rogerson, jailed for murder, could give evidence to the coronial inquest into the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub firebombing in Brisbane which killed 15 people. When Lanfranchi stepped out of the car, Rogerson shot him dead, claiming self defence. He claimed that he was trying to arrest Lanfranchi for five suspected armed robberies. Smith's exploits with Rogerson featured in the 1995 television drama series Blue Murder. Huckstepp was later murdered, her body found in a pond in Centennial Park, New South Wales. Born in 1921, McPherson was convicted of various crimes as a boy and . [13], Rogerson worked on some of the biggest cases of the early 1970s, including the Toecutter Gang Murder and the Whiskey Au Go Go Fire in Brisbane. Theres a long and sad list and I reckon there would be a few people who have just gone, disappeared, that no one cares about.. Rogerson, 76, is incarcerated in the aged and frail unit at Sydneys Long Bay prisons, where his old friend Neddy Smith is also serving a life sentence. Both pleaded not guilty in January 2015. Rogerson is pictured in 2004. Arthur Stanley Neddy Smith is a big force of character in the first Blue Murder series. The unlikely pairing culminated in Gao, through contacts with a Triad gang in Hong Kong, arranging the import of 3kg of ice from mainland China. To improve your experience, Corrupt cops Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara are contemplating a lifetime behind bars after losing their. The jury said I didn't act in self-defence. Low income Aussies and pensioners could be forced out of homes, Tens of thousands flock to Bondi for one-off dance party, Major traffic chaos warning for Sydney across busiest weekend in years. "It was the '80s. You start meeting so many people whove had their lives trampled on by this guy, both coppers and civilians, McNab says. The Dodger had brought a whole new network of people who knew Rogerson out of the woodwork. His first experience of killing came in 1976 in the NSW town of Avoca Beach, where he and other officers rained gunfire on a house holding murderous criminal Phillip Western. Rogerson, 75, has taken a job as the prison sweeper, which involves general cleaning duties like emptying bins and mopping floors, at the Kevin Waller Unit for aged and frail inmates. The pair could often be found drinking with other police and criminals at inner-city pubs includingAlexandria's Star and Iron Duke, the Captain Cook at Millers Point and the Lord Wolseley in Ultimo. At the age of 73, Rogerson murdered a 20-year-old university student called Jamie Gao over a 3kg package of crystal meth, a drug deal that became a straight rip-off. The pair met in November 1976 when Rogerson arrested Smith as he was reporting for bail at Rockdale police station and charged him attempting to snatch the Fielders Bakery payroll at Granville. Prosecutors said the length of the prison term they are seeking for Ng is justified under US federal sentencing guidelines because of the size of the fraud. McNab took it as a measure of the enduring chilling effect of Rogersons reputation. And then we bring in Jamie Gao, whos pretty much the face of what Australian criminal gangsters or wannabe gangsters look like these days: young, smart, educated, going for the big quid.. 2023 BBC. But Justice Bell said the Crown had established a circumstantial case against the men. "It alleged both men were part of a plan to steal drugs from the deceased and kill him," he said. In 1984, Duncan McNab was a New South Wales police internal affairs investigator when a deathbed statement from undercover drug cop Michael Drury came across his bosss desk. And on free to air, they watched it again. In June 2016, Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were found guilty of killing student Jamie Gao for his drugs (Partridge, 2016a). Lanfranchi was something of a wild man who shot at police and robbed other dealers, and also a standover man who worked for Sydney gangster Neddy Smith. Smith later said that Rogerson ordered him to disarm Lanfranchi en route. Crooks loved him. Rogerson was welcomed in Bandidos and Rebels clubhouses across the country and was regularly seen briefing queues of bikies in coffee shops. Early Origins of the Rogerson family. Smith's final downfall had begun in October 1987 when he and another criminal killed tow truck diver Ronald Flavell during a road rage incident at Coogee. But if you take a step back from all that charm, youve got a very nasty bit of goods racist, a homophobe, a misogynist, a cruel man and a man of extraordinary greed who will let nothing get in the way of what he wants.. He assures me McNamara is the key to his freedom. , who was shot dead inside a Padstow storage unit in 2014. On April 23, 1985 Flannery is said to have been responsible for the gangland shooting of drug dealer Tony Spaghetti Eustace by his gold Mercedes. Both pleaded not guilty in January 2015. As a former NSW detective, I met Rogerson regularly when we were both stationed at the Criminal Investigation Branch headquarters. Rogerson was jailed again in 2005 for 12 months for lying to NSW's Police Integrity Commission about bribing a local council official to obtain work. Big Sky Publishing. More than three decades later, Rogerson now stands as both the definitive figure of police corruption in Australia and also arguably the best-connected figure ever to stalk the criminal underworld. Rogerson served twelve months of a maximum two-and-a-half-year sentence. BLUE Murder was the original true crime TV blockbuster with scenes so shockingly thrilling about the lives of Sydneys cops and gangsters that it was a hit even while it was still banned. This was tainted by Purdey's claims that Rogerson assaulted him, prevented him from calling his solicitor and typed up to five different records of the interview. Jamie Gao's . It was an offer I couldnt refuse, and Mrs Rogerson assured me hed be on his best behaviour. Children drinking PINTS and the King riding in a 14-wheel golden HGV - this is Kate and Prince William 'are keen' for Prince George to have official role in King Charles' coronation - but Royally hard work! The judge who sentenced them in 2016, Justice Geoffrey Bellew, said the pair were "overwhelmed by greed"and had formed an agreement to kill with "a complete disregard for the life of another human being". Dont watch it before reading this. Things went fatally wrong for the naive Gao after Rogerson, waiting in the wings on the deal, conceived with McNamara a more brutal but profitable alternative. Smith was a convicted heroin dealer, rapist and armed robber who claimed Rogerson gave him the "green light" to commit crimes in NSW, while Flannery specialised in contract killing. They dont reminisce over a cup of tea and a Scotch Finger. Smith and Rogerson - both serving life for murder in Long Bay jail - had known each other 45 years and once formed the most infamous partnership in Australian crime. His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail. Put a schooner of Reschs in his gnarled hand and we could have been two old mates chatting at the pub. Roger Rogerson being escorted to a prison van at the Supreme Court in Sydney in 2016. It was a different time. He was. Rogerson was suspected of having organised the hit after former undercover agent Drurys surveillance resulted in charged against Melbourne heroin dealer, Alan Williams. [2][3] He was as floored as anyone when, one Sunday evening in 2014, calls and emails came flooding in pointing to an astonishing final act in the Dodgers criminal career. As one officer scoured through frames of CCTV vision from the storage unit, an older colleague passing by spotted a figure with a distinctive gait. Australia's most corrupt cop Roger Rogerson is making a last ditch attempt not to die in jail as he has applied to the High Court of Australia to appeal his life sentence. Rogerson wanted me to tell him the 'real' McNamara story the one the jury didnt hear. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. There was a whole coterie of men who liked Roger because Roger could do things for them, McNab says. Roger Rogerson was the teak-hard. Loose Women star Jane Moore puts her seven-bed Battersea home on the market for 4.5M three months after Are YOU a romantic comedy buff? It is one thats shatteringly at odds with Rogersons public rebirth as a genial rogue through his regular media commentary and improbable stints on the stand up comedy circuit with Mark Chopper Read under the banner of the Wild Colonial Psychos. He even bragged of a close encounter with singer Dame Shirley Bassey, after allegedly nabbing a man who had just stolen her handbag. The exchange had the writer looking over his shoulder for a few days, which he notes is the art of the threat. Flannery would ultimately meet a similar fate to that of Roger Wilson. In May 2014, Rogerson was remanded in prison after being charged, along with fellow former NSW detective Glen McNamara, with the murder of 20-year-old student Jamie Gao, and supply of drugs. Read more of Duncan McNab's investigations here. Smith said his assistance to Rogerson at a coronial inquest into Lanfranchi's death led to senior police granting him a 'green light' to commit major crimes. Rogerson was tried but acquitted on conspiracy to murder charges. Languishing in Long Bay he was paired with a police informer dubbed Mr Brown who secretly recorded him confessing to a string of 1980s murders, all of which he later denied having committed. A bloody and corrupt chapter in Australian criminal history appears to have drawn to a close with the country's most notorious police officer set to spend the rest of his life in jail for murder. Notorious gangster Neddy Smith died aged 76 in Long Bay jail last week while serving a life sentence of murder. [29], On 25 August 2016, Rogerson and McNamara faced a sentencing hearing. Just days after their conviction and life sentences were handed down in 2016, the pair lodged a notice of intention to appeal. The latter are alleged to have been Rogersons hope for unloading the ice. Although gun residue was found on Rogerson's clothes, the judge said he couldn't be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of who fired the fatal shot. For all his criminal investigation nous, awareness of electronic surveillance was an old Achilles heel of Rogerson, who was caught on camera years earlier opening fake bank accounts to deposit $110,000 in cash allegedly from a heroin deal with Allen, McNab says. Detectives have variously described . After his release, he leveraged his infamy to conduct a series of public speaking engagements, along with another notorious criminal, Mark "Chopper" Read, and former high-profile Australian Rules football players Mark Jackson and Warwick Capper. According to Camden, the noted historian of the 16th century, this name Roger was a valiant . A year later his autobiography Neddy was published with even more damning claims against Rogerson and the book became the basis for Blue Murder. In 1984, Flannery moved his family up to Sydney and went to work as a bodyguard for crime figure George Freeman. She also claimed that Neddy Smith had lied at Lanfranchis inquest and was in cahoots with Rogerson. Rogerson is in the Kevin Waller Unit for aged and frail prisoners at Long Bay. Rogerson who is now80, and Glen McNamara, now 62, were jailed for life for the murder of drug dealer Jamie Gao. The book describes the moment Rogersons notoriety first betrayed his link to Gaos murder. McNamara is yet to make any submissions. Roger Rogerson, a 75-year-old former detective who boasted about killing people and has already served three prison sentences, was on Wednesday found guilty in the death of a student drug dealer. BLUE Murder was the original true crime blockbuster, a massive hit even while it was still banned. "The deceased was shot and killed by one of them and both Rogerson and McNamara cooperated to dispose of the body at sea and cover their tracks.". His 'threat' came shortly after the release of my first book on him. Rogerson, 75, and McNamara, 57, were found guilty of murdering Mr Gao, 20, during a drug deal at a Padstow storage facility on May 20, 2014 and dumping his body in waters off Cronulla the next day. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. He says McNamara wasnt a hero cop whose career was ruined by his battle against corruption that was a fiction he created. His one-time mate Arthur Neddy Smith is across the road in the prison hospital suffering from advanced Parkinsons disease. Rogerson also used his influencing skills in a multimillion-dollar civil legal dispute while doing consultant work under the auspices of other peoples private investigator licences. Tony Martin is pictured left playing Smith and Richard Roxburgh as Rogerson in the television series Blue Murder. Roger Rogerson was jailed for life for the 2014 murder of student Jamie Gao. Drury alleged that Rogerson had tried to bribe him to changes his evidence in the heroin trial of Melbourne dealer Alan Williams. Still, it fascinates me that Rogers career was brought to an end by a 20-year-old Asian kid with an education.. Their relationship hit the skids when Rogerson outed him on television as an informant, and Smith outed Rogerson to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Smith (left) is pictured with ex-wife Debra and brothel keeper Harvey Jones, who he was convicted of having murdered in 1983. The latter is what brought Rogerson together with McNamara, whose own cultivated image as a former honest cop hung out to dry likewise unravels under McNabs inspection. The comments below have not been moderated. [27] On 6 March 2015, both accused were arraigned at a hearing in the NSW Supreme Court. Drury was a Sydney detective whose dramatic attempted murder in 1984 believed to have been carried out by Melbourne hitman Chris Flannery brought an end to Roger Rogersons career. Rogerson emerged fresh from the killing at an old mates' lunch club at a Sydney pub having invited some unfamiliar guests: a well-known boxer with two bikies in tow. That young observer has now gone on to become the definitive chronicler of a life on both sides of the law that he says is likely without parallel in the English speaking world. From shooting heroin dealer Warren Lanfranchi in Dangar Place, the now notorious city back lane, to living it up with a violent underworld identity, Rogerson is Blue Murders dramatic focus. New light is shed on Rogersons link to heroin importation via Thai sex workers and trafficking in the 1980s with Melbourne criminal Dennis Dr Death Allen, who was believed to be involved in the killings of up to 15 people. [19] He was subsequently convicted of perverting the course of justice in relation to A$110,000 deposited by him in bank accounts under a false name. A large scale search was underway at Freshwater Beach on Saturday night after a young man was reported missing in the water. They also were jailed for plotting to steal 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine from the drug dealer. Smith insisted the pair became partners in crime. It was the type of relationship that had often existed before - Smith . Sources say Rogerson has become the leader of the unit because of his high profile and reputation. At 78 years old, and with a body worn by hard work, hes well qualified. Both are appealing their convictions and life sentences for the. Arthur 'Neddy' Smith. Smith, who survived Sydney's 1980s gang wars, had suffered from Parkinson's disease for the past four decades and spent his last 33 years behind bars. Lennie McPherson. [11] Rogerson attended Bankstown Central School and later Homebush Boys High School. "Roger would like to see you," she said. On 20 May 2014, former New South Wales police officers Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara murdered student Jamie Gao in cold blood. Drury refused and believed Rogerson was behind the attempt on his life. Published Sep 4, 2016. Smith was born in 1944 and was a major criminal, involved particularly in armed robbery, heroin trafficking, and murder. Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. A Sydney prostitute, Lyn Woodward, later vanished within hours of giving evidence in the case. On 15 June 2016, Rogerson and McNamara were found guilty of Gao's murder. Reborn as an investigative journalist and author, McNab became Rogersons unauthorised biographer with his 2006 book The Dodger. McNamara argued his life sentence was excessive but Justice Bell said it was justified given the murder was a cold-blooded execution. Notable people with the surname include: Eva Rodgerson (born 1945), Canadian politician; Ian Rodgerson (born 1966), English footballer; Ralph Rodgerson (1893-?