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. The jury said I didn't act in self-defence. Over the past year, detectives have been talking to him about the 1975 murder of Perth brothel madam Shirley Finn and the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go fire in Brisbane. 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. Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara sentenced to life in jail for Jamie Gao murder. Harsh words forgotten. He says McNamara wasnt a hero cop whose career was ruined by his battle against corruption that was a fiction he created. There was a whole coterie of men who liked Roger because Roger could do things for them, says author Duncan McNab. His defence is trying to establish he wasn't part of the agreement to kill or rob the victim. New South Wales Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC told the hearing in the NSW Supreme Court, life sentences have been applied in the past for contract killings. Rogerson was charged with the shooting and Williams testified that Rogerson and Christopher Dale Flannery had agreed to murder Drury for A$50,000 each. McNab also reveals the hitherto unknown depth of Rogersons ties with outlaw motorcycle gangs, his close friendship with convicted rapist, kidnapper and Bandido Arthur Loveday among others, as he sought to rekindle drug connections. McPherson was a standover man who probably committed or commissioned more murders than any other major organised figure. And on free to air, they watched it again. 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. 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. Drury claims he refused to accept a bribe Rogerson offered in exchange for evidence tampering in a heroin trafficking trial of convicted Melbourne drug dealer Alan Williams. 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. Disgraced former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng said he lived through "absolute hell" during a six-month stint in a Malaysian prison riddled with vermin and disease, according to . "I guess I thought about it a lot from the start but I wanted to put it out of my mind," he said. Rogerson was jailed . The 20-year-old student was shot dead in a Padstow storage unit in 2014 and his body was wrapped in a tarpaulin anddumped in Cronulla. Drury is now retired from the police force and a respected philatelist and collector of rare stamps. Rogerson gets jail keyboard at Long Bay jail, Teen feared missing in water at Freshwater Beach. He spent nine months in jail in 1990 before being released on bail pending an ultimately unsuccessful appeal. A Sydney prostitute, Lyn Woodward, later vanished within hours of giving evidence in the case. The idea was quite simply the Triad in Hong Kong and their enforcers would not know who Jamie Gao was selling to, so if Jamie Gao disappeared and it was done cleanly and concisely, hed just become a disappeared person.. Rogerson, played by Roxburgh, and Neddy Smith (Tony Martin) in a famous scene from the first Blue Murder in which crook and cop enjoy the spoils of crime. The surname Rodgerson was first found in Aberdeenshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Obar Dheathain), a historic county, and present day Council Area of Aberdeen, located in the Grampian region of northeastern Scotland from ancient times, some say as early as the 11th century. 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. Property News:House prices in some school catchments explode by up to $367,000 - domain.com.au, Your web browser is no longer supported. Blue Murder shows the attempted murder of detective Michael Drury who was shot twice through his kitchen window alleged to have been taken down by Melbourne hitman Christopher Dale Flannery at Rogersons behest. He later joked that the only way to identify Western's bullet-ridden body was by his ingrown toenails. Roger Rogerson In addition, two Hong Kong men drove Gao to the deadly drug deal and called New South Wales police 30 hours after he disappeared. Rogerson was eventually jailed in 1990 for conspiring to pervert the course of justice over the transfer of A$110,000 into bank accounts under false names during the Drury trial. 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". There was a whole coterie of men who liked Roger because Roger could do things for them, McNab says. In June 2016, Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara were found guilty of killing student Jamie Gao for his drugs (Partridge, 2016a). Credit: Daniel Munoz. He could get them out of strife with the coppers, he could tell them how the coppers operated, how best to avoid things, the depth of his knowledge. Blue Murder: With Richard Roxburgh, Tony Martin, Steve Bastoni, Gary Day. His doctor, the prominent Sydney medico Geoffrey Edelsten, gave him a medical certificate saying he was unfit to go to trial for the Sydney murder. 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. The honeytrap plot that left father-of-six dead: Moment two women lead victim into his flat to seduce him 'Sonic boom' is heard across central England as 'ground shakes' and houses are rocked. People I know whove taken him on as a mate, love his company, cant even begin to pin down why hed done this [murder Gao], McNab says. Both pleaded not guilty in January 2015. Read about our approach to external linking. The latter-day Rogerson was a valued source of advice to criminals on how to find weaknesses in prosecutions against them, building on an already staggering range of underworld contacts. 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. On 6 June 1984, Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window as he fed his three-year-old daughter. The Whiskey Au Go Go Massacre: Murder, Arson and the Crime of the Century. n is appealing his life sentence, arguing he didn't know Glen McNamara had sourced a gun before the murder. Rogerson has been in custody since May 2014 for the murder that month of 20-year-old student and wannabe drug dealer Jamie Gao. He grumbles about the attention but relishes telling old stories to a fresh audience. Smiths loving family and his ex-wife Debra, with whom he has remained friends, have continued to visit him in prison, where the 72-year-old is set to die without being released. Rogerson and his second wife Anne Melocco were convicted of lying to the Police Integrity Commission, and this is portrayed in Blue Murder: Killer Cop. Gao was unlikely to have had any real idea of the background of the men he was dealing with, particularly Rogerson, McNab says. It was an offer I couldnt refuse, and Mrs Rogerson assured me hed be on his best behaviour. 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. Aw mate, it couldnt be Roger, hes too good a bloke, the boss said. Notable people with the surname include: Eva Rodgerson (born 1945), Canadian politician; Ian Rodgerson (born 1966), English footballer; Ralph Rodgerson (1893-? Stephen Bear, who starred in several seasons of reality TV shows aired in Australia, has been jailed for 21 months for sharing a sex tape. 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. 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. An armed robber, nightclub bouncer and convicted rapist, he moved into contract killing and is said to have murdered a Melbourne barrister and later a Sydney brothel owner. Moment British man is arrested at Colombian airport as he tries to fly to London with 23 kilos of cocaine Do YOU know your Adam and Eve from your Ruby Murray? With Smith jailed for life Rogerson took to the speaking circuit for a while, telling wild stories of his days on the force, and wrote a memoir. CCTV showed both men walking into the storage unit with the drug dealer and at their trial they each blamed theother for killing him. The Chubb, McCann, Croft and Sandery cases were dismissed at committal and the Shu case was no-billed. Reborn as an investigative journalist and author, McNab became Rogersons unauthorised biographer with his 2006 book The Dodger. Both are appealing their convictions and life sentences for the. Rogerson, 79, appeared in the Court of Criminal . McNab quit the force in dismay. A new book by former colleague Duncan McNab details how the charismatic one-time detective manipulated generations of fellow officers and gangsters, but when the mask slipped he revealed a vile and vicious criminal. .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Plunkett, Geoff (2018). While it was impossible to know who fired the fatal shot, Rogerson claimed the kill, according to Australia's News Limited newspapers. "The case relied upon by Rogerson was completely lacking in credibility and did not raise any doubt about his guilt," the judgement read. . [10] Rogerson's father Owen Rogerson emigrated from Kingston upon Hull, England during his career as a boilermaker; his mother Mabel Boxley emigrated from Cardiff, Wales with her parents as a youth (her English born father Caleb Boxley was the reason for Roger's middle name). 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. 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. You start meeting so many people whove had their lives trampled on by this guy, both coppers and civilians, McNab says. In January 1958, he joined the New South Wales Police Cadet Service. He is pictured in 1980. To improve your experience. He said he arranged for it to be handed over to McNamara. "I was trying to get my life back together, the last thing I needed to do was think about this.". Tim Anderson, one of the three released in 1985, claimed the confession Rogerson extracted was fabricated, and that he and two other members of the Ananda Marga group were convicted in part because of Rogerson's fabrications. Since joining Smith at Long Bay there have been occasional reports from criminal and police sources of the pair being sighted together which Corrective Services always denied. Apparently he has been regularly enjoying using far more than his allotted precious telephone minutes. Justice Bell said although both accused had denied the existenceof a joint criminal enterprise to kill Mr Gao, the Crown had shown the men cooperated to dispose of the body. It would take years for the police to get serious about bringing its shiniest (though far from its only) rotten apple undone. Rogerson was acquitted of Drurys shooting, but was convicted of perverting the course of justice over a false bank account. Based on the years before Smith was jailed for life for murder it depicts the armed robber and heroin dealer as a charismatic player on the Sydney scene. Rogerson, 80, and McNamara, 62, were jailed for . Fellow detective Michael Drury opens up on Roger Rogerson and 1984 shooting, "He rightly perceived that if the true position was disclosed then it may be suspected that he had concocted or at least moulded his story about providing a pistol to suit Rogerson's interests.". 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. But Justice Bell said the Crown had established a circumstantial case against the men. However, on 20 November 1989, Rogerson was acquitted. Actors Steve Bastoni and Peter Phelps play the roles of Detective Michael Drury, who survived an assassination attempt, and Smith friend Graham Abo Henry. John Ibrahim's secret date with Rogerson. 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.. [27] On 6 March 2015, both accused were arraigned at a hearing in the NSW Supreme Court. Neddy Smith stood trial for her murder, but was acquitted. They also were jailed for stealing 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19 million from the 20-year-old student. Detectives have variously described . CCTV showed both men walking into a Padstow storage facility with the young drug dealer in 2014 before he was shot dead. Early Origins of the Rodgerson family. Melbourne hitman Christopher Dale Flannery was a career criminal who became known as Mr Rent-A-Kill. "Extensive in its planning, brutal in its execution and callous in its aftermath," he said. Violent and sinister characters populate the script: Neddy Smith, played by Tony Martin, is the charismatic big man of Sydneys gangland. What Rogerson didn't mention to me during my two visits was that his time to appeal was gone. 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. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Rodgerson is a surname. Both pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gao and also not guilty to supplying 2.78 kilograms (6.1 lb) of "ice"(methamphetamine). [14][15], The Peter Mitchell Award was presented to Rogerson in 1980 for the arrest of escaped armed robber Gary Purdey. Fond of talking about himself in the third person, Rogerson was known to say: "Roger is a tough cop in a tough town". Notorious gangster Neddy Smith died aged 76 in Long Bay jail last week while serving a life sentence of murder. He was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease and, more recently dementia, and lives in a prison unit for aged and frail inmates. Rogerson, 82, serving life term for murder of drug dealer. It was later claimed that Rogerson shot Lanfranchi for robbing a heroin dealer under the detectives police protection. 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. [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. He said he arranged for it to be handed over to McNamara. Justice Bell said both accused had run "cut-throat defences". It was McNamara who met Gao through his own consultancy work for lawyers, when the young man was acting as a translator for a friend in strife. The Court of Criminal Appeal threw out their cases in Sydney this morning, almost five years after they were jailed for life for murdering Jamie Gao. The exchange had the writer looking over his shoulder for a few days, which he notes is the art of the threat. April 2000: He was Australia's most notorious cop.A real-life Dirty Harry who finally crossed the line and finished in jail. Smith became a star witness for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Wood Royal Commission, revealing Rogerson and others alleged corruption. Throughout their trial, Roger asserted McNamara was the architect of the deadly plot and he only gave grandfatherly advice.. "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.". The men were due for trial in the Supreme Court on 20 July 2015. This is a list of the real life characters and what they did in the first Blue Murder. The surname Rogerson was first found in Aberdeenshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Obar Dheathain), a historic county, and present day Council Area of Aberdeen, located in the Grampian region of northeastern Scotland from ancient times, some say as early as the 11th century. 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! ROGER ROGERSON. Gao was not the first drug dealer whose life Rogerson had ended with two bullets to the chest. At an inquest into Flannery's suspected murder, Coroner Greg Glass said he suspected Rogerson had killed him. There was no doubt this time that the lethal shot had been fired by Rogerson, who quipped that Burns "fell out of the car dead as a doornail". He had been due to testify in a major drugs trial and alleged that Rogerson offered him a bribe to protect a Melbourne drug dealer. While Smith was virtually untouchable as he ran amok across Sydney many of his criminal associates on the 1980s died violently. Sources say Rogerson has become the leader of the unit because of his high profile and reputation. Read more of Duncan McNab's investigations here. He was released on appeal after nine months, but in 1992 that appeal was quashed and he was re-imprisoned until 1995. The latter are alleged to. CORRUPT cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson has been working as a prison cleaner at Long Bay since he was jailed for life last year. But Drury believed the shocking truth that Rogerson was involved, and could only publicly admitted it after the disgraced detective was convicted for Jamie Gaos murder in late 2016. Rogerson (in handcuffs) is serving life for the murder of 20-year-old drug dealer Jamie Gao. [29], On 25 August 2016, Rogerson and McNamara faced a sentencing hearing. A generation of his colleagues have either keeled over or retired, and Rogers looking around for fresh playmates, McNab says. But McNab put the project to bed and expected never to write again of Rogerson, presuming the fallen copper would see out his days casting a line over a dinghy and bouncing grandchildren on his lap. Now a frail old man, Rogerson's sentencing brings down the curtain on a story that, for better or worse, has written itself into Australia's modern mythology. 'He did mention that he probably would have been dead long before if he hadn't been in jail but that's about it,' she said, Rogerson and Smith could often be found drinking at inner-city pubs including Alexandria's Star and Iron Duke, the Captain Cook at Millers Point and the Lord Wolseley in Ultimo. Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go fire killed 15 people. Jamie Gao's . NSW News. In 2016 after the men were jailed, he met with Rogerson's solicitor Peter Katsoolis and police then began to investigate. It was the type of relationship that had often existed before - Smith . [11] Rogerson attended Bankstown Central School and later Homebush Boys High School. The Dodger had brought a whole new network of people who knew Rogerson out of the woodwork. In 1986, Huckstepp, also a sex worker, was found dead in a pond in central Sydney's Centennial Park. More than one acquaintance describes Rogerson as a psychopath but the apparently remorseless killer has never undergone a psychiatric assessment of any depth, McNab says. He was utterly charming, very smart, a great conversationalist, witty, with great one-liners, says McNab, a once starry-eyed colleague who remembers how others in the NSW criminal investigation bureau would be drawn to Rogerson and bask in some of that reflected charisma. Justice Geoffrey Bellew was satisfied the men formed an agreement to kill so they could steal the 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine he was going to supply them. The request was for a chat, not an interview. All the benefits of simply switching from white to brown - AND how purple, Why is Britain experiencing so many earthquakes? She began a relationship with a police officer. 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. Rogerson His family was among those in court for today's hearing. He assures me McNamara is the key to his freedom. 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. Im not the only visitor outside his circle of family and friends. Can the dogs of Chernobyl teach us new tricks when it comes to our own survival? Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. 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. CORRUPT cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson has been working as a prison cleaner at Long Bay . Rogerson, McNamara 'should be jailed for life' over Gao murder, Rogerson, McNamara jailed for life for murder of Jamie Gao, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart slams NRL, RLPA following further concussion controversy, 'How dare they': Possum Magic author hits out at 'ridiculous' Roald Dahl edits, 'Dastardly and heinous crime': Philippines governor killed at home by unknown gunmen, Vanuatu hit by two cyclones and twin earthquakes in two days, Emily was studying law when she had to go to court. Smith was convicted of the Jones murder and acquitted of killing Huckstepp. Rogerson and fellow former detective Glen McNamara were caught on CCTV removing Gaos body in a surfboard bag from a storage facility. Rogerson is in the Kevin Waller Unit for aged and frail prisoners at Long Bay. An . It is understood many of Rogersons fellow prisoners at the Kevin Waller wing suffer age-related memory loss, allowing him to persuade them into letting him use their allocated phone time. Rogerson and McNamara appealed against their convictions and McNamara also appealed against his sentence. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. Read about our approach to external linking. Not much stuck. 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. One of three children, Rogerson grew up in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown (moving there from Bondi at six years old). Rogerson and another former cop, Glen McNamara, were found guilty of shooting Gao inside a west Sydney storage . The man denied any involvement but was visibly shaken. Former detective Roger Rogerson, 80, was in Long Bay's aged and frail unit when a prison officer told him Smith had died in the jail hospital. Rogerson and Smith's joint exploits were immortalised in the award-winning 1995 television series Blue Murder and their notorious association helped eventually bring each man down. 00:01. "Oh it's a little f------ beauty isn't it Oh and by the way, don't tell Roger about this," the witness alleged McNamara said. People who keep describing him to me as mesmerising have got it right. [19], Rogerson was dismissed from the NSW Police Force on 11 April 1986 (had not seen active service since his suspension on 30 November 1984 as a result of the Drury investigation). Roger Rogerson could not have been written by anyone else. Rogerson, now 80, was in Long Bay's aged and frail unit last Wednesday when a prison officer told him 76-year-old Smith had died in the jail hospital. Given the lead role of Rogerson, brave cop and bad cop rolled into one, Roxburgh played the Roger on the move, taking care of Sydneys most dangerous and violent criminals. [31], On 2 September 2016, Justice Geoffrey Bellew sentenced Rogerson and McNamara to life in prison, with the statement "The joint criminal enterprise to which each offender was a party was extensive in its planning, brutal in its execution and callous in its aftermath". When Lanfranchi stepped out of the car, Rogerson shot him dead, claiming self defence. He became involved in a violent Sydney gang war over the heroin trade and Flannery tried to align himself with Neddy Smith. [8][9] Following a retrial, both Rogerson and McNamara were found guilty of murder. Most of Jamie Gao's murder was caught on CCTV. Unlike the remains of lawyer Brian Alexander, which has never been found, Gaos body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin bobbed to the surface off Cronulla beach in May, 2014. 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. Sallie-Anne Huckstepp was a Sydney private schoolgirl who fell into heroin addiction and prostitution and in 1981 began a relationship with Sydney dealer Warren Lanfranchi. Tony Martin is pictured left playing Smith and Richard Roxburgh as Rogerson in the television series Blue Murder. . And so are the Sydney gang wars of the mid 1980s, when criminals turned on each other in a shooting feast over dominance in the Sydney heroin trade. Theres just something horribly wrong with Rogers head. He spent a further three years in jail. With his running knowledge of underworld sellers and buyers, Rogerson was a fantastic middleman but came to grief when he stopped being middleman and decided to actually take a bigger slice, McNab says. 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.. Brash and boastful to friends and the media, Rogerson has been involved in a litany of crimes and misadventures which have repeatedly thrust him into the spotlight, and which led to the production of a TV mini-series about him called Blue Murder. Crooks loved him. His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail Australia that Rogerson had mentioned Smith's death but there had certainly been no celebration or revengeful one-liners. 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. Drury refused and believed Rogerson was behind the attempt on his life. The sources say even some prison officers have become starstruck by his presence in the jail. A reality TV star has allegedly been caught having a full-on affair with a co-star, leaving his longtime girlfriend and fellow castmate heartbroken. While dealing narcotics he was also pulling off brazen armed robberies worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Smith, who was once the most infamous crook in Australia, was serving life for murder. ), English footballer; Stan Rodgerson (1894-1955), Australian rules footballer; See also. The book describes the moment Rogersons notoriety first betrayed his link to Gaos murder. CONDEMNED to spend the rest of his days behind bars, disgraced detective turned convicted killer Roger Rogerson will be held in an aged care wing where he regularly conducts singalongs, to stop him becoming a godfather-type figure to young inmates, prison sources have revealed. Rogerson who is now80, and Glen McNamara, now 62, were jailed for life for the murder of drug dealer Jamie Gao. Production isnt even underway yet and theres already friction behind the scenes on the controversial Sydney-based reality series.