Notorious NSW cop returns to dock on murder charge

Roger Rogerson and another former NSW officer, Glen McNamara, will go on trial next week, charged with murdering Jamie Gao. Photo / Thinkstock

He was one of the most notorious police officers of recent times, his exploits inspiring the hit TV mini-series Blue Murder, but now it is Roger Rogerson's turn in the dock.

The former detective sergeant has been charged with murdering a young student and dumping his body off a Sydney beach.

In a case already riveting the NSW police force, the criminal underworld and the wider Australian public, Rogerson and another former NSW officer, Glen McNamara, will go on trial next week, charged with murdering Jamie Gao in what police allege was a botched multi-million-dollar drug deal.

During his colourful career, Rogerson, now 73, was rarely far from controversy. He received 13 bravery awards and was lauded for his success in cracking cases, but was dogged by rumours about his relationship with criminal informants, such as Arthur "Neddy" Smith, an armed robber and drug kingpin.

Although he shot dead one man (drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi) and was convicted of killing another (former police officer Michael Drury), the only charges that ever stuck were perverting the course of justice and lying to the Police Integrity Commission in 2005.

Until, perhaps, now. Police investigating the murder of 20-year-old Gao, who the defence claims belonged to an Asian criminal gang, say they have security camera footage of Rogerson and McNamara entering a storage unit in southwestern Sydney with Gao in May last year.

Ten minutes later, the two former officers were allegedly filmed dragging a silver surfboard cover out of the lock-up and loading it into the back of a station wagon. Six days later, Gao's body was found floating off a southern Sydney beach.

According to police, officers found nearly 3kg of methamphetamine - worth millions of dollars - in McNamara's car.

They allege Gao was lured to the meeting by McNamara and Rogerson, and was carrying this amount of the drug with him at the time.

Rogerson was found to have acted in self-defence when he killed Lanfranchi in an inner-city Sydney alleyway in 1981. His conviction for murdering Drury in 1984 was overturned on appeal.

He and McNamara have pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, as well as to charges of conspiracy to murder and supplying drugs.

Rogerson worked on celebrated cases in the 1970s involving criminals such as Sydney's "Toe Cutter Gang".

After being dismissed from the force in 1986, Rogerson joined the entertainment circuit, touring a show called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

He also released a book, entitled The Dark Side, about his murder investigations and his time in jail.

To the frustration of NSW crime geeks, Blue Murder was not permitted to be shown in the state until 2001, because of outstanding charges against Smith.