Australia’s most notorious corrupt police officer, Roger Rogerson, has died in hospital while serving a life sentence for murder aged 83.
Known as “The Dodger”, the controversial and charismatic tough cop-turned-killer was moved from Long Bay prison to Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital last Thursday after suffering a medical episode.
He received end-of-life care in hospital and died about 11.15pm on Sunday.
“As a matter of protocol, Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances,” a Corrective Services NSW spokesperson said.
“All deaths in custody are also subject to a coronial inquest.”
Both hero and villain during his 28-year police career, Rogerson was once the NSW force’s most decorated officer, with a stellar career catching criminals and a formidable reputation for bravery.
That was before his close connections to Sydney’s most notorious crooks were exposed, eventually destroying his reputation, career and freedom.
At the end, Rogerson was serving a life sentence for the execution-style 2014 murder of drug dealer, Jamie Gao, about which he always maintained his innocence.
Rogerson and co-accused fellow former detective Glen McNamara were jailed for life in 2016 after murdering Gao at a Sydney storage unit in May 2014, after which they tried to dump his body at sea.
Both of the men ran cut-throat defences at trial, arguing the other had shot Gao.
The pair was also jailed for stealing 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19 million from the 20-year-old university student.
Last March, the High Court rejected an appeal by Rogerson to have his murder conviction overturned, stamping out any hope the rogue detective had of ever being released.
At the height of his public recognition, Rogerson received the coveted Peter Mitchell Award for outstanding police work in 1980. But within six years his career would spectacularly unravel.
In 1986, Rogerson was dismissed from the police force for depositing $110,000 in bank accounts under a false name.
Earlier that decade, in 1981, he had been found responsible for the fatal shooting of another young drug dealer, Warren Lanfranchi, but controversially was deemed to have acted in the line of duty.
Lanfranchi’s girlfriend, sex worker Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, said Rogerson murdered him over a drug-related dispute involving corrupt police.
Huckstepp was later found drowned. Her murder remains unsolved.
Rogerson was also implicated in the attempted execution of NSW undercover operative Michael Drury after the similarly decorated drug squad detective declined to accept a bribe in exchange for evidence tampering in a heroin trafficking trial.
Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window on Sydney’s north shore. Rogerson was charged and eventually acquitted of the attack in 1989.
Richard Roxburgh portrayed Rogerson in the highly acclaimed 1995 mini-series Blue Murder and its 2017 sequel Blue Murder: Killer Cop.
-with AAP
