Rogerson’s cunning plan behind bars: court
ROGER Rogerson told Glen McNamara, his co-accused for the murder of Jamie Gao, they needed to “stick together” to make it appear Gao was gunned down in self defence, a jury heard.
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ROGER Rogerson told Glen McNamara, his co-accused for the murder of Jamie Gao, they needed to “stick together” to make it appear Gao was gunned down in self defence, a jury has heard.
The conversation happened in late 2014, when they were both in Silverwater jail, during one of their first face-to-face meetings since they were charged with murdering 20-year-old Gao, in May 2014.
McNamara asked Rogerson “how would it work” and Rogerson replied they would say Gao came at him with a gun and McNamara was forced to shoot him dead.
“[Rogerson said] I reckon it should be that Jamie Gao attacked you and you defended yourself, and he was accidentally shot to death,” McNamara told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“I’ve seen plenty of people shot at. I’ve shot at some myself, I’ve seen plenty of gunshot victims, I’m an expert … If we stick together, we’ll be fine,” Rogerson allegedly said.
McNamara said he understood the comment to be in the context of Rogerson’s previous career as a police officer.
McNamara said he told Rogerson he was willing to go along with his plan only so he could collect “covert” evidence about what really happened.
In April 2015, McNamara said he was given a document by Rogerson that was a draft opening address to their trial. The document set out their defence — that Gao was attempting to carjack McNamara the day he was killed because he was desperate to escape after ripping off two Triad gang members.
“This opening address, which I have just given you, is how we have to run the case,” McNamara said Rogerson told him.
He said they needed to portray Gao as “desperate and dangerous” criminal who pulled a gun on McNamara before the fatal shooting.
McNamara has previously told the jury that Rogerson killed Gao over a drug deal, and then threatened to kill his daughters if he didn’t help him dispose of the body.
McNamara, 57, and Rogerson, 75, have pleaded not guilty to the shooting murder of Gao and a separate charge of taking part in the supply of 2.78kg of ice, which Gao allegedly brought with him to the storage shed he was killed in.
They both blame each other for the murder.
McNamara has told the jury it was Rogerson who killed Gao after they argued over drugs and money, and Rogerson then threatened to kill McNamara or his daughters if he didn’t help him cover up the crime.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, McNamara told of speaking in jail with his daughters Jessica and Lucy, and wife Cheryl, in a meeting with lots of “tears and emotion”.
McNamara told the jury Cheryl asked him to explain “what happened”.
“I said ‘he shot him’. I didn’t know. He pulled the gun on me and said he would kill the girls.”
It was the first visit he had with his family where he’d been allowed contact with them; before that a glass screen prevented them from even touching.
They returned to Silverwater three days later.
“I said words to the effect of, ‘You have to think about a security plan to keep yourselves safe’,” McNamara said.
The jury has listened to calls he made to his daughters from jail, where they discussed money to pay his lawyer, and if they had heard from solicitor Paul Kenny, who’d promised a “welfare check” on his family.
In another call, Jessica McNamara tells him her sister Lucy was “upset” after a meeting Mr Kenny, but told her father it was a combination of things that were troubling her.
Ms McNamara told her father “she’s OK, we’re OK” but said she couldn’t discuss it with him “right now”.
The trial has previously heard evidence from Jessica McNamara where she spoke of Mr Kenny visiting the sisters at their home.
She told the court then Mr Kenny told them it wasn’t the “Triads you need to be afraid of, it’s Roger — he knows where you live. They can come in through the courtyard and in through the window”.
Mr Kenny no longer represents Rogerson.
In court today, McNamara claimed Rogerson had raised the threat against his family during one of their early jail conversations, about the same time as he told him of his plan.
McNamara alleged Rogerson asked him if his daughters had been visited by Mr Kenny and “gave them the message”.
McNamara told him he’d said “nothing” and claimed Rogerson replied, “you’ll know what will happen if you do”.
‘THINK OF YOUR F***EN FAMILY’
Yesterday, McNamara told the jury Rogerson fired two shots across the stern of his boat to serve as a warning not to talk to police about the death of Gao.
McNamara’s evidence was Rogerson asked to use his boat to dump Gao’s body at sea. Rogerson is said to have wanted to dispose of Gao that way to make sure “he never comes back”.
On the way back, after the body wrapped in a silver surfboard cover and blue tarpaulin was pushed into the water, Rogerson allegedly fired the shots.
“He put two shots across the stern and said, ‘Just in case you go to police I’ll know before they do so think of your f***en family’,” McNamara told the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday.
He assured him he wouldn’t go to police and asked him “to leave me alone”.
McNamara told the court of the moment he claims Gao went into the water. Rogerson is alleged to have said: “Oh f*** I should have cut his guts open … Oh well f*** he’s gone, let’s go.”
Later on Monday, using CCTV footage that has been previously played to the jury to support his account of what happened in the days following the shooting, McNamara told the Supreme Court two days after the storage shed execution, Rogerson said to him: “I was at the storage (shed facility) and the cops were there. I saw them and they saw me.”
He then claimed Rogerson said he had an “alibi sorted” for the time of Gao’s death, The Daily Telegraph reported.
He said Rogerson then instructed him to “go through the car and throw everything out”.
The trial continues.
andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au
Originally published as Rogerson’s cunning plan behind bars: court
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