Cop says let Neddy Smith die in jail

THE cop who hunted down Neddy Smith says there is only way he should get out of jail - in a coffin.

THE former top cop who hunted down Neddy Smith and locked him up for murder says there is only one way the state's most notorious crook should come out of jail: in a coffin.

Retired assistant commissioner John Laycock said the once-feared gangster's bid to challenge the second of two murder convictions so he can die at home was just another example of him trying to manipulate the system.

"The only time he should come out is if he is horizontal," Mr Laycock, who headed Task Force Snowy which investigated 14 gangland murders linked to Smith, said yesterday. "He didn't give any of his victims the chance to go home and die."

Mr Laycock said that despite being behind bars for two life sentences, Smith, 66, had never helped the families of his victims by telling police where their bodies were buried.

Mr Laycock said coming clean would probably not get Smith out of jail before he died but it would indicate remorse.

"He's always trying to manipulate the system, right to the end," Mr Laycock said.