Killer cop Roger Rogerson hours from death, life support turned off

Disgraced ex-cop and convicted killer Roger Rogerson is receiving “end of life” care after a brain aneurysm. His death will end one of Sydney’s most corrupt chapters, with ex-cop Duncan McNab saying: “He was an evil, manipulating, murderous bastard.”

Killer cop Roger Rogerson will have to continue to protest his innocence in hell.

About 11.30am on Friday the disgraced 83-year-old former cop’s life support was switched off.

The once celebrated detective, who became known as “Roger The Dodger”, had been rushed to Prince of Wales hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm inside his prison cell a day earlier.

Sources said it could be “hours or days” before the 83-year-old is officially declared dead.

It is understood Rogerson’s family has been told he could live for as long as a week.

Ex-police officer turned author, Duncan McNab, who worked with Rogerson before charting his exploits in a series of books, said the former detective’s demise was “no great loss”.

Roger Rogerson inside a police truck being taken into Bankstown Court to face charges relating to the murder of Jamie Gao. Picture: Craig Greenhill

“A few people will probably mourn his passing – family, friends and the people he helped progress in their careers,” Mr McNab said. “But they are very few.

“To the rest of us he was just an evil, manipulating, murderous bastard.

“This is a bloke who would give the same level of thought to murdering a person that another person would give to ordering a steak – medium rare or well done?

“The wake could be held in a phone box. There are people who will mourn, but you could count them on one hand.”

But Rogerson is not without supporters.

Long-time solicitor Peter Katsoolis said the ex-cop’s loss in the High Court of Australia last March against his life sentence for murdering Gao was a devastating blow.

Roger Rogerson in custody outside court in 2016, left, and as a free man and crooked detective in his heyday. Pictures: News Corp

“The prospect of winning the appeal was like life support for the old man,” Mr Katsoolis said. “I’ll miss him as a client.”

Rogerson’s wife Anne did not return calls.

Others said Rogerson had lost his trademark charisma and staunch refusal to admit to committing any crimes after the High Court loss.

He had used it in a lifetime of protesting his innocence after being implicated in two other killings, the attempted murder of another cop and a long list of other crimes.

Rogerson was once a star of the NSW Police Force and its most decorated and powerful detective thanks in part to his knack for being able to extract confessions from crooks where other cops failed.

Detective sergeant Roger Rogerson (far right, inspects the body of drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi who was shot dead in Dangar Place, Chippendale. Picture: Frank Violi

A gifted raconteur, Rogerson hid his psychopathic tendencies behind a mask of charm and could work a room better than even the most skilled politician.

Eventually, the myth evaporated and his career ended in disgrace.

He was implicated in two murders and the attempted assassination of fellow police officer Mick Drury, plus years of fabricating evidence, bribery, drug-dealing and corruption.

On top of that, Rogerson’s links to organised crime figures like contract killer Christopher “Rent-a-Kill” Flannery and criminal heavyweights Abe Saffron and Arthur “Neddy” Smith – who Rogerson famously gave the “green light” to commit crime – were eventually ­exposed.

But Rogerson had a teflon-like ability to avoid accountability for serious criminal behaviour.

He was acquitted by a jury of conspiring to murder Drury.

The NSW Coroner found that Rogerson was acting in the line of duty when he shot dead drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi in a Chippendale alley in 1981.

Disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson, centre, with wife Anne Melocco and friend Graeme 'Abo' Henry at the Rag and Famish Hotel in North Sydney after the couple's Sydney Registry wedding ceremony in 2004.

Lanfranchi’s girlfriend, Sally-Anne Huckstepp, later claimed in TV interviews that Rogerson murdered Lanfranchi as revenge for robbing a heroin dealer who was under police protection.

She was found dead in Centennial Park in 1986 and five years later the Coroner found there was not enough evidence to charge anyone over her death.

Rogerson was sacked from the police in 1986.

Once of his few convictions came in 1999 when he was sentenced to 12 months in jail for lying to the Police Integrity Commission.

His luck ran out in 2016.

Rogerson was sentenced to life in jail after he and ­another crooked ex-cop, Glen McNamara, murdered drug dealer Jamie Gao in May 2014.

Rogerson’s career blossomed in the 1970s and 1980s when he was locking up criminals and receiving at least 13 awards for bravery as well as the Peter Mitchell Trophy – the highest award in the state for policing.

Rogerson’s career as a cop was immortalised in the 1995 television show Blue Murder, viewed by many as a precursor to Underbelly.

The show detailed his relationship with Smith, a gangster and serial killer, and the green light Rogerson gave him to run drugs and commit crimes through Sydney.

The show also portrayed Lanfranchi’s death and his relationship with Huckstepp.

It also examined the attempted bribery and shooting of Drury.

Rogerson was acquitted of both allegations but Huckstepp’s accusations of corruption against Rogerson and other police, and her later murder for which nobody has been charged, meant the accusations lingered.

Rogerson and Smith met in November 1976 when the detective locked up the criminal for attempting to rob a payroll from a Granville ­bakery.

Over the decade that followed they became drinking mates and involved in multiple crimes together, before Rogerson was sacked from the NSW Police Force in 1986.

Police believed Rogerson was going after the Police Commissioner Tony Lauer and Superintendent Clive Small in 1990 because of their pursuit of him over the attempted murder of undercover officer Michael Drury in 1984.

Rogerson was acquitted of conspiring to kill Drury in 1989.

In 1999, Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the Police Integrity Commission.

Rogerson was linked to nearly a dozen unsolved murders.

‘I’LL MISS HIM’

Cleverness, charisma, corruption and criminality combined to make it more than three decades before the law truly caught up with Rogerson.

Rogerson’s long time solicitor, Peter Katsoolis, said the ex-cop’s loss in the High Court of Australia last March against his life sentence for murdering Gao was a devastating blow.

“The prospect of winning the appeal was like life support for the old man,” Mr Katsoolis said. “I’ll miss him as a client.”

Rogerson’s 2016 conviction over the murder of Gao made him a serial killer with a badge: he was linked to nearly a dozen unsolved murders.

A master storyteller and an engaging — if somewhat bawdy raconteur — between jail stints he embarked on speaking tours with former AFL players Warwick Capper and Mark “Jacko” Jackson, telling stories of his police activities in a spoken-word stage show called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

After being released from jail in 2006, around his work in a scaffolding business, Rogerson joined forces with Jackson and notorious criminal Mark “Chopper” Read for another touring stage show — The Wild Colonial Psychos.