Solicitor’s TV murder has parallels to reality

THE disposal of lawyer Brian Alexander in Blue Murder, has drawn chilling parallels to the fate of uni student James Goa.

Taking a dive in Blue Murder.

IT’S an eerie scene etched into the minds of Australian TV viewers — killer Neddy Smith played by Tony Martin — trusses up the feet of a screaming Sydney lawyer on a boat, chains him to a stove and tosses him overboard outside the Sydney Heads.

The graphic disposal of Sydney lawyer Brian Alexander depicted in the 1995 saga of Sydney’s 80s underworld, Blue Murder, has drawn chilling parallels to the fate which some believe Sydney University student James Goa may have met — except that Alexander’s body was never found.

As a body wrapped in a tarp — complete with chains around his feet — was discovered at Cronulla early yesterday morning many people could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of deja vu. It was the scene played out, not just in Blue Murder, but also Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities.

Roger Rogerson, who featured heavily in the show, has repeatedly denied any involvement in Alexander’s death.

“Of course Ned did skite that he took him out to sea and did kill a few crooked cops and I'm not sure whether he named me or not but I had a pretty good alibi,’’ Rogerson said in a live blog for the Daily Telegraph in 2009.

“I don’t like going out to sea in small boats.’’

Murdering people and throwing their weighted bodies off boats was rumoured to be a favoured way of getting rid of witnesses or troublesome characters in the 80s.