Roger Rogerson, Glen McNamara lose appeals over Jamie Gao murder

Disgraced former detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara, jailed over the execution of drug dealer Jamie Gao, have lost their appeals.

Disgraced former detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara will serve out their life sentences after losing their appeals over the execution of drug dealer Jamie Gao.

Rogerson, 80, who was immortalised in the TV series Blue Murder, and McNamara, 62, had been fighting to overturn their convictions for the 2014 killing of 20-year-old Gao in a darkened Padstow storage unit in Sydney’s south.

Roger Rogerson in 2016. Picture: Adam Taylor

Glen MacNamara.

All three men were captured by CCTV going inside unit 803 — but the cameras recorded only Rogerson and McNamara emerging about 10 minutes later.

The ex-cops were both jailed for life for Gao’s murder and also for 12 years for supplying a prohibited drug after they stole 3kg of ice that the university student had brought to the meeting thinking he would sell it to them.

Security vision showed the pair reversing a station wagon to the unit’s door and moving what was Gao’s body wrapped in a surfboard cover and a blue tarp.

His body was found days later floating in waters off Cronulla.

Rogerson and McNamara had run a “cut-throat defence”, each arguing the other had organised to meet Gao at the unit and that it was the other who shot him.

Both wanted to appeal their convictions and McNamara had also wanted to appeal against his sentences for his two offences, the court heard.

Jamie Gao.

But NSW Court of Appeal president Justice Andrew Bell and Justices Robert Allan Hulme and Robert Beech-Jones on Friday said they were of a unanimous view that their appeals should be dismissed.

“The case relied upon by Rogerson was completely lacking in credibility and did not raise any doubt about his guilt,” their judgement read.

Part of Rogerson’s appeal was based on evidence from an associate, who came forward after Rogerson was sentenced and claimed he had given a handgun to McNamara before Gao’s murder.

“Oh, it’s a little f**king beauty, isn’t it? ... Oh, by the way, don’t tell Rogerson about this,” the associate had claimed McNamara told him.

But the appeal judges said his evidence was not credible because of his record of dishonesty and his longstanding association with Rogerson.

McNamara’s legal team argued the trial judge had stumbled by not allowing him to explain to the jury his prior belief that Rogerson had been involved in several killings before and that he was acting under duress during the incident with Gao.

The court heard Rogerson was said to have admitted to McNamara that he had killed or had conspired to kill multiple people including former drug squad detective Michael Drury, police corruption whistleblower Sallie-Anne Huckstepp and hitman Christopher Flannery, who was known as “Mr Rent-a-Kill”.

But Justice Bell said it would have been unfair to Rogerson for the jury to hear that information even though the evidence suggested it was more likely McNamara had only helped Rogerson dispose of Gao’s body out of fear.

In regard to McNamara appealing his life sentence, Justice Bell said the trial judge had applied the law correctly and that it was open to the sentencing judge to impose a life sentence because Gao’s murder was a “cold-blooded execution”.