Andrew Rule’s final meeting with corrupt cop Roger Rogerson

When crime writer Andrew Rule had to meet with a dangerous crook he turned to ex-cop Roger Rogerson as the middleman. But instead the crim had a warning about Rogerson and his crew. LISTEN NOW

Roger Rogerson’s long and colourful life will end in a prison cell. Picture: Adam Yip

Andrew Rule had just stepped off the plane and his tour guide to Sydney’s underworld was nowhere to be seen.

It was 2011 and Rule needed a middleman to help him smooth over an issue with a dangerous crime figure who had taken issue with something he’d written.

He’d chosen notorious former detective Roger Rogerson for the job.

But Rogerson hadn’t shown up. Was he late or not coming at all?

Then he felt something dig into his back.

“It was Roger Rogerson,” Rule said on his Life and Crimes podcast.

“He’d hidden behind a pillar and then he’d cocked his finger in the shape of a pistol and walked up behind me quietly and stuck it into my back.”

SEE PART TWO BELOW

The former cop being arrested.

Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson in Sydney in 1981.

Rogerson being escorted from King St court in Sydney after being found guilty of the murder of student Jamie Gao. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian.

Rogerson and his “partner in crime” Billy Duff drove him to an inner city pub in his battered Mercedes, where they met with the crook over a “long liquid lunch”.

Midway through the afternoon, the crim approached Rule in the men’s room.

“He said, ‘Why have you got these two blokes helping you talk to me?’

“I said, ‘Well I thought they’d know where to find you’.

“He said, ‘Mate, they’re killers’.

“That was the last time I saw Roger.”

Within a few short years Rogerson would be charged with murder.

Andrew Rule recorded two podcast episodes on Roger Rogerson.

The boy of Warren Lanfranchi, a drug dealer, after he was shot dead by Det-Sgt Roger Rogerson in 1981.

WHO IS ROGER ROGERSON?

– Rogerson was once one of the most decorated officers in the NSW police force, with at least a dozen bravery awards to his name.

Rogerson was a highly decorated officer. Picture: Sam Mooy

– He was handed the highest annual police award in 1980 for the arrest of escaped armed robber Gary Purdey.

– Rogerson later came to be known for his association with corrupt detectives and convicted heroin dealer and armed robber Arthur “Neddy” Smith who claimed Rogerson gave him the “green light” to commit crimes.

– In the mid 1980s Rogerson was accused of conspiring to murder Michael Drury — a drug detective shot twice through his kitchen window. He was found not guilty.

– Rogerson was dismissed from the police force in 1986.

– In the early 90s he spent almost four years in prison for perverting the course of justice after having over $110,000 deposited to his bank account under a false name.

– In 2005, Rogerson was convicted of lying to the Police Integrity Commission and sentenced to a maximum two-and-a-half year sentence — he was released after just 12 months.

– In 2016, Rogerson was jailed for life for the murder of drug dealer Jamie Gao. Rogerson and another former cop, Glen McNamara, were found guilty of shooting Gao inside a west Sydney storage unit and dumping his body at sea.

– In 2024, Roger Rogerson suffers a brain aneurysm during a medical episode in his prison cell.

A version of this story was first published in 2020