Roger Rogerson witnesses get ‘immunity’

The possibility of immunity from prosecution is being dangled in front of three key witnesses in the cold-blooded execution of aspiring drug dealer Jamie Gao.

Roger Rogerson in 2016. Picture: John Grainger

The possibility of immunity from prosecution is being dangled in front of three key witnesses, including a retired military officer, who may hold key information about the gun used by crooked cop Roger Rogerson in the cold-blooded execution of aspiring drug dealer Jamie Gao.

The unnamed trio could incriminate themselves in relation to firearm offences if they give evidence at Rogerson’s taxpayer-funded murder appeal, a Sydney court heard on Thursday.

The former Kings Cross detective, now 79, is appealing his sentence in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal over “fresh evidence” he claims did not feature in his trial and would ultimately clear him of Gao’s 2014 murder.

In 2016, Roger ‘The Dodger’ Rogerson – one of the nation’s most notorious crooked police detectives – was jailed for life without parole after a jury found him guilty of murdering the Sydney University student.

Rogerson will also be joined by his former partner in crime, ex-cop Glen McNamara, who lodged an appeal against his murder conviction earlier this year.

Rogerson and McNamara lured Gao to a darkened storage shed in Padstow in Sydney’s south, and shot him dead over a drug deal gone wrong in May 2014.

They attempted to cover their tracks by dumping the 20-year-old’s body at sea, but days later his bloated body was found inside a silver surfboard bag by fishermen floating about 5km off Cronulla.

On Thursday, the Crown conceded that granting immunity to witnesses for the defence was “unusual” but “inevitable” because at least one witness had illegally possessed a firearm.

The unnamed trio will be granted a section 128 certificate that protects them against self-exposure in court.

The Australian understands the trio will be giving evidence in connection to a firearm, possibly the weapon used to murder Gao, to support Rogerson and McNamara’s defence.

Rogerson and McNamara shot the student twice in the chest in a bid to steal nearly 3kg of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19m.

The Crown is also expected to call five witnesses, including a “gun expert”, at next month’s appeal, which is set for a four-day hearing from September 22.