Murderer Roger Rogerson dies in Sydney while serving a life sentence for the murder of a 20-year-old drug dealer
Australia's most infamous disgraced police officer Roger Rogerson, who was jailed for a cold-blooded execution, has died in a Sydney hospital.
Rogerson suffered an aneurysm in his prison cell at Sydney's Long Bay Prison on Thursday before being taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick just before midnight. He died Monday morning.
Disgraced former cop Roger Rogerson (pictured) spent his last six months in prison in a hospital cell, unable to get out of bed on his own
Drug dealer Jamie Gao (pictured) was shot dead by detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara in 2014
The former NSW detective was serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Sydney drug dealer Jamie Gao.
Rogerson, 83, had always maintained his innocence, claiming he was unaware of fellow twisted former detective Glen McNamara's plans to kill the 20-year-old.
Mr Gao was lured to a darkened warehouse in the south of the city and shot dead before the former police officers tried to cover their tracks by dumping his body in the sea.
The judge said that although gunshot residue on Rogerson's clothing indicated he was the triggerman, he could not be certain who fired the fatal shots.
Both hero and villain during a 28-year career in the NSW Police Force, Rogerson was once considered the force's most decorated officer.
The pinnacle of his recognition was receiving the coveted Peter Mitchell Award for outstanding police work in 1980, but within six years his career had unraveled spectacularly.
In 1981, he was controversially found responsible for the fatal shooting of another young drug dealer, Warren Lanfranchi, but was deemed to have acted in the line of duty.
However, Lanfranchi's girlfriend, sex worker Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, claimed shortly afterwards that Rogerson had deliberately killed him over a drug-related dispute involving corrupt police. Huckstepp herself was later found drowned and her murder remains unsolved.
At the height of Rogerson's death, he was also involved in the attempted execution of NSW undercover police officer Michael Drury, after the similarly decorated drug police detective refused to accept a bribe in return for tampering with evidence in a heroin trafficking trial.
Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window on Sydney's North Shore. Rogerson was charged and eventually acquitted of the 1989 attack, but had already been kicked out of the force for depositing $110,000 into bank accounts under an assumed name.
Richard Roxburgh played Rogerson in the 1995 miniseries Blue Murder and its 2017 sequel Blue Murder: Killer Cop.
More to come
Australia's most corrupt police officer, Roger Rogerson (pictured), has died