Roger Rogerson

Roger Caleb Rogerson (3 January 1941 – 21 January 2024) was an Australian detective sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force and a convicted murderer.

Rogerson was born in Sydney on 3 January 1941.

One of three children, he grew up in the suburb of Bankstown (moving there from Bondi at six years of age).

Rogerson's father Owen Rogerson immigrated from Kingston upon Hull, England during his career as a boilermaker; his mother Mabel Boxley immigrated from Cardiff, Wales, with her parents as a youth (her English-born father Caleb Boxley was the reason for Rogerson's middle name).

Rogerson attended Bankstown Central School and later Homebush Boys High School.

In January 1958, he joined the New South Wales Police Cadet Service.

He had two daughters by his first wife, Joy Archer.

Rogerson worked on some of the biggest cases of the early 1970s, including the Toecutter Gang Murder and the Whiskey Au Go Go fire in Brisbane.

Soon after the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire on 8 March 1973, Sydney detectives Roger Rogerson and Detective Sergeant Noel Morey were called to Brisbane to assist in the investigation.

This was because John Andrew Stuart, accused of lighting the fire, had said criminals from Sydney were behind the nightclub extortion attempts.

By 1978, Rogerson's reputation was sufficient to gain convictions based on the strength of unsigned records of interviews with prisoners (known as "police verbals").

He was brought in to investigate the Ananda Marga conspiracy case, despite having no connections to the Special Branch investigating the case.

The Peter Mitchell Award was presented to Rogerson in 1980 for the arrest of escaped armed robber Gary Purdey.

This was tainted by Purdey's claims that Rogerson assaulted him, prevented him from calling his solicitor and typed up to five different records of the interview.

Rogerson was responsible for the 1981 shooting death of Warren Lanfranchi.

During the inquest, the coroner found that Rogerson was acting in the line of duty, but a jury declined to find he had acted in self-defence.

However, it was alleged by Lanfranchi's partner, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, and later by Neddy Smith, that Rogerson had murdered Lanfranchi as retribution for robbing another heroin dealer who was under police protection and for firing a gun at a police officer.

Huckstepp, a heroin addict and prostitute, appeared on numerous current affairs programs, including 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, demanding an investigation into the shooting.

She also made statements to the New South Wales Police Internal Affairs Branch.

Huckstepp was later murdered, her body found in a pond in Centennial Park.

Fellow police officer Michael Drury has alleged that Rogerson was involved in his attempted murder.

Drury claims he refused to accept a bribe Rogerson offered in exchange for evidence tampering in a heroin trafficking trial of convicted Melbourne drug dealer Alan Williams.

On 6 June 1984, Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window as he fed his three-year-old daughter.

Rogerson was charged with the shooting and Williams testified that Rogerson and Christopher Dale Flannery had agreed to murder Drury for A$50,000 each.

Tim Anderson, one of the three released in 1985, claimed the confession Rogerson extracted was fabricated, and that he and two other members of the Ananda Marga group were convicted in part because of Rogerson's fabrications.

During his career, Rogerson received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty, before being implicated in two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing, and then being dismissed from the force in 1986.

Rogerson was also known for his association with other New South Wales detectives who are reputed to have been corrupt, including Ray "Gunner" Kelly and Fred Krahe, and also with several organised crime figures, including Abe Saffron, Christopher Dale Flannery, and Arthur "Neddy" Smith.

Smith was a convicted heroin dealer, rapist and armed robber who claimed Rogerson gave him the "green light" to commit crimes in New South Wales, while Flannery specialised in contract killing.

Rogerson was dismissed from the New South Wales Police Force on 11 April 1986, while suspended from active service since 30 November 1984 as a result of the Drury investigation.

After leaving the force, Rogerson worked in the building and construction industry as a supplier of scaffolding.

He also became an entertainer, telling stories of his police activities in a spoken-word stage show called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with former Australian footballers Warwick Capper and Mark "Jacko" Jackson.

In 1988, Rogerson told a Bulletin reporter that he and the other lead detectives fabricated evidence.

They did so because, although they 'knew' Stuart and Finch were involved, they had insufficient evidence to convict them.

However, on 20 November 1989, Rogerson was acquitted.

Rogerson received a criminal conviction, which was overturned on appeal, for involvement in drug dealing, allegedly conspiring with Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen to supply heroin.

In 1999, Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the Police Integrity Commission, and in May 2014, Rogerson and fellow former NSW detective Glen McNamara were charged with the murder of 20-year-old student Jamie Gao, and taking his supply of drugs.

Both pleaded not guilty in January 2015.

Their trial was started in July 2015, but was aborted when McNamara's barrister Charles Waterstreet made a reference to Rogerson "killing two or three people when he was in the police force".

Following a retrial, both Rogerson and McNamara were found guilty of murder.

In September 2016, both were sentenced to life for the murder of Gao.