Two former police officers found guilty of Jamie Gao murder

Former NSW police officers Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara have been found guilty of the murder of 20-year-old Jamie Gao.

Rogerson and McNamara have both also been found guilty of drug supply.

McNamara has since stated that he will appeal both convictions.

Earlier Rogerson had pleaded not guilty to conspiring with McNamara to kill the 20-year-old in a Padstow storage unit on May 20, 2014, steal 2.78kg of the drug ice from him and dump his body at sea.

McNamara had claimed during the trial he was meeting Mr Gao in the Padstow Rent A Space storage unit, where the murder is alleged to have occurred, to get information for a book he was writing.

Over the course of a complex four-month NSW Supreme Court trial, Crown Prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC urged jurors to find both Rogerson and McNamara guilty of murdering the 20-year-old university student and alleged Triad associate.

Justice Geoffrey Bellew sent the jury out to consider their verdict on Thursday afternoon last week.

But the following day the jury sent a note to the trial judge asking: "If we were satisfied that the two accused were involved in a joint criminal enterprise to supply drugs, but one of the accused was unaware of a plan to murder Jamie Gao, is that accused person guilty of murder purely as a consequence of the drug supply joint criminal enterprise?"

"The simple and short answer to that question is no," Justice Bellew told the jurors.

He then repeated a series of detailed directions to the jury on the legal principles that must guide their decision-making process.

"It would be open to you to find one of the accused guilty of murder, and both of them guilty of the supply count," Justice Bellew said.

During his final address to the jury, Mr Maxwell said it did not matter who pulled the trigger because jurors could convict Rogerson and McNamara of murder on the basis of a joint criminal enterprise.

Rogerson and McNamara have both denied the crown version of events but each man pointed the finger at the other during his turn in the witness box.

McNamara gave testimony that it was Rogerson who shot Mr Gao over a botched drug deal and that he was coerced into disposing of the body.

But Rogerson, 75, told the trial that when he walked inside the Rent A Space storage unit on May 20, 2014, he was confronted by the sight of Mr Gao lying apparently dead on the floor.

Rogerson said his co-accused had told him Mr Gao had pulled a gun on McNamara and had shot himself in the struggle.

In a statement to 7 News the Gao family said: "Today the legal system worked. Two very dangerous criminals have been found guilty.

"But while this is the verdict our family were hoping would be delivered, true justice can never really be served. Yes, Jamie was a young man who had made some mistakes – but what young person hasn’t?

"No 20 year-old deserves to lose their life over a stupid mistake. No matter what today's findings are or the sentence that is given, it won’t change the fact that Jamie remains absent from the lives of our family – the people who love him - and we miss him every single day."

Sentencing for both Rogerson and McNamara will begin on 25th August.

News break – June 15