Crooked cop McNamara to die in jail
Crooked cop Glen McNamara will spend the rest of his life in jail after failing in a High Court bid to have his conviction for the cold-blooded murder of a young drug dealer overturned.
McNamara, along with fellow cop Roger Rogerson, was found guilty in 2016 of shooting dead Jamie Gao in a southern Sydney storage shed before he was sentenced to life in prison.
The 20-year-old’s body was discovered wrapped in a blue tarpaulin six days after he was killed and dumped at sea.
The pair was also convicted of stealing $19 million of amphetamine from Mr Gao during the clandestine meeting in May 2014.
Sentences of 12 years were also imposed against both men for supplying an indictable quantity of drugs.
In 2021, they both failed to have their convictions overturned in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
Earlier this year, Rogerson lost a bid to have his appeal heard by the High Court, which
in March allowed McNamara leave to appeal his conviction.
During an appeal hearing before the High Court, he had claimed that he was not allowed to present evidence at trial, including Rogerson’s alleged claims to have murdered other people.
On Wednesday, the High Court unanimously dismissed his appeal.
Following a lengthy trial, the jury accepted the prosecution’s version of events that McNamara and Rogerson sought to lure Mr Gao to the storage unit for the purposes of a “rip off” during which Rogerson was to pose as a buyer.
They had planned to steal the 2.7kg of methamphetamine from Mr Gao and dispose of his body.
McNamara and Mr Gao were caught on CCTV walking into the storage shed and Rogerson was captured in the footage arriving soon after.
Only Rogerson and McNamara were seen leaving 10 minutes later, dragging a surfboard bag that concealed Mr Gao’s body.
McNamara had claimed at trial that he had no knowledge of the plan to either kill Mr Gao or steal the drugs.
He further claimed that Mr Gao was shot twice by Rogerson following an altercation.
He said he had been unaware that Rogerson had a gun and he only helped dispose of the body under duress.
During his evidence, McNamara claimed that he asked Rogerson: “Why? Why? Why?” before his partner pointed a gun at his head.
His appeal hinged on whether the trial judge, Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Bellew, was correct to exclude several further pieces of McNamara’s evidence.
The court was told that McNamara had sought to give evidence that Rogerson allegedly told him in the storage unit: “Get up and f***ing help me you weak c**t or I’ll leave you on the floor lying next to him … You’ll be as dead as him, then I’ll kill your girls.”
McNamara alleged he was also told by Rogerson, “I did Drury” – a reference to the shooting of former cop Michael Drury in June 1984.
Rogerson was later charged but acquitted of Mr Drury’s attempted murder.
McNamara also sought to give evidence that Rogerson had allegedly told him of his involvement in five other murders, the court was told.
Rogerson’s lawyers successfully objected to the pieces of evidence on the grounds that it would prejudice him.
In the High Court, McNamara argued the judge was wrong to exclude parts of his testimony because Rogerson was not “a party” to his trial.
However, the High Court on Wednesday found that Justice Bellew was correct to exclude portions of McNamara’s evidence and dismissed his appeal.
