The Devil You Know: How arrogance and a mountain of evidence put Roger Rogerson behind bars
For a crooked old cop, getting away with murder used to be easy.
In his heyday, NSW Police detective Roger "The Dodger" Rogerson could have shot dead a drug dealer and dumped his body at sea and no one would have been the wiser.
But in the age of smartphones, metadata and security cameras on every street corner watching, a crooked man has a very hard time playing it straight.
On the day Jamie Gao was murdered, he woke up feeling his life was about to improve, thinking he was about to strike it rich. He had no idea he was about to be killed in what one former detective said was the "most photographed major crime" in Australia's history.
Gao, a 20-year-old student at the University of Technology, Sydney, had three kilos of the drug 'ice' to sell to a man he thought he could trust, former NSW detective turned private investigator, Glen McNamara.
McNamara had hired Gao in 2013 as a Chinese interpreter for a case he was working. But Gao had no idea their drug deal had a third wheel – Rogerson, a disgraced former cop and McNamara's 'partner in crime'.
Rogerson had fallen hard from his high-flying days in the 1970s and 80s when he was one of the most decorated and celebrated detectives in New South Wales.
His partnership with McNamara seemed an unlikely and strange one, according to former NSW detective and journalist Duncan McNab.
"McNamara had crafted his reputation as being a man who hated drug dealers and wanted to bring them down, a man of scrupulous honesty," McNab told 7 News.
"Here he is, teamed up as a private investigation team with the most crooked cop in Australian history.
"You couldn't get two more unlikely subjects," McNab said.
Having found himself in deep financial trouble, Detective Clive Small says Rogerson had a good reason to get locked into a 'get-rich-quick' deal with McNamara.
"All his sources of income had run out," said Det Small, who worked on the taskforce that investigated Rogerson.
"His entertainment value had sort of almost run past it's use-by date, and he had no income, and I think that's where McNamara came in, because he saw an option."
The subject of many books and a TV mini-series, Rogerson had a name and a reputation that preceded him. He had already been jailed twice for lying under oath and perverting the course of justice and had deep ties to Australia's underworld. He also had a long history in dealing drugs and was suspected in a number of murders.
Had Gao been introduced to the silent partner in the drug deal, he might have had second thoughts. But Gao would meet Rogerson just once.
Before he was murdered, Gao had met McNamara multiple times, often at the Meridian Hotel in Hurstville where their meetings were caught on CCTV. Police claimed the meetings were all about setting up the drug deal.
"McNamara is the person who is meeting Gao all the time," Detective Small said.
"Gao told a number of his friends, 'I've got a big deal going off. I'm going to see Glen and we'll be well off after this.'"
But the young man and his dreams were about to be snuffed out in a murder police were able to document from start to finish.
Just 28 hours before Gao was shot dead, McNamara was filmed picking up his boat from Hunter Storage in Carringbah.
He towed it to the garage beneath the Cote D’Azure Apartment building in Cronulla where he lived, in preparation for the next day's events.
Later that night Gao met McNamara at the Meridian Hotel, a meeting again caught on CCTV. It was more evidence that would later be used to hang the former cop. McNab said the investigation was extensive and police did a "comprehensive job pulling CCTV from everywhere".
“This is the most photographed major crime I have ever seen," the former detective said.
On the day Gao was shot dead, May 20, 2014, it was a perfect, sunny day in Sydney’s south.
Just after 11.30am McNamara was filmed using a pay phone at a shopping mall. Police claimed he was calling Gao to confirm the drug deal.
Around 30 minutes later McNamara was filmed leaving his apartment in a white station wagon – bought for $2000, in a false name. Police would later find Rogerson’s fingerprints on the receipt of sale.
McNamara drove to Padstow to meet Rogerson, about 30 minutes away. At the same time Gao was making his way there with the three kilos of ice.
The old cop and the young student planned for meet at Arab Road before heading tp Rent-A-Space to do the deal. But Gao had no idea Rogerson would be meeting them there, nor did he know the two older men had already visited the shed.
About 1pm Rogerson and McNamara were spotted at the storage unit on CCTV. Police would later claim they were preparing it for Gao's murder.
Gao hopped into the back of McNamara's car and they headed for the storage unit about one kilometre away, the driver trying to cover his face with a hoodie.
In the last images of him alive, Gao slides out of the car and walks right into a trap.
Minutes later Rogerson arrives in a silver station wagon, doing a lap of the storage units to make sure there are no witnesses who might hear the echo of a gunshot.
The then 73-year-old former detective hobbled into the shed wearing white sneakers and black trackpants.
Together, Rogerson and McNamara murder their young accomplice.
"For my money, this is just a classic drug rip-off. Jamie's arrived with $3 million worth of ice and the two old blokes have arrived with a gun and no money," McNab said, having watched the footage.
Rogerson later claimed, during a phone call to his wife from jail, that he had no idea what was going on in the shed.
He said when he entered the shed, exactly three minutes and 16 seconds after Gao and McNamara, Gao's body was already lying dead on the floor.
Gao had pulled a gun on McNamara, Rogerson tried to suggest, and in a struggle Gao managed to shoot himself in the chest – twice.
McNamara, however, blamed Rogerson for Gao’s death. He said the two were involved in an argument before Rogerson reached into his pocket and pulled the gun that shot Gao dead.
McNamara and Rogerson pointed fingers at each other. They had no idea how many cameras had been pointing at them as they did the deed.
Rogerson left and returned in his car moments later. Then McNamara left to retrieve a surfboard bag from his car. He claimed he was chucking the bag out, but when he and Rogerson dragged it from the shed, police were certain Gao was inside it.
The bag is heaved into the white wagon's boot before Rogerson and McNamara finish up in shed. Moments later they get in their cars and leave, everything caught on CCTV.
"I don't think Rogerson and McNamara planned to be spotted at the storage place," McNab said.
"I think they missed the cameras and that was the start of the entire downfall."
The pair was about to dispose of the body in the sea off southern Sydney, thinking they had got away with murder. They did not know almost everything they had done and were about to do was being watched.
Back at his apartment that afternoon, McNamara was recorded leaving the lift with a rope. He and Rogerson would later hire a block and tackle from Kennard's to hoist Gao's body on to the vessel.
Later, the pair was seen buying a six-pack of beer and took a break after their hard day's work. They looked calm and cool, yet for two men who had just committed a murder it was a chilling vision.
Gao's corpse rested on the boat beneath a tarpaulin for the night, his killers intending to find the student a final resting place at sea in the morning.
The next day, Rogerson and McNamara started early. They brought rods and tackle as cover. A security camera recorded McNamara leaving the garage, towing the boat with Gao's body stashed under the tarpaulin.
"These two blokes seriously believed that no one's going to find us, because no-one knows we're involved," McNab told 7 News.
Detective Small assessed Rogerson and McNamara's disposal of Gao's body as "amateurish and high-risk" and put the flaws and oversights down to the men's arrogance, Rogerson's in particular.
The weights Rogerson and McNamara used snapped free. Had they removed his shoes and punctured his body a few times, a fisherman might not have found him a week later.
As far as they were concerned, there was no more body. They returned to shore, then to the storage shed, most likely to clean up the bloody mess. Rogerson was seen with a green bucket while McNamara returned the block and tackle.
On Thursday, May 22, Rogerson and McNamara enjoyed drinks at the Crown Hotel with mates who were completely unaware days earlier the two had been involved in a murder and stole $3 million worth of drugs.
The following day friends reported Gao missing. An investigation was launched that soon led police to the Padstow Rent-A-Space. There they would find the footage of the three men entering one of the units, but only two coming out.
That night, McNamara went to bed with no idea about what would unfold the next morning.
In the very early hours of Saturday May 24, detectives raided the number 803 Rent-a-Space shed where Gao was murdered.
Police seized the Ford Falcon station wagon around 8am. They found $3 million of methamphetamine inside it, hidden in a pillowcase, snap lock bags and a backpack inside the car. The two former detectives did not even try to stash the evidence of the drug deal.
By midday Rogerson was heading to Brisbane to catch up with his former bodyguard Mark Dixon and former boxer Alan 'Bunger' Johnson. But the two old toughs could do nothing to protect their friend from the storm that was about to break over him.
Back in Sydney, McNamara was pulled over early in the evening and arrested. Shortly after, police raided Rogerson's home.
For two hours police searched the former detective's house, uncovering a pair of black tracksuit pants that later turned up gunshot residue. A green bucket was also found in the back shed.
Rogerson was still sinking beers in Scarborough with his mates who had no idea it would be one of the man's last nights on the outside. He left Brisbane early Sunday morning and did not even say goodbye as he returned to Sydney.
Gao's body also returned. A fisherman spotted it floating in the sea.
When Rogerson finally arrived back home, police were not far behind. They surrounded his home, and the questioning began.
Rogerson tried to dismiss the men he once would have commanded for their "Gestapo tactics". When asked if he killed Jamie Gao, Rogerson shut down.
"On the advice of my solicitor I'm saying nothing," he told them. He was led from his home surrounded by police and a large media pack.
When Rogerson and McNamara came to trial the prosecution had a watertight case. Detectives gathered a tonne of evidence consisting of call records and CCTV footage – the electronic and communication records of modern policing. A beat that Rogerson, an old-school cop, never had to walk.
The "he did it" defence did not work and Rogerson and McNamara were both found guilty of Gao's murder. Rogerson, now 75, will likely never be a free man again.
"I think he will die in jail," Det Small said. "And he is in jail because of his own stupid acts."
Time was up for Rogerson. The man had been suspected in a number of murders but he managed to evade capture. In the end, it was new technology, a young student's body, and perhaps the arrogance that came from a lifetime being "The Dodger" that got him in the end.
