Two crooked cops on trial for murder

Jamie Gao

When 20 year old student Jamie Gao met Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara in a storage unit in Sydney to hand over three kilos of the drug ice, he had no idea what was about to happen.

One of the accused - Rogerson or McNamara - shot him and the pair dumped his body in the ocean.   But nobody knows who actually pulled the trigger because both men are blaming each other.  But prosecutors claim both men carefully planned the murder.

Roger Rogerson

Roger Rogerson is a former Detective Sergeant of the NSW police force stationed in Sydney in the bad old days when crooked cops were living the dream .  He was one of the most decorated officers and one of the most corrupt and received at least 13 awards for bravery.  

Glen McNamara was also an ex-cop.  He wrote a book called Dirty Work where he details his undercover work targeting paedophiles and the corrupt police who were protecting them.

Glen McNamara

"Jamie Gao was dead on the floor with a hand gun lying near him when Roger Rogerson entered the shed"  Rogerson's barrister George Thomas said yesterday.

"Rogerson shot and killed Jamie Gao and then threatened Glen McNamara's life and the life of his two daughters" McNamara's defense counsel Ms Kara Shead told the jury.  "Mr McNamara thereafter acted under duress."

Ms Shead is pushing the unlikely story that McNamara only helped Rogerson dispose of the body because he feared for his own life and that of his family, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

Crown Prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC told the jury that shortly before 7.30 am the day after Gao was murdered, the pair were seen moving a white Ford station wagon from the Cronulla apartment where McNamara lived, and a short time later they were seen taking fishing rods out of the boot.

Gao's body was found six days after the murder, inside a silver surfboard cover and wrapped in a blue tarp, dumped at sea 2.5 kms off Cronulla beach.

So if it wasn't planned, why did they buy the car used to transport the body in the fictitious name of Marvin Turnbull?  The receipt was found at McNamara's home and had Rogerson's fingerprint on it.

Why did McNamara move his boat out of storage the day before the murder - the same boat that was used to dump the body?

Why did McNamara open and close the roller door at the storage facility four times in eight minutes, just before Gao arrived?

And why did Rogerson move chairs out of Unit 803 the day before the murder, making room for what he knew would happen the following day?

The day after the murder, McNamar's boat was seen towing his boat away from his Cronulla home.

"It's the Crown's case that what happened that day had nothing to do with fishing and everything to do with getting rid of the deceased" prosecutor Christopher Maxwell said.

The trial is expected to last three months.