Roger Rogerson, the notorious former detective and killer cop, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a 20-year-old student, has been hospitalised and is close to death, 9News understands.
The disgraced former police officer was found unresponsive in his cell on Thursday night after a medical episode and is now receiving end-of-life care.
Having started his police career aged 18 in 1959, Rogerson was one of the most decorated officers in New South Wales and a man many viewed as a potential police commissioner before corruption allegations and links to organised crime were uncovered.
He worked on some of the country’s highest-profile cases during his 27-year career, including the Toecutter Gang Murder and Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go fire.
Rogerson rose through the ranks of the force and won 12 commendation awards. In 1980 he received the Peter Mitchell Award for arresting escaped armed robber Gary Purdey.
He was responsible for the 1981 fatal shooting of drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi, but was found to have been acting in the line of duty – although Lanfranchi’s girlfriend, sex worker Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, afterwards claimed Rogerson deliberately killed him over a drug dispute.
Huckstep was found dead in 1986. Her murder remains unsolved.
Rogerson was also charged with the attempted killing of undercover officer Michael Drury in 1984, who turned down a bribe in exchange for evidence tampering in a heroin trafficking trial.
Rogerson was acquitted in 1989, but by then he had been dismissed from service for depositing $110,000 in bank accounts under a false name.
He was jailed for four years for perverting the course of justice over that matter, then in 2005 was jailed for another 12 months for lying to the Police Integrity Commission.
In 2014, Rogerson was arrested over the execution murder of 20-year-old student Jamie Gao.
Rogerson’s final appeal over that conviction failed last year.
