Notorious ex cop Roger Rogerson was bedridden during his final six months in prison, with the disgraced police officer about to die after having his life support turned off.
Rogerson suffered a brain aneurysm in his prison cell in Sydney’s Long Bay jail on Thursday before he was taken to Randwick’s Prince of Wales Hospital just before midnight.
The 83-year-old’s life support was turned off on Friday morning.
Details of his grim finals moments in jail have now been revealed, with Rogerson spending his last months in a solitary hospital cell, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Rogerson could not walk properly, struggled to communicate and was unable to get out of his bed or sit up on his own for the past six months.
Disgraced former cop Roger Rogerson (pictured) spent his final six months in prison in a hospital cell, unable to get out of bed on his own
‘s most corrupt cop Roger Rogerson (pictured) is about to die in jail after having a brain aneurysm, with his life support turned off
Rogerson has also had back problems for years and even suffered a fall while he was in jail.
Staff at the prison had struggled to wake Rogerson on Thursday and while it wasn’t unusual for the former detective to need help getting up in the morning, medical tests later showed he had suffered a brain aneurysm.
Rogerson, who was serving a life sentence over the murder of 20-year-old student and drug dealer Jamie Gao in 2014, is now receiving end of life care.
His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail his family was only alerted to his deteriorating condition on Friday.
‘We were only notified of his condition this MORNING,’ she said in a text message.
His last bid for freedom was denied by the High Court in March 2023 after the court rejected his bid to be granted a leave of appeal against his murder conviction over the death of Gao.
Rogerson was once a decorated detective in the NSW police force, receiving several bravery awards but became the subject of serious corruption allegations and was ultimately expelled from the force.
He was a feared police officer and an infamous figure in Sydney’s gangland scene from the 1960s through to the 1980s.
Rogerson (pictured) was once a decorated detective but was later the subject of serious corruption allegations and was ultimately expelled from the force
His close relationship with crime kingpins Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith and Chris Flannery was at the centre of the acclaimed TV drama Blue Murder.
That program portrayed his pre-arranged fatal shooting of young drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi in an inner Sydney laneway in 1981.
Rogerson was charged over the shooting but was cleared of wrongdoing after an inquest found he was acting in the line of duty as a police officer.
Lanfranchi’s lover Sallie-Anne Huckstepp was also later found murdered in Sydney’s Centennial Park in 1986.
Smith was accused but was later acquitted of Ms Huckstepp’s murder.
Rogerson also shot dead two robbers, Phillip Western on the Central Coast in 1976 and Lawrence ‘Butchy’ Burns in Kingsford in Sydney’s east in 1977.
Rogerson’s (pictured) last bid for freedom was rejected by the High Court in March 2023 after the court refused to grant him a leave of appeal against his murder conviction over the death of young drug dealer Jamie Gao in 2014
He was accused of conspiring to murder detective Michael Drury, who was shot through his kitchen window at Chatswood on Sydney’s north shore in 1984 but survived.
Rogerson, hitman Chris Flannery and Melbourne heroin dealer Alan Williams were alleged to have conspired over the attempt on Drury’s life, with Rogerson later acquitted.
Rogerson was dismissed from the force in 1986 before he spent two stints in jail in 1990 for perverting the course of justice, and in 2005 for lying under oath to the Police Integrity Commission.