Roger Rogerson


http://aussiecriminals.com.au/2014/05/26/roger-rogerson-arrested-glen-mcnamara-charged-with-murder-of-sydney-uni-student-jamie-gao/

A Good article I found tonight

Roger Rogerson myth can stand no longer

May 27, 2014 – 7:30PM

Roger Rogerson: his arrest marks the final collapse in a spectacular fall from grace.Roger Rogerson: his arrest marks the final collapse in a spectacular fall from grace.

Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara murder trial: Jamie Gao hearing to begin on August 18

Paul Bibby
New trial date: former detectives Glen McNamara and Roger Rogerson will appear before the NSW Supreme Court on August 18.New trial date: former detectives Glen McNamara and Roger Rogerson will appear before the NSW Supreme Court on August 18. Photo: Rocco Fazzari

Former detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara will face a new trial over the murder of Sydney student Jamie Gao on August 18, following the discharge of the jury in their first trial.

Justice Geoff Bellew told the NSW Supreme Court that the new trial date for the pair had been confirmed, lifting a non-publication order made on Tuesday.

Mr Rogerson, 74, and Mr McNamara, 56, are accused of being part of a “joint criminal enterprise” to murder Mr Gao, 20, in a southern Sydney storage unit on May 20 last year.

Twenty-year-old Jamie Gao was killed on May 22, 2014.Twenty-year-old Jamie Gao was killed on May 22, 2014. Photo: Facebook

It is alleged that they stole 2.78 kilograms of the drug ice from him and then dumped his body off the coast of Cronulla. It was found six days later.

Half way through the trial’s second day on Tuesday, Justice Bellew discharged the 15-member jury for legal reasons which cannot be disclosed.

Both accused have pleaded not guilty to murder and drug supply.

Counsel for Mr McNamara, Charles Waterstreet told the jury on Tuesday that Mr Rogerson had been solely responsible for the murder.

He said the 74-year-old had shot Mr Gao twice in the chest and then threatened to kill Mr McNamara and his family if he did not help him to cover up the crime.

No evidence was presented to support these claims before the jury was discharged.

Counsel for Mr Rogerson, George Thomas, did not have the opportunity to address the jury before members were discharged.

On Tuesday Justice Bellew said the NSW sheriff had confirmed that a court was available on August 18 to begin a new trial, and he formally set down that date.


 

Roger Rogerson can no longer be seen as the larrikin rogue.

It can no longer be argued that the former detective was a misunderstood  “old school” cop who fell foul of a reformist police culture that could not tolerate his unconventional hit-first, ask-questions-later approach.

Not after the past few days’ revelations.

Although there were countless examples of bravery, a Dirty-Harry quality, dogged investigative work and a rarely seen devotion to duty during his decades in the force, Rogerson’s latest jailing marks the final collapse in a spectacular fall from grace.

Of the many extraordinary things that flow from the tawdry circumstances surrounding the alleged murder of Jamie Gao, apparently a university student-turned-drug runner – it is the demolition of Roger Caleb Rogerson’s faintly restored reputation that should be noted.

Rogerson’s charging over such serious matters should shatter any illusions about not only his knockabout reputation but also his legacy to policing.

He should now be seen for what he was, and is: a rotten cop who went badly off the rails, and never recovered.

But for the past eight years or so, at least since his release from jail after a second prison term, this is far from the view some would have had of him.

In recent times, Rogerson had staged a comeback. He had a talk show tour that did much to shroud his history of misdeeds – a renaissance of sorts, full of nostalgia, that glossed over and contextualised the pivotal role he played within a corps of corrupt officers.

A group of detectives who had a stranglehold on much that mattered on the streets of Sydney in the 1970s and ’80s.

Aided by doing occasional newsroom blogs, and media appearances, he had started to enjoy a reputational resurgence. He almost became mainstream.

In 2009, his book, The Dark Side, was launched by broadcaster Alan Jones at the Iron Duke Hotel in Zetland, a location engrained in the Rogerson folklore. If only cops today were like Rogerson, the streets would be a lot safer, Jones commented, repeating the now all-too-familiar refrain.

Getting Jones on side underscored his comeback; and gave a critical air of legitimacy to claims he had been misunderstood.

Like his one-time talking tour buddy, the late Mark ”Chopper” Read, Rogerson rode the wave of public sentimentality, and affection, for all things crime and a yearning for a time when things were simpler. True crime, glamourised. Adding a blokey tone to the banter made it seem as if the things they joked about on stage were suddenly excusable, if not explicable. His arrest apparently cut short his latest talking tour in Queensland.

For the past few years, an obliging and under-questioning public went along for the ride – airbrushing his infamy.

The ABC mini-series Blue Murder, which depicted the underworld wars that swirled around Rogerson, his informant and cohort, Arthur Stanley “Neddy” Smith, and the undercover detective Michael Drury, probably laid the groundwork for the Rogerson revival, in a funny sort of way. And Blue Murder itself was infamous. In the days before the internet and YouTube, the courts banned the show’s scheduled broadcast in NSW in 1995 so as not to prejudice Smith’s continuing criminal trials.

It would take many years before it ever hit television screens in a legitimate way.

At the time, bootleg copies abounded. With its critical acclaim, the censorship surrounding Blue Murder only added to its lustre, and the cult of personality for Rogerson.  

It was so successful that it gave rise to several imitators, and a new genre in Australian television, which hit its high point (or low point, depending on your perspective) with Underbelly. In turn, its success gave birth to sequels and spin-offs – each one all the more titillating in that they made the criminals – the anti-heroes – the stars.

Policing has changed dramatically since the days Rogerson entered the ranks as a fresh-faced cadet.

Unsigned records of interview – some of them the product of telephone-book interrogations, or worse – are not accepted by the courts. They were back then. A Police Integrity Commission has since been established. In Rogerson’s time, police gave lip service, in the main, to investigating their own. More women, more highly educated constables, and officers from multicultural backgrounds, are now part of the force. It was a man’s world in Rogerson’s era, where physical strength and the barrel of a gun were the calling cards.

Today’s police world is unrecognisable. No doubt, Commissioner Andrew Scipione has considerable work to do to truly reform and modernise the ranks – and there are still reports of corruption among his troops.

But it is hard to comprehend someone with the brashness and swagger of a Rogerson surviving, and thriving now in the way he did then.

One last point worth making:

Many observers point to the fact that Rogerson, despite being already twice jailed – once for dishonesty, and once for lying about the provenance of $110,000 in cash – was found not guilty in two criminal trials in relation to the Drury case.

It is an important issue.

Drury was shot at close range at his Chatswood home in 1984 in front of his wife and two young daughters just months before he was due to testify in a major drugs trial. During his fraught recovery, and fearing he would not live, Drury gave a dying deposition – accusing Rogerson of offering him a bribe.

The accusation came as a hammer blow to Rogerson – and his corrupt colleagues – at the time, and in truth it was a hit from which he never truly recovered.

The first case, dealt with in 1984, saw Rogerson charged with attempting to bribe Drury to throw the drugs case involving Melbourne heroin dealer Alan Williams. The second case was the more sinister charge; that he conspired with Christopher Dale Flannery and Williams to murder Drury, a fellow officer.

On both charges, he was acquitted by a jury.

But on the same charge, Williams pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court – and gave evidence to the fact he had arranged for the hit, which at the time marked a new low in Australian police history.

Roger Rogerson

Roger Caleb Rogerson (born 3 January 1941) is a disgraced former detective-sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force. Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission. He was one of its most decorated officers, having received at least 13 awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty including the Peter Mitchell Trophy, the highest annual police award.

Rogerson is also known for his association with other NSW detectives who are reputed to have been corrupt, including Ray “Gunner” Kelly and Fred Krahe, and with a number of organised crime figures, including Arthur “Neddy” Smith, Graham John “Abo” Henry, Warren Lanfranchi, Robert Arthur “Bobby” Chapman, Paul “The Paddy” O’Halloran, John Tex Moran, and Christopher Dale Flannery. Neddy Smith was a convicted heroin dealer, rapist and armed robber who has claimed Rogerson gave him the “green light” to commit crimes in New South Wales. Henry and Lanfranchi were also heroin dealers and armed robbers, while Flannery specialised in contract killing.

Police career

Rogerson worked on some of the biggest cases of the early 1970s, including the Toecutter Gang Murder and the Whiskey Au Go Go Fire in Brisbane. By 1978 his reputation was sufficient to gain convictions based on the strength of unsigned records of interviews with prisoners (known as “police verbals”). He was brought in to investigate the Ananda Marga conspiracy case, despite having no connections to the Special Branch investigating the case. Tim Anderson, one of the three released in 1985, claimed the confession Rogerson extracted was fabricated, and that he and two other members of the Ananda Marga group were convicted in part because of Rogerson’s fabrications.

The Peter Mitchell Award was presented to Rogerson in 1980 for the arrest of escaped armed robber Gary Purdey. This was tainted by Purdey’s claims that Rogerson assaulted him, prevented him from calling his solicitor and typed up to five different records of interview.

Rogerson was responsible for the shooting death of Warren Lanfranchi. During the inquest the coroner found he was acting in the line of duty, but a jury declined to find he had acted in self-defence. Rogerson was later commended by the police force for his bravery. However, it was alleged by Lanfranchi’s partner, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, and later by Neddy Smith, that Rogerson had murdered Lanfranchi as retribution for robbing another heroin dealer who was under police protection and for firing a gun at a police officer. Huckstepp, a heroin addict and prostitute, appeared on numerous current affairs programs, including 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, demanding an investigation into Lanfranchi’s death. She also made statements to the New South Wales Police Internal Affairs Branch. She was later murdered. Her body was found in a pond in Centennial Park, New South Wales.

Fellow police officer Michael Drury has alleged that Rogerson was involved in his attempted murder. Drury claims he refused to accept a bribe Rogerson offered to change his evidence in a heroin trafficking trial of convicted Melbourne drug dealer, Alan Williams. On 6 June 1984, Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window as he fed his three-year-old daughter, Belinda. Rogerson was charged with the shooting and Williams testified that Rogerson and Christopher Dale Flannery had agreed to murder Drury for A$50,000 each. However, on 20 November 1989, Rogerson was acquitted.

Rogerson received a criminal conviction, which was overturned on appeal, for involvement in drug dealing, allegedly conspiring with notorious Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen to supply heroin.

After the police force

Rogerson was dismissed from the NSW Police Force on 11 April 1986. He was subsequently convicted of perverting the course of justice in relation to $AU110,000 deposited by him in bank accounts under a false name. He spent nine months in jail in 1990 before being released on bail pending an appeal. His appeal was unsuccessful and he spent a further three years in jail from 1992 to 1995. Rogerson was depicted by Richard Roxburgh in the miniseries, Blue Murder, first broadcast in 1995.

After leaving the police, Rogerson worked in the building and construction industry as a supplier of scaffolding. He also became an entertainer, telling stories of his police activities in a spoken-word stage show called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with former Australian footballers Warwick Capper and Mark “Jacko” Jackson.

On 17 February 2005, Rogerson and his wife were convicted of lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission. Rogerson served 12 months of a maximum two-and-a-half year sentence. He was released from Kirkconnell Correctional Centre on 17 February 2006. Rogerson’s wife, Anne Melocco, was sentenced to two years periodic detention for the same offence. Following his release from prison in 2006, Rogerson resumed his entertainment career with Mark “Jacko” Jackson by appearing in a show called The Wild Colonial Psychos with Jackson and Mark “Chopper” Read.

In 2008 Rogerson reviewed episodes of the Underbelly series and Melbourne’s underworld war on The Daily Telegraph‘s online blog. Rogerson has also blogged about the 2009 series of Underbelly for The Daily Telegraph. In 2009, he published an autobiography about his time as a detective. The 160,000-word manuscript was reviewed by an editor to “cut out some of the bullshit and make it a good read”. At the time, Rogerson said: “We haven’t thought of a name for it yet but it’ll have ‘Roger Rogerson’ right across the front of it.”

The book is entitled The Dark Side and was launched by Alan Jones. It consists mainly of accounts of the less controversial murder investigations and arrests he was involved in. Rogerson also talks about his family, his childhood, other police officers, the charges made against him and his time in jail. It is a combination mini-autobiography and collection of accounts, memoirs, opinions and anecdotes, with the occasional touch of humour.

Roger Rogerson not on the run over Jamie Gao murder, lawyer says

May 27, 2014

Roger Rogerson’s lawyer ‘stunned’

The long-time lawyer of former NSW police officer Roger Rogerson says he’s ‘beyond shocked’ that detectives want to question his client over the alleged murder of a university student during a botched drug deal.

Roger Rogerson back in headlinesTributes for Jamie GaoDisgraced former police officer Roger Rogerson is not on the run and is ‘‘beyond shocked’’ at being linked to the murder of Sydney university student Jamie Gao.

Detectives want to speak to Mr Rogerson in relation to the murder of 20-year-old Mr Gao at Padstow, in Sydney’s south-west, last Tuesday.

Heading back to Sydney: two NSW Police senior detectives.Heading back to Sydney: two NSW Police senior detectives.

Rogerson’s long-time lawyer Paul Kenny, interviewed on 2UE, denied his client was on the run, adding the last time he spoke with Mr Rogerson was on Monday morning. He was “absolutely stunned” and “beyond shocked” by the events of the past 48 hours.

He said they were in constant communication but refused to comment on Mr Rogerson’s whereabouts.

Off-air, Mr Rogerson’s wife Anne Melocco said he had returned to Sydney. NSW Police have confirmed to Fairfax Media that the two NSW Police senior detectives on the hunt for Mr Rogerson are returning to Sydney from Queensland.

Former detective Glen McNamara is escorted by Corrective Services officers as he is taken away from Kogarah local court.Former detective Glen McNamara is escorted by Corrective Services officers as he is taken away from Kogarah local court. 

It’s understood no formal arrangements have yet been made to meet with the former detective, but indications are he will do so later today.

Mr Kenny described his client as being in a ‘‘very upset and distressed’’ state who was willing to ‘‘completely’’ co-operate with police.

Mr Kenny turned up at Mr Rogerson’s Padstow Heights home about 10am on Tuesday, and told the media pack on the front lawn to remain calm.

Killed: Jamie Gao.Killed: Jamie Gao. 

He refused to say whether his client was inside, but did reveal Mr Rogerson would speak with police later this morning.

A former Kings Cross detective turned author, Glen McNamara, 55, on Monday faced Kogarah Local Court where he was charged with the promising business student’s murder, and large-scale drug supply.

Only hours earlier a body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin was found by a fisherman, floating off the coast at Cronulla. It is believed to be that of the missing Hurstville man.

Police will allege that Mr Gao was killed after a multimillion-dollar drug deal went wrong inside a rented storage shed last Tuesday afternoon.

Colourful business identity Jim Byrnes believes Mr Gao may have been a police informant working under surveillance when a drug deal went wrong.

‘‘How did the police get so much surveillance footage so quickly? It’s something the Crime Commission might be able to shed light on in the future because I think they had prior knowledge of the young man who is now deceased,” said Mr Rogerson’s friend from Los Angeles on Fairfax-owned 2UE.

“The information gathered by police … which has come to light in such a rapid manner would suggest somebody was already watching,” he said. ‘‘I think the 20-year-old may have been an informant.’’

Mr Byrnes believes Mr Rogerson was an accessory in the alleged large-scale drug crime and murder of Mr Gao.

At 73 years of age, Mr Rogerson would have been physically incapable of stopping the weakest 23-year-old if “something horribly went wrong,” he added.

“He’s tired… I don’t know whether he’s got the strength to go on and be in what can be a long and expensive trial … and possibly a very long stint of incarceration,” he said.

“When you’re over 73 years of age, anything over 12 months is potentially a life sentence.”

About Roger Rogerson

Roger Caleb Rogerson (born January 3, 1941) is a controversial former detective-sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force. Rogerson was convicted of perverting the course of justice and lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission. He was one of its most decorated officers, having received at least 13 awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty including the Peter Mitchell Trophy, the highest annual police award.

Rogerson is also known for his association with other NSW detectives who are reputed to have been corrupt, including Ray “Gunner” Kelly and Fred Krahe, and with a number of organised crime figures, including Arthur “Neddy” Smith, Graham “Abo” Henry, Warren Lanfranchi, Robert Arthur “Bobby” Chapman, Paul “The Paddy” O’Halloran, John Tex Moran, and Christopher Dale Flannery. Neddy Smith was a convicted heroin dealer, rapist and armed robber who has claimed Rogerson gave him the “green light” to commit crimes in New South Wales. Henry and Lanfranchi were also heroin dealers and armed robbers, while Flannery specialised in contract killing.

Rogerson worked on some of the biggest cases of the early 1970s, including the Toecutter Gang Murder and the Whiskey Au Go Go Fire in Brisbane. By 1978 his reputation was sufficient to gain convictions based on the strength of unsigned records of interviews with prisoners (known as “verbals”). He was brought in to investigate the bombing of the Sydney Hilton despite having no connections to the Special Branch investigating the case. The convicted bomber Tim Anderson, who was released in 1991, claimed the confession Rogerson extracted was fabricated, and that he and other members of the Ananda Marga sect were convicted because Rogerson falsified statements.
The Peter Mitchell Award was presented to Rogerson in 1980 for the arrest of escaped armed robber Gary Purdey. This was tainted by Purdey’s claims that Rogerson assaulted him, prevented him from calling his solicitor and typed up to five different records of interview.

Rogerson was responsible for the shooting death of Warren Lanfranchi. During the inquest the coroner found he was acting in the line of duty, but a jury declined to find he had acted in self defence. Rogerson was later commended by the police force for his bravery. However, it was alleged by Lanfranchi’s partner, Sallie-Anne Huckstepp, and later by Neddy Smith, that Rogerson had murdered Lanfranchi as retribution for robbing another heroin dealer who was under police protection and for firing a gun at a police officer. Huckstepp, a heroin addict and prostitute, appeared on numerous current affairs programs, including 60 Minutes and A Current Affair, demanding an investigation into Lanfranchi’s death. She also made statements to the New South Wales Police Internal Affairs Branch. She was later murdered, her body found in a pond in Centennial Park, New South Wales.

Fellow police officer Michael Drury has alleged that Rogerson was involved in his attempted murder. Drury claims he refused to accept a bribe Rogerson offered to change his evidence in a heroin trafficking trial of convicted Melbourne drug dealer, Alan Williams. On June 6, 1984, Drury was shot twice through his kitchen window as he fed his three-year-old daughter, Belinda. Rogerson was charged with the shooting and Williams testified that Rogerson and Christopher Dale Flannery had agreed to murder Drury for $AU50,000 each. However, on November 20, 1989, Rogerson was acquitted.
Rogerson received a criminal conviction, which was overturned on appeal, for involvement in drug dealing, allegedly conspiring with notorious Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen to supply heroin.

Rogerson was dismissed from the NSW Police Force on April 11, 1986. He was subsequently convicted of perverting the course of justice in relation to $AU110,000 deposited by him in bank accounts under a false name. He spent nine months in jail in 1990 before being released on bail pending an appeal. His appeal was unsuccessful and he spent a further three years in jail from 1992 to 1995. Rogerson was depicted by Richard Roxburgh in the miniseries, Blue Murder, first broadcast in 1995.

After leaving the police, Rogerson worked in the building and construction industry as a supplier of scaffolding. He also became an entertainer, telling stories of his police activities in a spoken-word stage show called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with former Australian footballers Warwick Capper and Mark “Jacko” Jackson.

On February 17, 2005, Rogerson and his wife were convicted of lying to the 1999 Police Integrity Commission. Rogerson served 12 months of a maximum two-and-a-half year sentence. He was released from Kirkconnell Correctional Centre on February 17, 2006. Rogerson’s wife, Anne Melocco, was sentenced to two years periodic detention for the same offence.Following his release from prison in 2006, Rogerson resumed his entertaining career with Mark “Jacko” Jackson by appearing in a show called The Wild Colonial Psychos with Jackson and Mark “Chopper” Read.

In 2008 Rogerson reviewed episodes of the Underbelly series and Melbourne’s underworld war on The Daily Telegraph’s online blog. Rogerson has also blogged about the 2009 series of Underbelly for the The Daily Telegraph.He claims he has completed an autobiography about his time as a detective and that his 160,000-word manuscript is currently being reviewed by an editor to “cut out some of the bullshit and make it a good read”. He says “we haven’t thought of a name for it yet but it’ll have ‘Roger Rogerson’ right across the front of it.”

The book is entitled “The Dark Side”. It consists mainly of accounts of the less controversial murder investigations and arrests he was involved in. Rogerson also talks about his family, his childhood, other police officers, the charges made against him and his time in jail. It is a combination mini-autobiography and collection of accounts, memoirs, opinions and anecdotes, with the occasional touch of humour.

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25 thoughts on “Roger Rogerson”

  1. Why are the Police keeping so quiet about Jamie Gao also a very bad criminal. Mum conveniently overseas when the drug deal was on. It has been reported in the media he has been importing drugs for years. With someone so young I doubt mum did not know what was going on. She called the shots no photos of her or her home or the funeral. Girlfriend has been allowed to disappear overseas. Heard no more of the alleged two Asians in the car. Police first started to say what a lovely person he was until it came out he was involved in a kidnapping. Mum is getting covered up just the same as McGurks wife. When drug dealers die in this Country it is nearly the end of the world.

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  2. Worth remembering that Roger’s had problems with electronic surveillance before – caught on CCTV in a bank in York Street opening an account in a dud name, then depositing a large chunk of cash into it. Caught on audio regularly by the PIC….

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  3. Never heard about the Police searching Gao’s house or his mothers business. Yet he is alleged to have been importing for years and was under the so called watchful eye of the AFP. Mum is calling the shots and even his funeral was secret and no publicity allowed. This woman is telling the Police what to do and her son was already on kidnapping charge and should have been in gaol. Maybe NSW Police should not be handling this matter. Was he on benefits as well as a big drug dealer.

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    1. I think the best drug dealer is a dead one and have no sympathy for Gao. Roger will possibly see the rest of his life in gaol yet the people who ruined Emma De Silva’s life and Sophie Delezio walked away from Court. Sophia’s last accident the drive waved to the media smiling. Still believe a lot of people do nothing but cry if a drug dealer is injured or killed. A lot of broken hearted people over Gao yet publicity and tears also if a young person dies of an overdose at a concert or elsewhere.

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  4. Hopefully and finally getting what he deserves, a life sentence. Pity it didn’t happen decades ago. What a rubbish human being Rogerson is.

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  5. So None of his superiors were brought to account for letting this dog run riot in Sydney for so many years?
    What a corrupt lot that force was back then..

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  6. Drury did know it was Roger’s hammer he would send down to Allen who would move it on to Williams. Drury followed it back through various dealer to Williams. Good policeman Roger, good corrupt policeman or I should good at it, not very good crook.

    Mark has a postcard for you when you hit the bay. Greetings from Amsterdam, cheer up son.

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  7. Alot of talk about Rogerson what about Mc Namara he was in the storage unit with Gao before Rogerson, so who shot Gao? Did Mc Namara shoot Gao before Roger walked in ? or did Rogerson shoot Gao when he did go inside ? That is the crucial question the public dont know as yet.

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  8. Dirty Work ( Book by Glen Mc Namara ) a true story. REALLY ! He might write the second book plenty of time on his murderous hands on what turns a cop so crooked.

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  9. Sally Anne Huckstepp was a big mouth whore drug addict that had a low scum boyfriend drug addict dealer. Opening her trap to the media not a wise move. Live by the sword die by the sword.

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  10. Wrong country to be in limelight. Not too many known ‘identities’ who are In the spotlight consistently who don’t end up been bought down . Then again when they voice their dislike of the legal system and do paid interviews or on stage shows like Rogerson Chopper and Jacko were doing probably didn’t help too much. Its not a case of if ………….. Its when it will probably go bad and it I guess did catch up with Rogerson. As for Jamie Goa, twenty years old . Yes he is of adult age and knew what he was doing but kind of sad as just a kid really…

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