Notorious ex-cop Roger Rogerson was bedridden during his final six months in prison, with the disgraced police officer on the brink of death after his life support was switched off.
Rogerson suffered a brain aneurysm in his prison cell at Sydney’s Long Bay Prison on Thursday before being taken to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick just before midnight.
The 83-year-old’s life support was turned off Friday morning.
Details of his grim final moments in prison have now been revealed, with Rogerson spending his final months in a lonely hospital cell. The Daily Telegraph reported.
Rogerson couldn’t walk properly, had trouble communicating and couldn’t get out of bed or sit on his own for the past six months.
Disgraced former cop Roger Rogerson (pictured) spent his last six months in prison in a hospital cell, unable to get out of bed on his own
Australia’s most corrupt cop Roger Rogerson (pictured) is set to die in prison after suffering a brain aneurysm with his life support turned off
Rogerson has also had back problems for years and even fell while in prison.
Jail staff struggled to wake Rogerson on Thursday and while it was not unusual for the former detective to need help getting up in the morning, medical tests later revealed he had suffered a brain aneurysm.
Rogerson, who served a life sentence for the 2014 murder of 20-year-old student and drug dealer Jamie Gao, will now receive end-of-life care.
His wife Anne Melocco told Daily Mail Australia his family was only informed of his deteriorating condition on Friday.
“We were only informed of his condition this morning,” she said in a text message.
His latest bid for freedom was rejected by the Supreme Court in March 2023 after the court rejected his bid for a leave of absence against his murder conviction over Gao’s death.
Rogerson was once a decorated detective in the NSW Police Force and received several awards for bravery, but became the subject of serious corruption allegations and was eventually expelled from the force.
He was a feared police officer and a notorious figure in Sydney’s gangland scene from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Rogerson (pictured) was once a decorated detective but later became the subject of serious corruption allegations and was eventually kicked out of the force
His close relationship with crime lords Arthur ‘Neddy’ Smith and Chris Flannery was central to the critically acclaimed TV drama Blue Murder.
That program portrayed his pre-arranged fatal shooting of young drug dealer Warren Lanfranchi on a Sydney inner street in 1981.
Rogerson was charged with the shooting but was cleared of wrongdoing after an inquest found he acted 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 later acquitted of Mrs 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) latest bid for freedom was rejected by the High Court in March 2023 after the court refused to grant him leave to face his murder conviction following the 2014 death of young drug dealer Jamie Gao.
He was accused of conspiring to kill Detective Michael Drury, who was shot through his kitchen window in Chatswood on Sydney’s North Shore in 1984 but survived.
Rogerson, hitman Chris Flannery and Melbourne heroin dealer Alan Williams are alleged to have conspired over the attempt on Drury’s life, with Rogerson later acquitted.
Rogerson was dismissed from the force in 1986 before spending two spells in prison in 1990 for perverting the course of justice, and in 2005 for lying under oath to the Police Integrity Commission.