Disgraced former detective Roger Rogerson has returned to the Sydney street where he shot drug dealer and rapist Warren Lanfranchi — and revealed he has no regrets.In an interview to air on A Current Affair tonight, he also admits that at times he turned a blind eye to corruption while he was senior detective with the NSW police force.
Speaking from the Chippendale street where he shot Lanfranchi dead in 1981, Rogerson described the killing in detail.
''He's gone backwards and he's reaching down the front of his pants and suddenly he comes out with a revolver ... I knew he was going to pull the trigger, so I fired twice,'' he said.
''I don't really regret that … I regret what happened as a result of shooting him but the actual circumstances of my shooting him, it just had to happen that way.''
Rogerson, nicknamed ''The Dodger'', earned a reputation as arguably Australia’s most corrupt cop and was associated with other criminal figures including convicted murderer Neddy Smith.
He was dismissed from the police force in 1986 and later found guilty of perverting the course of justice over two false bank accounts totalling $111,000.
The coroner initially found Rogerson had carried out the shooting in the line of duty but Lanfranchi’s girlfriend Sallie-Anne Huckstepp it was retribution for robbing another heroin dealer.
Rogerson was also charged with the attempted murder of fellow police officer Michael Drury in 1984 after Drury allegedly turned down a bribe but he was later acquitted.
Much of Rogerson’s reputation was formed from the 1990s miniseries Blue Murder which depicted him as shooting an unarmed Lanfranchi.
But now at age 68 he is hoping his book —The Dark Side which launches this week — will take some of the sting out of his public notoriety.
''It's about 90 percent bulls*** … I'm not saying that I was an absolute 100 percent dyed in the wool Christian police officer, I turned a blind eye to certain things as part of my job,'' he said.
aap 12 Oct 2009
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