Roger Rogerson: Out of jail, ready to talk.

Sunday Profile Transcript: Roger Rogerson , March 12, 2006

Julia Baird

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Hello...I'm Julia Baird...and tonight on Sunday Profile...Roger Rogerson....out of jail and ready to talk

He's Australia's most notorious ex-cop.... ....a mate of underworld figures such as Neddy Smith .......Rogerson became infamous in the 1980's for his alleged crimes and misdemeanours.

Indeed during that decade 'Roger the Dodger' as he was known......was rarely out of the headlines ......and in 1986, the detective once tipped to go all the way to the top ......was flung out of the force.

Two jail terms and a host of inquiries later ......Roger Rogerson continues to protest his innocence... and insists that he's the victim of a vendetta waged by a group of cops who are out to get him

Now Rogerson is trying to break with the past-he's served his time....he's even read the Bible and is touring the pubs and clubs with a somewhat unconventional comedy act - but does he think that his prison days are finally over?


Roger Rogerson:

I'd like to think so.

Julia Baird:

Are you worried that people are still pursuing you, are out to get you?

Roger Rogerson:

Well, look I've been pursued by government instrumentalities such as the Police Intelligence Commission, by the Australian Crime Commission and originally by a group of police that were put together because they wanted to get me. 

Julia Baird:

So what you feel has been a fairly orchestrated campaign, has this come to an end now or do you think it's still going?

Roger Rogerson:

Well I'm still facing a charge in South Australia which was laid by The Australian Crime Commission, that's being heard in Adelaide. Now that's another case where they were listening to my phone at home. I've been thinking about this for the last eighteen months or so, I don't know how or why I could be found guilty of committing some criminal offence of counselling and procuring a public officer from the South Australian Police Force to commit an offence and that's basically what I'm charged with.

Julia Baird:

Well obviously it's a case which is still pending but I'm interested in the idea, in the fact that you were bugged for this. I mean your last prison sentence came about after...

Roger Rogerson:

That's right.

Julia Baird:

...an astonishing 38 000 hours of your conversations were recorded. Have you checked your house for bugs now?

Roger Rogerson:

I learnt years ago it's no use checking your house for bugs. My wife and myself if we want to talk about something in private, in strict privacy, we leave our house, we walk across the road where we have bushland and we talk in the bush.

Julia Baird:

So you think you're being tapped now?

Roger Rogerson:

I wouldn't be surprised because knowing the quality of the people that work at these organisations...nothing would surprise me.

Julia Baird:

Have you cut all your ties with the criminal fraternity?

Roger Rogerson:

Basically I cut my criminal ties you might say when I left the cops. Now alright, when I left the police I set up an engineering business and I would get the odd phone call from Ned Smith for a couple of years but don't forget Neddy Smith has been in gaol since 1988.

Julia Baird:

But you saw him in jail, didn't you and you also met him for beers occasionally. 

Roger Rogerson:

No, no, no. He would invite me to have a beer down in the Haymarket, in the open on many an occasion I had a former police officer with me who was then a lawyer. It was just a beer. I thought we lived in a free society. I thought we, I didn't think we lived in Russia but that's another annoying thing about it because it's the media mainly that get on the band wagon and write all this crap about, you know someone having a beer with someone and coming to a conclusion which is in 99% of cases completely incorrect that they're colluding or conspiring to commit crime. 

Julia Baird:

I'd like to talk about your side of the story and I'd like to go back to right back to the beginning of Roger Rogerson joining the police force in 1958.

Roger Rogerson:

That's correct.

Julia Baird:

Aged 17.

Roger Rogerson:

That's correct.

Julia Baird:

Had you always wanted to be a cop?

Roger Rogerson:

Not really, no but I had a cousin who had joined the cadets, you know I knew one or two police officers or my parents did and, no it was not something that I'd sort of dreamed of doing from a little boy.

Julia Baird:

And did you dislike crooks; was that kind of part of your motivation?

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