Roger Rogerson withdraws bail application in Sydney court over Jaime Gao's alleged murder

Former Sydney policeman Roger Rogerson has withdrawn his bail application in a Sydney court.

The 73-year-old has been charged with murder over the death of university student Jamie Gao in May.

Gao's body was found floating in the sea off Cronulla a week after he was reported missing.

Police allege he was killed in a Padstow storage unit after a drug deal went wrong.

Rogerson was going to apply for bail today, but his lawyer Paul Kenny decided against it.

Mr Kenny has already indicated his client will fight the charges.

Rogerson co-accused denied bail, facing life

His co-accused, former detective Glen McNamara, unsuccessfully applied for bail in Sydney's Central Local Court.

Photo: Jamie Gao's body was found floating in the sea off Cronulla. (Supplied: New South Wales Police)

Prosecutor Chris Maxwell opposed McNamara's bail application, telling Magistrate Les Mabbutt the crown had a very powerful case against McNamara on two charges - murder and supplying a commercial quantity of drugs.

"He is staring at convictions for two offences that carry life imprisonment," Mr Maxwell said.

"The crown alleges this was an execution style murder associated with the supply of very significant quantities of ice.

"Any sentence that would flow from these charges if convicted would be lengthy."

McNamara watches proceedings from Goulburn jail

The court heard Glen McNamara, who was stationed at Kings Cross during the late 1980s, met Mr Gao in January 2014 and began a negotiation with him to supply ice.

"At the end of that negotiation it appeared the deceased was able to supply something in the order of three kilos of ice," Mr Maxwell said.

"On the 24th of May, three days after the killing, 2.8 kilograms of ice was found in the back foot well of the car that the deceased was driving.

Obviously he has been involved in the disposal of the body but that does not make good the case of murder.

Ian Lloyd, Glen McNamara's Lawyer.

"The evidence shows that in May 2014, Roger Rogerson, clearly an associate of McNamara, obtained keys and access to the rented storage unit at Padstow, and Mr Gao was killed in that storage unit."

The prosecutor said Mr Gao was shot twice in the chest, with one of the bullets travelling through his heart.

McNamara watched the proceedings from Goulburn jail.

He sat with his arms crossed as his lawyer Ian Lloyd told the magistrate he had no criminal history and no history of violence.

The court was shown photographs from CCTV footage of the storage unit that the crown argued showed McNamara getting a surfboard bag out of his car.

Defence questions strength of prosecution case

"I'm not suggesting the crown case on either charge is weak, but I am suggesting it is not as strong as my friend would have you believe," he said.

Mr Lloyd said if there were an intended killing that day, it would have been easy for his client to have placed the surfboard bag in the storage unit prior to the meeting, rather than getting it out of the car after the shooting.

"This begs the question that something may have happened in that storage unit that he was not expecting," he said.

"Obviously he has been involved in the disposal of the body but that does not make good the case of murder."