Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Glen McNamara's daughter gives evidence for him at his murder trial with Roger Rogerson




Glen McNamara gave his daughter a quick wink and a nod as she walked into the packed courtroom.

Minutes later she was wiping tears from her cheeks as she spoke about her father's friend and the moment she spotted a dark coloured object protruding out of the right hand pocket of his trousers.

That man was Roger Rogerson and as he tapped on his pocket he said to her father that he had "such nice daughters ... really lovely, lovely girls", the NSW Supreme Court was told on Tuesday.

"I could see the top of what was in his pocket and it was a dark colour," Jessica McNamara, 25,  said.
What Ms NcNamara saw and heard was only hours after her father and Mr Rogerson allegedly killed Sydney university student Jamie Gao inside a southern Sydney storage shed.

"I could see what was in his pocket": Jessica McNamara.
"I could see what was in his pocket": Jessica McNamara. Photo: James Brickwood
Mr Gao was shot dead, stuffed inside a silver surfboard bag and dumped at sea off the shores of Cronulla.

Mr McNamara's is arguing that Mr Rogerson shot Mr Gao and then threatened his life and the lives of his two daughters.

He only agreed to help Mr Rogerson dispose of the body because he was "terrified" and "acted under duress", his defence barrister Kara Shead has said.

Ms McNamara told the jury her father was "pale" and "twitchy" when he returned home to their Cronulla apartment on the afternoon of May 20, 2014.

He had told her he had been repairing the family boat and she gave him soap to wash the oil off his hands.

"He didn't seem himself, he didn't seem upbeat," she said.

"He seemed uneasy … he was pale, his hands were twitchy. He was fidgety."

Ms McNamara said when she came out of her bedroom that evening, she sat down on a lounge and talked to Mr Rogerson and her father. There were beers on the dining room table.

Mr Rogerson stayed in the apartment for about two hours before leaving between 7pm and 7.30pm.

Mr McNamara then left his McDonald Street apartment and took his two daughters, Jessica and Lucy, to nearby pub Northies for dinner.

"I noticed that he didn't eat," Ms McNamara said.

When Ms McNamara was questioned about the boat her father used to dispose of Mr Gao's body,  her lips started quivering and she cried.

"[Dad] and I would regularly go fishing on the boat, we liked taking the boat out together," she said.

Mr McNamara dabbed his eyes with tissues before putting his hands on his head.
He was sitting just a metre away from his co-accused Mr Rogerson who sat with no expression.

Mr Rogerson's defence is that Mr McNamara shot and killed Mr Gao inside unit 803 of Rent-A-Space at Padstow.

Barrister George Thomas has said Mr Rogerson opened the shed door and saw Mr Gao "dead on the floor with a hand gun lying near him".

Crown Prosecutor Christopher Maxwell, QC,  said the prosecution couldn't prove which of the accused fired the gun but it did not have to.

This was because Mr Rogerson and Mr McNamara were part of a joint criminal enterprise to murder Mr Gao and then steal the 2.78 kilograms of methylamphetamine he had brought to sell to them.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/glen-mcnamaras-daughter-gives-evidence-for-him-at-his-murder-trial-with-roger-rogerson-20160229-gn70mv.html#ixzz41emDZgpF
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