VETERAN Sydney crime reporter Les Kennedy has died after a battle with cancer.
He passed away about 11am (AEST) today, Fairfax Media has confirmed.
Kennedy's collegues are posting tributes on the social media network Twitter and have decribed him as an extraordinary and brilliant reporter.
Colleagues of the 53-year-old offered their condolences to his family and many commented on his willingness to help young reporters.
"They broke the mould after Les. One of a kind," Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Hornery tweeted.
A fund raising benefit due to be held in Sydney this evening to honour Kennedy, who spent 35 years on the crime beat at News Ltd and Fairfax, is expected to go ahead.
CEO of News Ltd John Hartigan said,“Les is seemingly the last in a long line of reporters who devoted their entire career to crime reporting.
“His journalistic legacy is right up there with the some of the great names of Sydney crime reporting who worked in bygone eras. Names like Ced Culbert (Daily Telegraph), Noel Bailey (The Sun) and the legendary Bill Jenkings (Daily Mirror). He was up there with the best and will be sorely missed.”
He worked for Australian Associated Press in Sydney for three years after arriving in 1983 from Darwin, where he learnt his trade.
Kennedy was co-author of a well received book - Sins of the Brother - about Ivan Milat, who was convicted over the serial killings of seven hitchhiking backpackers in the NSW Belanglo State Forest.
Due to the type of stories he covered, Kennedy was always cautious about allowing his photo to be published.
He relented only last week, telling his editor: "At this stage of the game, I've got bigger things to worry about than crims coming to get me."
Fairfax's Sun-Herald newspaper on Sunday ran a picture by-line alongside what's believed to be his last print story - an exclusive on the 1997 disappearance and murder of Sydney woman Kerry Whelan.
His ex-partner and close friend Trish Croaker said that about a week ago, while the pair were going for a walk, he had discussed his legacy.
"He stopped and he said 'I don't want people to remember me like this - as a cancer sufferer'," Ms Croaker said.
"And I said to him, people will remember you as a legend - your family, your friends, you colleagues, everybody will remember you as a legend.
"Everybody that knew him understood his passion and his commitment and his dedication to getting an accurate story, to pursuing important stories that made a difference.
"He was highly principled and highly ethical and absolutely 100 per cent passionate about every story he did - didn't matter whether it was the smallest ambulance chasing story to a major scoop, to chasing down (paedophile) Dolly Dun in South Africa.
"That was really his hallmark."
Ms Croaker said Kennedy had worked until the end.
"As sick as he was, with only weeks to live, he just appeared in the newsroom," she said.
"He said to me on the day he got diagnosed, he said 'I want more great yarns' and that was part of what was keeping him alive."
