"No remorse": Ivan Milat dies aged 74
<p>Ivan Milat, Australia’s most notorious serial killer has died while serving seven life sentences for the murders of seven backpackers at 74-years-old. </p>
<p>Milat was diagnosed with terminal oesophagus and stomach cancer in May and was transferred for advanced pain relief treatment to Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital on October 11. </p>
<p>The terminally ill Milat had been under heavy guard surveillance in the intensive care unit but was returned to jail when it became clear that death was imminent. </p>
<p>New South Wales Minister for Counter Terrorism and Corrections Anthony Roberts told<span> </span><a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/"><em>The Daily Telegraph</em></a><span> </span>Milat had shown no remorse for his crimes and deserved no mercy on his deathbed. </p>
<p>Mr Roberts added he could “rot in hell”. </p>
<p>“He was sentenced to die in jail and he was going to die in jail,” Mr Roberts said.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t going to have him take up a public hospital bed. Both the commissioner and I were of that opinion.</p>
<p>“We had him removed from a hospital and sent back to Long Bay Jail. He can rot in hell.</p>
<p>“He showed no remorse. We ensured the sentence was carried out.”</p>
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<p>Milat has been in prison since being arrested in 1994 for the murders of seven backpackers whose remains were found in Belanglo State Forest. </p>
<p>He was convicted in 1996 and given seven consecutive life sentences. </p>
<p>Detectives have always feared his murder tally is much higher, with up to six more victims whose bodies have never been found.</p>
<p>Despite pleas from police and families of his suspected victims, Milat died with his secrets. </p>
<p>A spokesperson told<span> </span><a href="https://www.news.com.au/">news.com.au</a><span> </span>the serial killer was “found dead in his cell” just after 4am.</p>
<p>Milat’s victims were all hitchhikers travelling along the Hume highway, near Liverpool in Western Sydney.</p>
<p>His victims included Deborah Everist and James Gibson, both 19, from Victoria, Simone Schmidl, 21, from Germany, Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21, a couple from Germany, and Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22, from Britain.</p>
<p>Two of the victims were found shot multiple times in the head, as if though they were being used for target practice. </p>
<p>Another victim had been decapitated while three others had stab wounds that would have caused paralysis. </p>
<p>His other two victims had their spinal cords completely severed. </p>
<p>All but one of his seven victims had been subjected to “sexual interference, either before or after death”. </p>
<p>Ivan Robert Marko Milat was born on December 27, 1944 in Guildford, Western Sydney, to a Croatian father, Steven, and an Australian mother, Margaret.</p>
<p>He was the fifth of 14 children, brought up in a violent and financially struggling home.</p>
<p>By the time Milat reached 17-years-old, he had been sent to juvenile detention for six months on burglary charges, beginning adulthood in and out of prison for a number of theft offences. </p>
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<p>In 1971, he was accused of abducting two 18-year-old female hitchhikers. </p>
<p>He threatened them at knifepoint and raping one of them before they both escaped. </p>
<p>He was acquitted of his charges in1974, after his lawyer, John Marsden, accused the two women of being lesbians. </p>
<p>In 1990, Milat picked up a British hitchhiker by the name of Paul Onions, then aged 24, in Casula, near Liverpool, after introducing himself as "Bill".</p>
<p>Mr Onions managed to escape after Milat pulled a gun on him and he was rescued by a passing car and taken to a police station.</p>
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<p>Onions' account was remarkably not followed up by police at the time.</p>
<p>After an international appeal for information following the horrifying discovery of the bodies in theBelanglo State Forest, Mr Onions once again contacted police and was flown back to Sydney in 1994, where he identified a photo of Milat — by then of interest to police due to other tip-offs — as "Bill".</p>
<p>A few weeks after Mr Onions' identification, police raided Milat's home to find multiple incriminating possessions.</p>
<p>This included clothing, camping equipment and other items belonging to the dead backpackers, and various weapons and ammunition.</p>
<p>Milat was found guilty in July of 1996 of the murders of the seven backpackers and of the abduction of Mr Onions.</p>
<p>While it is believed Milat has a much longer list of victims, he kept his secrets closely to his chest and maintained his innocence. </p>
<p>His death means some of NSW’s unsolved murders remain a mystery.</p>