Detective says 'no doubt' over Ivan Milat claim

A detective reviewing Sunday Night's investigation into the shooting of a taxi driver 52 years ago says he believes Boris Milat's testimony that Ivan Milat was responsible.

Boris also told reporter Steve Pennells he believed Ivan committed 'more than double' the murders police knew about and kept the secret for 52 years to protect Ivan.

NSW Police have agreed to look into Sunday Night's revelation about the shooting of taxi driver Neville Knight in Sydney's west after new evidence strongly suggested it was committed by serial killer Ivan Milat.

Sunday Night last week aired the testimony of Boris Milat who said his brother told him he was responsible for the violent shooting many years before his backpacker murder spree that turned up seven bodies over two years.

The man who confessed to the crime and served six years prison for it, Allan Dillon, also thought he was protecting his little brother for 52 years until he was contacted by Sunday Night.

Dillon was shocked to discover he inadvertently took the fall for Australia’s most notorious serial killer.

He believed he was protecting his own brother who was under suspicion at the time.

Dillon had never asked his brother Brian if he had shot Neville Knight as police suspected, but took the fall for the crime.

"When I told my brother [after Sunday Night's investigation] he broke down and cried."

"I want people to know I never committed that crime."

Dr Steve Aperen, a former homicide detective who consults with the LAPD, FBI and Secret Service assessed both men's claims using an official two-hour polygraph test.

"After analysis of the charts there's no doubt in my mind that they're both in fact telling the truth on these issues," Dr Apering said.

"People try to fool it but if you know what to look for it is very obvious. They will deliberately hold their breath or move or engage in some sort of behaviour in an effort to distort the trace of these things. If you know what to look for it is very obvious."

Key police officers familiar with the case were also presented with the evidence that Ivan was behind this earlier crime.

"It would certainly have put him on the map in terms of a serious offender," said Clive Small, Lead investigator in the Milat Backpacker case.

Former Police detective Paul Gordon, who investigated and arrested Milat, has long believed he was guilty of more than the seven backpacker murders.

"I think it's unbelievable, incredible."

“This is an extraordinary story that rewrites what we thought we knew about Ivan Milat," Reporter Steve Pennells said.

"It was the brutal crime that shaped the man who would become Australia’s most notorious serial killer.

Boris said Ivan came home the night of the shooting and bragged about what he had done, and Boris had felt compelled to protect his little brother at the time.

"He said, 'they are blaming someone else, which is good'," Boris Milat told Sunday Night.

"I can remember till today exactly where I was standing when he told me, the look and how I felt sick in the stomach. I can remember that."

"I didn't think it was good but I didn't want to see him go to jail either, you know, I didn't want to see him harmed. He was my little brother."

A crucial piece of the puzzle was the link between Neville Knight's spinal injury and the fact that several of Milat's later victims were found to have been paralysed before death.

"The investigation took the better part of six months and began, innocently enough, with a small nugget of information from a forgotten crime more than half a century old," Pennells said.

Pennells took the evidence directly to the daughter of the victim who, for decades, has believed the right man had been punished.

"It's like growing up knowing the sky is blue and suddenly discover it has actually been red all this time," the victim's daughter says in the interview.

"If this man had been taken off the streets… life would have been very different."

Ivan Milat is currently serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without parole for the brutal murder of seven backpackers and the abduction of another.

Their bodies were found in Belanglo State forest in between 1992 and1993, stabbed and shot multiple times, and Milat was convicted in 1994.

Article: Philippa Lees