Ivan Milat’s brother tells why the 'evil' murderer killed seven backpackers
The brother of serial murderer Ivan Milat believes his sibling was motivated by financial gain, but ultimately his love for killing led to him taking the the lives of at least seven backpackers.
Milat, 74, who had been in prison since 1994, died at Long Bay Hospital at 4.07am on Sunday following a battle with oesophageal and stomach cancer since May.
The former road worker was sentenced in 1996 to seven consecutive life sentences for murdering seven backpackers whose bodies were found in makeshift graves in NSW's Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s.
He murdered three German, two British, and two Australian backpackers after giving them rides while they were hitchhiking.
His brother Boris Milat told Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes while his family believes Milat was innocent, a 12-year-old child would be able to determine his brother was guilty with all the evidence on the table.
He said his brother’s lack of empathy meant he was primed to become a cold-blooded killer.
“It would have been a bit of money involved.. it would have been the joy of killing too, that would have been involved. There’s a thrill, the anxiety... but most of all he could get away with it,” Mr Milat revealed.
“His love came from killing people.”
He said his family, who believe the police set Ivan Milat up, have exiled Boris for his beliefs.
"I'm putting it out there on the family now, these mongrels hate my guts because I'm the one guy that speaks out… I just want the truth out there."
“This man is just evil right to the last bone of him. He was dead to me a long time ago.”
Why Ivan Milat wouldn’t confess to police
Milat went to his grave maintaining he was innocent of the crimes, despite detectives trying to extract a confession from him right up to the end.
Former Detective Clive Small, who led the investigations which led to Milat’s arrest, said if the convicted killer had any decency he would have shown it by admitting his guilt and clarifying a number of outstanding issues. But Mr Small said he believed there was a reason he did not.
"Ivan, having information that he knew others didn't have, he saw himself as being the boss or in control of the situation," he told 2GB radio.
"I think he believed that once he gave that information up he no longer had the power."
Police still believe Milat may have been responsible for other murders carried out with similar characteristics, including three people whose bodies were found in three other forests from 1971 to 1991.
Milat ‘can rot in hell’
NSW's corrections minister Anthony Roberts said on Sunday Milat can rot in hell.
"Both the Commissioner and I were of the same opinion that he shouldn't be taking up a precious public hospital bed," Mr Roberts said in a statement.
"As soon as he could be removed from the public hospital and sent back to Long Bay Prison, he was."
"He can rot in hell. He showed no remorse."
The father of 21-year-old British backpacker Caroline Clarke, who was among those killed along with her friend Joanne Walters, 22, said the family thinks of his daughter every day.
"We still think of Caroline every day but it doesn't mean to say we have to think of Milat every day," Ian Clarke told AAP from his home in Northumberland earlier in October.
Of the killer's demise, he added: "It's a horrible way for anybody to end their life, but then it was even more horrible the way our daughter and so many others lost theirs, so sympathy isn't high on the list, I'm afraid."
No closure for victims’ families
Mr Clarke said a belated confession, and disclosure of where any other bodies were disposed, could bring some kind of closure to other families who he feels "desperately sorry for".
"If he was to finally face up to the fact and admit to any others that he has done, if indeed he has, then I think that would be a wonderful thing for those parents, because for the short time that we didn't know, I know just how they must be feeling," he said before Milat’s death.
He added that he and his wife, Jacqueline, had been thankful to be able to bury their daughter.
"It was in its way a form of closure, that we'd found her and we were able to lay her to rest properly," he said.
"It's these other parents who don't have the luxury of being able to do that."
As well as Ms Clarke and Ms Walters, Milat was convicted of killing Melbourne couple James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, and German backpackers Simone Schmidl, 20, Gabor Neugebauer, 21, and Anja Habschied, 20.
With AAP
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