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Ivan Milat's brother tells of killer's first victim

The brother of Australia's most notorious killer Ivan Milat has broken a five-decade-long silence to reveal the murderer's first victim - a taxi driver he shot and paralysed in his first attempted "thrill kill".

A six-month investigation by The West Australian and Channel Seven's Sunday Night program found another man was wrongfully jailed over the shooting.

Boris Milat, who for decades tried to escape the Milat notoriety by changing his name and living quietly in country NSW, identified his brother's first victim on national television last night - and in doing so, made himself an enemy of the rest of the Milat clan.

In his words, Boris has gone against the "Milat code" by speaking out against his serial killer brother, who the rest of the family maintain is innocent and the victim of a conspiracy.

"They're a gutless lot," he said. "All the Milats know the truth.

"Every one of them . . . every one . . . knows the truth."

Importantly, "it" also means that Boris Milat has offloaded a secret that has eaten away at him.

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Last night, it was revealed that a young Ivan shot and paralysed Sydney taxi driver Neville Knight on March 6, 1962.

The discovery, which has been accepted by the police who caught Ivan Milat, rewrites what was previously known about the serial killer, revealing a new victim and a path of brutal criminality that began long before anyone suspected - when he was a teenager.

Milat was just 17 at the time and got away with the crime because Alan Dillon was arrested and jailed for the attack. Mr Dillon took the fall for the shooting, which featured signature characteristics of the later backpacker murders.

Milat was carrying a concealed gun when he hailed the cab in western Sydney in March 1962. After leading the taxi driver around the streets for several minutes, he fired a shot that went through the back of the driver's seat and into Mr Knight's spine, paralysing him.

Mr Knight survived but was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Police and court documents unearthed from the official archives in Sydney reveal that Milat was never on the police radar.

Instead, investigators had their sights set firmly on Mr Dillon, a petty criminal who - in a bizarre twist - made a false confession because he wrongly suspected his brother Brian had committed the crime and wanted to protect him.

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Until Mr Dillon was contacted by The West Australian, he had no idea that his brother was not responsible and that he had unwittingly done time for Ivan Milat's crime.

Boris Milat revealed that Ivan confessed to him the day after the shooting. Meeting Mr Dillon for the first time, Boris broke down and apologised for not coming forward earlier.

Ivan is serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without parole for murdering seven backpackers and abducting another.

Their bodies were found in the Belanglo State forest between 1992 and 1993 but police have always suspected there are other victims.

After the fresh revelations aired last night, Boris said he had now been able to "make peace" with the secret he had kept for so long.

He said he hoped Mr Knight's daughter Deborah Hutton would forgive him.