Ivan Milat
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Ivan Robert Marko Milat (born December 27, 1944 in Newcastle) is a serial killer who murdered several tourists and hitchhikers in the 1990s in New South Wales, Australia. The killings were dubbed the backpacker murders by the press at the time. Milat is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of seven hitchhikers, several of whom were international backpackers.
Ivan Milat had been acquitted on rape charges in 1971. His lawyer at this time, John Marsden, claimed in July 2005 that Milat was helped by a woman in his murder spree.
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[edit] Backpacker murders
In September 1992 the bodies of British tourists Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke were found buried under twigs and ferns in an area known as "Executioners drop".
In October 1993, two more bodies were discovered along the same stretch of the remote Belanglo State Forest. The bodies were identified as those of 19-year-old James Gibson and Deborah Everist, also 19. Both had gone missing in 1989. It then became apparent that a serial killer had been responsible for all these murders.
On 1 November the same year, a fifth body was found, identified through dental records as Simone Schmidl, a 20-year-old German national who had vanished in January 1991.
More than 300 police officers conducted a search of the area on November 4, and found two more skeletons, identified as the remains of 21-year-old Gabor Kurt Neugebauer and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Anja Susanne Habschied, German tourists who had vanished two years previously. Habschied had been decapitated. Police revealed that all victims had been killed by multiple stab wounds.
Forensic examinations of evidence gathered at the scene revealed cartridges from a .22 Ruger rifle near Clarke's body. These were tested against cartridges that had been taken from a farmhouse outside Sydney. A possible eighth victim was provisionally added to the list in November. An examination of unsolved murders turned up the name of Diane Pennacchio, a 29-year-old mother whose body had been found in bushland in 1991. She had been stabbed to death and the body had been placed face down with hands placed behind her back near a fallen tree, as had those of the previous victims. A triangular canopy of sticks had been built over the bodies and covered with ferns.
It was not until the end of February 1994 that there was a breakthrough in the investigation. A 20-year-old woman stated to police that while backpacking in January 1990 in New South Wales she was offered a lift, which she had accepted. While in the vehicle the driver had behaved strangely, and she got out of the vehicle and ran into the Belangalo State Forest. As she ran, the driver fired shots at her, but missed. A second witness, British tourist Paul Onions, told police that in 1990 he accepted a lift from a driver in the same area, who then produced a gun from the glove compartment of the vehicle. As he ran, the driver fired shots at him. Onions was able to identify the driver from police photographs and identify the vehicle.
The murders may have inspired parts of the 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek.
[edit] Arrest
In May 1994 police carried out dawn raids on seven properties, taking three men into custody. One of these men was 49-year-old Ivan Milat, who was charged with armed robbery and discharging a firearm; he was later to be charged with the murders. Another was Milat's brother Walter. During the raids police found a .22 calibre rifle that matched the type used in the backpacker murders.
Ivan Milat appeared in court for the initial robbery and weapon charges on May 23. He did not enter a plea. On May 30, following continued police investigations, Milat was also charged with the murders of seven backpackers. At the beginning of February 1995 Milat was remanded in custody until June that same year. In March 1996 the trial finally opened and, in July, he received seven life sentences, one for each of his victims.
[edit] Appeals
Ivan Milat appealed against his convictions on the basis that the quality of legal representation he had received was too poor, and therefore constituted a breach of his common law right to legal representation, established in the landmark case of Dietrich v. The Queen. However, Gleeson CJ, Kirby P and Mahoney JA of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal held that the right to legal representation did not depend on any level or quality of representation, unless the quality of representation were so low that the accused were no better off with it. The Court found that this was not the case, and therefore dismissed the appeal.
In 2004, Milat had an application to the High Court heard by Justice McHugh. The orders sought were that Milat be allowed to either attend to make oral submissions in an impending appeal for special leave to the court and that, alternatively, he be allowed to appear via video link. The application was dismissed on the grounds that the issues raised could be adequately addressed by written submission.
The grounds of his impending appeal were that the trial judge had erred by allowing the Crown to put a case to the jury unsupported by its own witnesses and had also put forward alternative cases to the jury, one of which had not been argued by the Crown. McHugh J [1]indicated that this appeal may be defeated because it has been brought out of time.
[edit] Further controversies
In June 2006 Milat was embroiled in controversy when it was found that he had a television and toaster in his prison cell. Martha Jabour, leader of a group calling itself the Homicide Victim's Support Group, described the privileges as "an insult to the families of his victims". The privileges were quickly withdrawn after a media campaign stirred up the NSW Parliament and Department Of Corrective Services. [2] After his privileges were withdrawn, he again threatened suicide, and was moved to a "safe cell" and placed under 24-hour video surveillance.[3] [4] However, the NSW authorities changed their minds and returned the television and toaster to Milat on the grounds that he should be rewarded for "good behaviour". This followed from a review carried out on the orders of NSW premier Morris Iemma. This has once again caused consternation among the families of some of Milat's victims. "He didn't give any privileges to any of our children," said Ian Clarke, the father of English backpacker Caroline Clarke who was murdered by Milat. [5]
[edit] Other possible murders
In May 2005 Boris Milat (one of Ivan's older brothers) said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Australian Story "wherever Ivan has worked, people have disappeared". He also said when asked how many people he thinks Ivan killed, "about 20 or so..."
At present there are 10 unsolved murder cases where Ivan is a suspect. If all ten are proved, the 17 murders would make him the second worst murderer in Australian history behind Martin Bryant, who shot 35 people dead at Port Arthur in 1996.
[edit] References
- Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy (1998) Sins Of The Brother
- Australian Story: Into the Forest Part 1
- Australian Story: Into the Forest Part 2
