Australian serial killer dies

AUSTRALIA’S most notorious serial killer Ivan Milat, whose murder of seven young backpackers in the 1990s terrified the country, has died in hospital, officials said

Sunday.

Milat was serving consecutive life sentences for the brutal killing spree took place near Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

A spokeswoman for Corrective Services New South Wales said in a statement that the 74-year-old died at Long Bay Hospital at 4:07 am on Sunday.

He was diagnosed with terminal stomach and oesophagus cancer in May and had been in hospital to receive pain relief since October 11, according to national broadcaster ABC.

His seven confirmed victims were Britons Caroline Clarke, 21, and Joanne Walters, 22, Australians James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19, and German backpackers Simone Schmidl, 21, Anja

Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21.

In each case, he had offered the young hitchhikers a lift, stabbed or shot them in thrill killings and buried the bodies in shallow graves in a forest in the NSW southern highlands.

Milat was arrested in 1994 following one of Australia’s biggest police investigations, which was sparked by the discovery of the bodies in 1992 and 1993.