Serial killer denies his guilt in ‘deathbed’ letter
A CONVICTED serial killer who murdered a Welsh backpacker has protested his innocence from his deathbed.
Aussie Ivan Milat, one of continent’s most notorious criminals, was sentenced in 1996 for the slaying of seven tourists including Joanne Walters from Maesteg.
Yet the 74-year-old, who is in the advanced stages of terminal cancer, has penned a rambling three-page letter from his deathbed denying that he committed the atrocities for which he was handed seven life sentences 25 years ago.
Writing to local newspaper The Sun-Herald, Milat refused to accept responsibility for the bodies of Joanna and six others being found in shallow graves in a forest near Sydney between September 1992 and November 1993.
Instead, he denied the insurmountable evidence presented against him at his trial and insisted he’d been set up by local police and was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
“Framed by Small and co. (and) a malicious court trial,” it began, referencing Clive Small, the former New South Wales detective who led the investigation.
Milat added that he’d also been thwarted in his subsequent attempts to launch appeals against his conviction. “I strive to overcome their bastardry, I have on occasions seriously jeopardised my life to overcome their utter unreasonableness,” he wrote.
Milat then went on to describe how he had “a less than 50 per cent chance” of surviving his illness and added that his life was now “in the hands of my carers and, of course, Our Lord in Heaven”.
A weapons-obsessed former road worker, Milat had picked up Joanne and friend Caroline Clarke in his 4X4 after he spotted them on a rural stretch of the Hume Highway – which links Sydney and Melbourne – in Easter 1992.
It was the last time the two women were seen alive, their bodies later being discovered crudely buried five months later.
Joanne had been stabbed nine times. Caroline, from Northumberland – found alongside her – had been shot in the head and knifed.
The following year, police launched a huge search of the 40,000-acre Belango State forest and found five more victims.
Milat’s arrest finally came when another British backpacker, Paul Onions from Birmingham, told police he had a lucky escape from him several years before.
Mr Onions revealed he had been travelling around Australia when Milat offered him a lift to go fruit-picking.
However, when he stopped the vehicle and pulled out a length of rope and a gun, Mr Onions fled for his life, managing to flag down a passing motorist and make his escape.
As the years passed – and despite the fact several of his victims’ belongings, along with the firearm that killed them, were found at his house – Milat never admitted his crimes and always continued to claim he was blameless.
However, speaking recently on Melbourne’s 7News, ex-assistant police commissioner Small admitted he only wants to hear one thing come out of Milat’s mouth before he dies.
“If he had one scrap of decency in him at all, he would confess,” he said.