Ivan Milat family still in denial about serial killer’s guilt

He was sent to jail for the murders of seven backpackers but Ivan Milat’s family still support the serial killer, claiming he was framed. Milat was one of 14 children and although his brother Boris believed he was guilty, the rest of his family, including his mum, publicly proclaim his innocence.

• Serial killer Ivan Milat dies
• Inside the mind of a serial killer
• Families of victims united by grief

Ivan Milat’s family remain in denial about his guilt.

“He was an all-round nice bloke,” one of his nine brothers, Bill Milat, told The Daily Telegraph.

The remarkable theory still uniting almost the entire swarm of Milats is that their brother and uncle was framed for the savage murders of seven backpackers, one of whom was beheaded.

“We don’t believe for one second that he did it,” Bill, 72, said.

The chief defector among Ivan’s siblings was brother Boris Milat, 77, who believed Ivan was guilty.

Bill Milat still believes his brother Ivan is not guilty of the backpacker murders. Picture: ABC

Bill claims Boris had reason to hate Ivan after he discovered Ivan was the real father of his daughter Lynise, the “love child” of a lengthy affair between Boris’ first wife Marilyn and Ivan.

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But there were 14 Milat children to Croatian emigrant father Steven and his Australian wife Margaret, who overwhelmingly believed the man they call “Mac” was innocent.

“They’ve fitted him up without a doubt … If Mac did this he is in the right place, we would have no qualms with that,” Bill said.

Lynise Milat (left) and stepfather Boris Milat, Ivan Milat's brother pictured in 1987.

Growing up, the 10 Milat boys were a tight group, not to be messed with on the grounds of St Mary’s Covenant School and later over the road at Liverpool Patrician Brothers.

Their sisters were a shy, retiring lot.

At home in Moorebank, Steven reportedly ruled with an iron fist, ready to dish out a hiding to the children without a moment’s notice while Margaret defended her boys at all costs.

Just as he now denies his brother’s killings, Bill Milat denies reports the family setting was violent or depraved.

Ivan Milat holding a WW1 vintage machine gun at the home of his brother Alex in 1983.

“We had a terrific upbringing, never any violence. You listen to Boris and there was brawls and everything but there was none of any of that,” he said.

“Boris doesn’t like Mac, Mac has had an affair with Marilyn. It started in 1968, the affair was going all the time until he was arrested, on-and-off.”

He claimed it was still unclear if Ivan was Lynise’s father.

“We don’t know that’s 100 per cent, a lot of that’s speculation,” Bill said.

He claimed Marilyn “threw herself at Mac”, which he said was typical of Ivan’s effortless success with women.

“Mac had never chased a girl himself, they chased Mac. Mac had a very good charisma about him, a gentleman always,” Bill said.

Ivan Milat was diagnosed with cancer while in prison.

Lynise Milat is believed to be Ivan’s love child.

The Milats still claim they can account for Ivan’s whereabouts on Boxing Day 1991, saying he was at a family do at their mother’s then-home in Guildford, the same day German backpackers Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21, checked out of a Kings Cross hostel then vanished.

“There were three cars parked behind his, he couldn’t have got out that day … we were there all day, we have photos,” Bill said.

Bill Milat says his brother Ivan had an alibi at the time of Anja Habschied’s murder.

Habschied’s decapitated body was found in a shallow grave near her boyfriend’s remains in the Belanglo State Forest two years after they went missing. As the NSW Supreme Court was told during his 1996 trial, the problem for Ivan was his face was nowhere to be seen in those Boxing Day family photos.

Another hole in the case, according to Bill, was the evidence from Paul Onions, the British traveller who escaped as Ivan tried to tie him up at gunpoint in the Southern Highlands town of Mittagong on January 25, 1990.

“Paul Onions said there was a spare wheel on the back of his car … he never had a spare wheel on the back,” Bill said.

Bill was heading west with wife Carolynne in their motorhome when Corrective Services rang in mid-May to say Ivan had been moved to Prince of Wales Hospital and had a fortnight left in his battle with cancer.

“At Goulburn, I would see him every month for the last 25 years since he was arrested,” Bill said.

“He was 83 kilos. When I saw him last time he was 66 kilos, now they tell me he’s just above 60 kilos.”

Five of Milat’s siblings are now dead and at least two — Boris and sister Olga — changed their names after their brother’s conviction.
Bill said he remained proud of the name “Milat”.

Convicted backpacker murderer Ivan Milat died in jail.

One of the last public photos of Ivan Milat before his death. Picture: Diimex

“I’ve never been harassed or anything. Anything crook that’s happened to me has been on me,” he said.

“We travelled around Australia and people here the name Milat and ask if we’re related and I said ‘yes he’s my brother’.

“Once Mac’ dies it’s the end of the story for us and we get on with it.”

MILAT’S WIFE

From being 16 and pregnant to one of his cousins when she met Ivan Milat, his wife was given a new identity and placed into witness protection after Milat was arrested.

Her family last week continued to protect her even as her former husband was on his death bed.

Karen Milat had remarried and was divorced again when police went to talk to her in May 1994 but she was a minefield of information that closed the net around Ivan Milat.

He was 31 and fresh out of jail for armed robbery when they met through Karen’s brother. He was gun crazy and went shooting in Belanglo State Forest.

Karen Milat was placed into witness protection and changed her name following Ivan’s arrest.

He carried a gun in a holster and called himself “Tex”. He often had a moustache that went round the side of his mouth down to the middle of his chin down each side — like the cricketer Merv Hughes.

When she once challenged him in front of a friend, he put a gun to her head and threatened he would shoot her if she ever did anything like that again.

When he saw a girl hitchhiking, he told Karen the girl was “going to get rooted, killed and rooted”.

He brought her son up as his but after the couple split up in 1987 following a violent row, Milat threatened to burn her mother’s house down if she didn’t tell him where Karen was living.

A year later, a fire at her mother’s home destroyed the family car and garage.

When their divorce was finalised in October 1989, Milat felt humiliated in losing control of Karen. Two months later the first of the seven backpackers were abducted and killed in Belanglo.