Terminally ill serial killer Ivan Milat moved to Long Bay jail hospital
The former prisons boss who kept Ivan Milat under lock and key for most of his time in jail said the serial killer would likely take his grisly secrets to the grave.
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- End is near for evil serial killer Ivan Milat
- Ivan Milat’s victims, murder secrets and his painful death
Serial killer Ivan Milat has been taken back to Long Bay Jail to prepare for a painful lingering death from cancer.
Looking gaunt after his weight plummeted to 64kg, Milat has been able to drink soup again after an emergency operation to open his oesophagus, or “food pipe”, while in Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital.
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Under heavy police guard and chained hand and foot, Milat, 74, was driven at speed in a Corrective Services Extreme High Security Escort Unit 4WD back into Long Bay at 12.34pm, on Tuesday. He is expected to remain in the top-security hospital wing alongside other notorious elderly prisoners, including murderer Neddy Smith, who has Parkinson’s.
MONTHS TO LIVE
Dressed in prison greens, Milat could be glimpsed in the back seat with his head bowed. He has been given about three months to live and is expected to return to Prince of Wales Hospital for more treatment, sources said.
He was taken from Goulburn Supermax to the Randwick hospital about two weeks ago unable to keep food down after his oesophageal cancer spread to his stomach and his weight dropped by 20kg.
He lost another 2kg before his operation. Oesophageal is one of the most painful cancer types and survival rates are low.
But his family who have been to see him said he was feeling “100 per cent” and denied reports he was in the early stages of dementia.
“Mum says he’s right on the ball, switched on,” his oldest nephew Alistair Shipsey said on Tuesday.
Mr Shipsey’s mother Dianne, who changed her name from Olga Milat, is Ivan’s oldest sister and visited him last week with other family members.
“Mum says he’s going real good, he’s not dying,” Mr Shipsey said. “Mum says he’s just real skinny.”
‘UNCLE INNOCENT’
He said his Uncle Ivan maintained he was innocent of murdering the seven backpackers from Australia, Britain and Germany whose bodies were found in the Belanglo State Forest in the early 1990s.
“He doesn’t want to die. He wants to clear his name.”
Milat has been in jail since he was arrested in 1994.
In 1996 he was given seven life sentences after being convicted of killing the backpackers who were raped, stabbed, shot and, in one case, beheaded, between 1989 and 1993. In 1971 he was acquitted of abducting two backpackers and raping one.
He has also been linked to over a dozen unsolved murders of young men and women while he was working on road gangs across NSW highways. Most of their bodies have never been found.
Milat’s only daughter, Lynise, 52 — who was born after Ivan had an affair with his brother Boris’s wife — said her mother Marilyn was pleased he was doing better.
“Long Bay has been expecting him back since middle of last week but they wanted to keep him in (hospital) a little longer for tests,” Lynise Milat said on Tuesday.
“He’s a fighter.”
But her son, Adrian Milat, was not as caring: “Mate I couldn’t give the slightest f … about that c. t or whether he lives or dies to be frank. Better off dead anyway and save the taxpayer some dinero.”
Police and the families of his victims had been hoping for some deathbed confessions about who his accomplice in the Belanglo State Forest was and what happened to the other young people whose disappearances up and down the eastern seaboard were linked to Milat.
A police source on Tuesday said they would talk to Milat if there was any indication that he had anything to offer.
“But we are not going and waste our time and let him tell us that he is an innocent man,” the officer said.
Inquests have subsequently linked Milat to the disappearance of a number of young people while he was working on road gangs in their area.
Even in hospital, Milat is either handcuffed or cuffed by his ankles as is the usual procedure for high-risk inmates during medical treatment.
In 2011, Milat lost 25kg on a hunger strike in an attempt to get a PlayStation in his cell.
In 2001, he swallowed paper staples and a small metal chain from a pair of nail clippers and in 2009 was taken to Goulburn Hospital after cutting off a finger with a plastic knife.
‘HE’S A GRUB’: EX-JAILER SAYS MILAT NEVER SHOWED REMORSE
The former prisons boss who kept Ivan Milat under lock and key for most of his time in jail said he believed the serial killer would likely take his grisly secrets to the grave.
“I won’t be able to sleep nights worrying about him,” the notoriously tough Ron Woodham said facetiously on Tuesday.
“He has shown no remorse and I don’t think he will ever tell the truth of what really happened.”
While Corrective Services NSW won’t comment on Milat’s condition or how he will be treated now he is in Long Bay Hospital citing privacy concerns, Mr Woodham said he would probably have one of the rooms on the wards to himself.
Mr Woodham, who retired as Corrective Services Commissioner in 2015, said the 100-bed prison hospital provided the same care as a public hospital but Milat would probably have to return to Prince of Wales Hospital for more treatment.
He was famously criticised in 2006 for allowing Milat to have a toasted-sandwich maker in his cell at Goulburn’s Supermax. It was part of the punishment and reward system used with prisoners in the High Risk Management Unit.
Milat was put on suicide watch and the sandwich maker was returned.
“Who was going to feed him (without the sandwich maker) because no officers of mine were going to feed him,” Mr Woodham said.
Mr Woodham said Milat was not allowed to post anything on the walls of his cell and didn’t read books. So what did he do all day?
“He looked in the mirror and told himself 100 times a day he was innocent,” Mr Woodham said. “He’s a grub.”
— Janet Fife-Yeomans
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