Online retailer’s Ivan Milat T-shirt ‘disgusts’ families of serial killer’s victims

Families of Ivan Milat’s victims have been left devastated after an online retailer sold sick T-shirts referencing the serial killer.

An Aussie online retailer selling sick T-shirts carrying the logo “Milat Backpacker Hostel. It’s the journey, not the destination” has “disgusted” the families of the serial killer’s victims.

Redbubble was shamed into taking the T-shirts described as “wardrobe staples” off its website on Wednesday after being exposed by The Daily Telegraph.

Ian Clarke, whose daughter Caroline Clarke and her friend Joanne Walters were among the seven young backpackers murdered by Milat in the Belanglo State Forest, said he and Caroline’s mum had been left speechless.

Online company Redbubble has been selling the T-shirts on its website.

“Jacquie and I were speechless when we first saw the T-shirt,” Mr Clarke said from the family home in the north of England.

“The idea that someone can commercialise something so horrific disgusts us. We feel sure all decent minded Australians will treat it with the contempt it deserves.”

Victorian Tim Everist, whose younger sister Deborah was murdered while backpacking with her boyfriend James Gibson, said: “My only comment is ‘disappointing’.”

Melbourne-based Redbubble’s founder and non-executive director Martin Hosking, 62, is a former diplomat who made his money through tech companies, is a defender of human rights and a farmer, according to his Twitter feed.

Ivan Milat, who died in prison in 2019, was convicted of seven murders in 1996.

Redbubble sells products designed and created by third-parties and was revealed this week by The Daily Telegraph to be embroiled in a fresh copyright stoush in the Federal Court with the Hells Angels for selling novelty items carrying the bikie gang’s Deathhead trademark.

The global seller, which told the ASX in a statement this week that it was aiming for marketplace revenue of $1.25 billion in the “medium-term”, has backing from the big-end of town with shareholders including HSBC, Citicorp and banking group BNP Paribas.

One of its directors is businessman Ben Heap, who is also on the board of Colonial First State and the Star Entertainment Group.

Earlier this month Redbubble was also slammed for selling miniskirts and pillows with the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz printed on them, offering $69 T-shirts with black and white images of the site where 1.1 million Jews were killed between 1942 and 1945.

The online store also sells T-shirts relating to communism, anti-vaccination and worldwide motorcycle clubs.

Ivan Milat victim Caroline Clarke.

Ivan Milat victim Deborah Everist.

Ivan Milat victim James Gibson.

Road worker Ivan Milat, who died in a prison cell in 2019, was convicted in 1996 of the murders of Caroline Clarke, Joanne Walters, Deborah Everist, James Gibson, Simone Schmidl, Gabor Neugebauer and Anja Habschied, all aged between 19 and 22.

Victims’ advocate Howard Brown said the Milat T-shirts were insulting.

“You cannot legislate against stupidity and unfortunately that is exactly what this is. A case of pure stupidity because it is insulting to the victims and insulting to any person who has suffered at the hands of someone such as Milat,” Mr Brown said.

“It makes an absolute mockery of the people who actually died at his hand.”

Redbubble said in a statement that it used a combination of technology and human review to scan the millions of designs that were uploaded to the marketplace by independent artists.

“The design in question violates our user agreement prohibiting content that glorifies/trivialises violence or is insensitive to victims, and has been removed,” it said.

“We have also updated our proactive review measures in order to hopefully prevent similar content from being uploaded by users in the future. Redbubble encourages the community to report any artwork that potentially violates our content restrictions using the reporting function on each design, and we will review and take any necessary actions within 1-2 business days.”

Originally published as Online retailer’s Ivan Milat T-shirt ‘disgusts’ families of serial killer’s victims