‘Terrifying, draining, riveting’: Inside Australia’s trial of the century

The shocking deaths of young backpackers who were defiled, shot and dumped in Belanglo State Forest made Ivan Milat Australia’s worst serial killer. Here is how he defended himself before he died. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO.

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

The Daily Telegraph is giving its readers a front-row seat as we recreate the trial of the century.

I covered Ivan Milat’s 1996 trial in the NSW Supreme Court for the murders of seven backpackers and the abduction of an eighth and this podcast is the first time their testimonies from inside the courtroom have been told out loud.

As Australia’s worst serial killer, Milat has fascinated and disgusted people the world over as his killing spree ended the carefree way young Australians and international backpackers travelled around the country.

A former road worker, Ivan Milat was sentenced in 1996 to seven consecutive life sentences for murdering seven backpackers whose bodies were found in makeshift graves in NSW’s Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s.

The shocking deaths of those young backpackers who were defiled, stabbed and shot in the forest made Milat’s trial emotionally draining but it had everything that makes real life courtroom drama so riveting.

As early as 6am every morning, at every tea break and again at lunchtime, the public queued for a place in the old Banco Court in St James Road.

In the seats reserved for them, there was not a day when Milat’s victims were not represented by their families.

Victorians Deborah Everist and James Gibson, who were the first to go missing on December 39, 1989.

Germans Anja Habschied and her boyfriend Gabor Neugebauer, who disappeared on Boxing Day 1991.

Simone Schmidl, who had been travelling alone when she was last seen on December 20, 1991 hitching south from Sydney to Melbourne meet her mother who was flying in from Germany.

From 6am every morning, the public queued outside Ivan Milat’s murder trial for a place inside the courtroom.

And British friends Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters, who disappeared in April 1992.

Ivan Milat, 51, roadworker, fifth oldest in a family of 14, divorced, one daughter, had pleaded not guilty.

The Daily Telegraph’s four-part podcast has recreated the most dramatic moments of the trial including the evidence of the backpacker who got away, British engineer Paul Onions, two of Milat’s brothers Richard and Wally, Ivan’s then-girlfriend Chalinder Hughes and Milat himself.

It necessarily includes the disturbing details of the horrific injuries inflicted on the backpackers.

Originally published as ‘Terrifying, draining, riveting’: Inside Australia’s trial of the century