Former maximum security inmate reveals what Ivan Milat was like behind bars

A former bank robber who served his time at a maximum security prison with Ivan Milat has revealed what inmates thought of the serial killer.

A former bank robber who served his time at a maximum security prison with Ivan Milat has revealed what inmates thought of the infamous serial killer.

Russell Manser, an ex-inmate who now runs a support and advocacy group, was imprisoned after robbing five banks in the early 1990s, stealing $90,000 from a Commonwealth Bank branch in Lane Cove in Sydney.

He was sentenced to 15 years behind bars at the age of 23.

He said Milat’s short stature meant he was not a threat in prison, revealing a number of younger inmates at the Maitland prison took a shine to him and “wanted to hear all his stories”.

“Ivan Milat wasn’t a big bloke,” Manser said on social media.

“He would have been about five foot, nine inches, maybe 70kg. That’s not a real big bloke in jails, blokes are normally pretty big and fit.

“He obviously posed no real threat to anyone.”

Milat spent 25 years being ferried around NSW’s maximum security prisons and became known for starting armed riots and suffering from depression.

Manser said his mother was particularly disturbed when she spotted the backpacker killer and his handlebar moustache during a visit.

“My poor old mum... my mum was just a salt of the Earth woman and she goes ‘that’s Ivan Milat’,” Manser said, recalling that he asked if she wanted to meet him.

“She said ‘that bloke is the devil’,” Manser continued.

Manser said Milat was never in special protection to shield him from other prisoners.

“I didn’t really talk to him but others did,” he said.

“Some of the young blokes were fascinated by him, wanted to hear all his stories.”

Manser said he was much more cautious of Malcolm Baker, a man who killed six people and an unborn baby during the 1992 Central Coast Massacre.

He said Baker was “pretty f***ing pathetic” but “couldn’t be trusted”.

“He had really serious anger issues and he would have f***ing put a knife into you from behind,” Manser said, claiming that even the men imprisoned for the most heinous crimes became shells of their former selves in prison.

“Put a gun in their hand and they can be anything,” he said.

“But... in there they are just another bare bum in the shower.”

Milat spent the final year of his life suffering almost constant pain after his body became riddled with cancer – but was given “care and comfort” in the last weeks of his life.

Milat, 74, died in the hospital wing of Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Centre on October 27, 2019.

He had been suffering from terminal stomach and oesophagus cancer for almost a year when it eventually claimed his life at 4am that morning.

Milat spent 25 years being ferried around NSW’s maximum security prisons and became known for starting armed riots and suffering from depression.

The serial killer was serving seven life sentences for the horrific murders of seven backpackers, however Milat was also been linked to at least a dozen other unsolved murders.

He always maintained his innocence, refusing to confess to killing the seven people police were able to convict him on.

Milat was found guilty of killing the backpackers over a period of four years, picking them up as they were hitchhiking before driving them to the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney to murder them.

Milat was also convicted of kidnapping British tourist Paul Onions, who managed to escape from the serial killer’s vehicle.

Originally published as Former maximum security inmate reveals what Ivan Milat was like behind bars