Ivan Milat’s family make bombshell claims about serial backpacker killer – as the government refuses to rule out fresh probe

The family of Australia’s most notorious serial killer has claimed that he was ‘framed’ over the murders of seven backpackers and have accused police of a cover-up.

Ivan Milat was sentenced to consecutive life sentences without parole over the murders of seven backpackers and hitchhikers between 1989 and 1992 in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney.

He was suspected of being responsible for dozens of other murders, which remain unresolved.

Milat died aged 74 of oesophageal and stomach cancer at Long Bay Jail’s hospital in October 2019.

Six years after his death, Milat’s family is still fighting to clear his name.

His nephew Alistair Shipsey claimed that his uncle’s arrest in 1994 occurred to avoid a national scandal and wouldn’t impact Sydney’s reputation, having just secured the 2000 Olympics.

‘I see they keep vilifying Ivan with no real proof, just stories,’ he told news.com.au.

Mr Shipsey claims that police failed to follow up on sightings of a kombi van, believed to be carrying UK backpackers, Carolyn Clarke and Joanne Walters, with a group of men before their deaths in 1992.

He claims the van was later found full of human blood in a storage yard in Sydney’s south-west before it was towed away, never to be seen again.

Mr Shipsey has released a new book, called Secrets Belanglo, which he says is the ‘only real story of Ivan Milat’ which aims to ‘get the truth out there.’

Carol Milat insisted her brother-in-law maintained his innocence while gravely ill on his deathbed, where he categorically denied committing the murders.

‘I said, ‘Look, I know you’re a Christian, you have Christian faith, and so do I … did you do it or not? Because if you want to speak to a priest, we can arrange it,’ she recalled.

Milat told his brother Bill and his wife that he didn’t need a priest because he had nothing to confess.

Ms Milat admitted that it was difficult to carry a name synonymous with the murders, adding that ‘you quickly learn who your friends are.’

Despite the family’s claims, former NSW detective Clive Small, who led the task force into the backpacker killings, said Milat did admit guilt to his mother, in a private moment, before she died in 2001. 

Evidence linked Milat to the backpacker murders after personal belongings of the victims were discovered inside his home.

Investigators also uncovered weapons consistent with those used to inflict the victims’ injuries at his western Sydney property. 

The family’s bombshell claims come after NSW Premier Chris Minns revealed that he was considering a parliamentary inquiry into Milat and other cold cases linked to him.  

‘I wouldn’t rule it out. I think that may be the necessary next step given the scale of some of the things that you’re mentioning,’ Minns told parliament this week.

‘It would be a privilege to meet victims’ families. I think that’s an important thing to do, to understand not just their circumstances and their anguish associated with the loss of their loved ones.’

NSW Upper House MP Jeremy Buckingham has pressed for further investigation and has led the push for a parliamentary inquiry, which he said would ‘shed more light on the darkest of chapters in this state’s history.’ 

Using parliamentary procedures, Buckingham gained access to previously unreleased police records, including a list of 58 missing persons cases once considered potentially connected to Milat.

The records show that Milat was involved in a number of incidents across the country.

They include the 1993 vanishing of German backpacker Nancy Grunwaldt in Tasmania, 18-year-old dental nurse Robyn Hickie in NSW in 1979, and 30-year-old Italian backpacker Anna Liva, who went missing in Coober Pedy in 1991.

The list stretches back to 1971 and includes victims as young as 14, raising renewed questions about possible links across decades.