(Matthew Milat. Picture credit: The Telegraph)
*Please be aware that I will be sharing some disturbing details in this post which will involve domestic violence, s*xual assault, torture and murder. As always, I have tried to be as sensitive with the details of this horrific story without taking away the facts of the case. If you need to contact me I can be reached at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com*
On further investigation, it turned out that Paul had been a backpacker in Australia previously and reported being abducted by a man named 'Bill' in 1990 who just happened to fit the description of Ivan Milat. This indeed was the case. Ivan (calling himself 'Bill') had previously picked up Paul and was playing Mr Nice guy offering to take him to his location. However at some point during the journey 'Bill' went from being friendly to complaining about tourists and making racist remarks. Paul started to feel uncomfortable and noticed that Bill had suddenly changed in his demeanour as they drove closer and closer to what Paul would later discover was on the way to Belanglo State Forest. When Paul asked 'Bill' what was going to happen, 'Bill' made it appear that he was going to just rob him and let him go, however when Paul spotted a rope in the backseat of the car he realised that this was something far more sinister. Paul decided to jump out of the car and make a run for it, as he did so he ran in a zig zag fashion as 'Bill' now had a gun in his hand. Paul managed to get into another car and luckily escaped, he gave is statement to the police where it remained on file for a long time.
It was back home in England when Paul saw a newspaper article about the backpacker murders and took it upon himself to fly to Australia to help identify their number one suspect...Ivan Milat. After a positive identification, Ivan was charged and faced trial for which he was found guilty of all 7 murders and sentenced to life for each victim. The court and investigators still believed he did not act alone. In prison, Ivan signed his letters with the words 'Ivan The Innocent'. Ivan pointed the fingers at other family members and in particular 'Richard', his brother who is often suspected to have been Ivan's real accomplice. Richard had previously bragged to work colleagues that ''Stabbing a woman is like cutting a loaf of bread'' and that he knew that there was more bodies that had not been found yet. Richard also had belongings of the deceased victims in his house and helped Ivan remove guns when they found out that he was under surveillance from the police.
In a bizarre interview with 60 Minutes Australia from 1996, Richard along with one of Ivan's sisters and her husband claim to support Ivan, that Ivan is 100% innocent and that they are not involved in any murders. All of this despite the fact that Richard was helping Ivan store victim's belongings, move guns, bragged about stabbing women and more victims unidentified. In this interview, Richard (who comes across as quite shady, argumentative and defensive at times) pleads ignorant to everything and claims he doesn't remember saying anything about stabbing women or other victims. Ivan's sister (who was caught changing dates on photographs to try and provide Ivan with alibis on the dates of missing backpackers) bangs on about how she believes he is innocent and will always stand by him until he tells her otherwise. The husband sat next to her was no better (he seemed a bit terrified and kept repeating the word 'there' every 2 seconds). This was what I was meaning earlier on in my writing about this case, that his family is like a cult.
So much like a cult, that it is frightening how this thrill of committing crime and murder has continued to grow in that family that continues to further expand. Drama continues with the Milat family and distant relatives with various petty crimes but it is Ivan's great-nephew, Matthew who's the latest Milat member to grab the newspaper headlines for all of the wrong reasons.
Matthew idolised his uncle Ivan so much so that the 19 year old studied the murders (or was given privy information by other family members, you be the judge) and decided that he was going to step into Ivan's shoes and commit a murder.
(Ivan Milat. Picture credit: The Guardian)
Together with an accomplice (Cohen Klein), Matthew and Cohen lured a 17 year old boy (David Auchterlonie) to the Belanglo State Forest in 2010 on the victim's birthday and killed the poor boy with an axe. The two monsters even recorded the horrific killing on a mobile phone.
In typical Milat fashion he couldn't wait to brag about how he had followed in his uncle's footsteps and said to a friend:
''You know me, you know my family...I did what they do'' - Matthew Milat.
Matthew Milat was sentenced to 43 years in prison to serve at least 30 years. Cohen Klein pleaded guilty to the murder and was ordered to serve 32 years with the possibility of parole in 22 years. Cohen is also 19 years old and the pair are still alive and serving time in prison. Even when Matthew was arrested, members of the Milat family came to support him and they still support him now with regular visits and communication.
The Milat family are a family of secrets who will cover up for each other but are also known to point the finger at others in certain cases. Ivan was important to them almost as if he had become the head of the family especially more so when their father died. The only Milat sibling to speak out against the family and Ivan was Ivan's estranged brother 'Boris' who's wife had an affair with Ivan. Boris claims that he knew that Ivan wasn't 'normal' from the age of 10 and always believed that he would go on to kill someone.
Boris claims that he is nothing like Ivan or his family and has reportedly changed his name in an effort to distance himself over the years and knows that the Milat name has a bad reputation attached to it.
So, do you think that Ivan Milat had an accomplice? Do you think it was Richard or someone else? Leave your thoughts below or email me at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com, I would love to hear your thoughts on this case.
It's heartbreaking to know that these young people who were on, what must've seemed like a trip of a lifetime to Australia ended up losing their lives in such a horrific way. I also feel heartbroken for the families and these stories about backpackers going missing, being robbed, murdered, assaulted are not just something that has occurred in Australia. We've seen this happen all over the world even to this day.
(The known victims: From top left: Deborah Everest, Anja Habschied, Simone Schmidl. From bottom left: Joanne Walters, Gabor Neugebaur, Caroline Clarke and James Gibson. Colllage credit: The Guardian)
Backpacking is something that has never interested me, in fact it scares me because it's a dangerous world that we live in no matter what era of time, 70s, 80s, 90s and now, you'll hear a story of something sinister that has happened involving backpackers in any part of the world. I think that when we travel we can be at our most vulnerable at times. We have to try and keep each other safe and really think about the pros and cons of visiting lands that are unfamiliar to us to ensure our safety.
RIP to known victims... James Gibson, Deborah Everist, Simone Schmidl, Gabor Neugebauer, Anja Habschied, Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters. If there are unidentified victims still out there, I hope and pray that one day that they are found or that a member of the Milat family speaks up once and for all and tells the truth. My thoughts also with the families of the victims, the survivors and Paul Onions who was incredibly brave and selfless in his effort to bring a monster to justice. RIP to David Auchterlonie
(Belanglo State Forest. Picture credit: Wikipedia)
Further Reading & Sources:
Thank you as always for taking the time to read this two part article on this case, I really appreciate it.
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