true crime

At 20, Ivan Milat had an affair with his brother's wife. They had a daughter together.

Update: Ivan Milat, widely known as one of Australia’s worst serial killers, has died in prison, aged 74. Milat was diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer in May 2019, and was briefly treated at Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, before being returned to Long Bay Correctional Centre. He died in the medical wing of the prison on October 27.

Lynise Milat loves and accepts her father Ivan Milat, but admits she’s doesn’t always like him.

The 54-year-old lives on the New South Wales Central Coast, and has told the Daily Telegraph she doesn’t believe her dad deserves to be dying in pain in hospital.

The 74-year-old serial killer has weeks to live and is dying from terminal oesophagus and stomach cancer.

He has been in prison since 1996 when he was sentenced to life without parole for the murders of seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest.

He has never confessed to his crimes, something the NSW Police Minister is urging him to do on his deathbed.

Here’s some of the news coverage from his hospitalisation. Post continues after video.

Video via Seven

He’s currently at Prince of Wales Hospital, and AAP reports he won’t be returned to his former home inside Goulburn’s maximum security prison. He might, however, go to Long Bay Hospital inside the jail at Malabar.

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“I don’t think when I look at him, ‘Did he, didn’t he?’. I think he’s an arse and a character but he’s brutally honest, that’s not to say I always like him,” Lynise told the publication.

“But I will always love him. I don’t want him to die, he doesn’t deserve to be dying in pain in hospital, I’d rather not … see him.”

Lynise’s mother is Milat’s brother’s wife, Marilyn. She found out the truth about who her father was after his arrest, and sold her story to Woman’s Day magazine.

The affair between Ivan and Marilyn lasted 11 years, and when Lynise was born Boris Milat believed she was his daughter.

He told The West Australian in 2015 about how he took a rifle to Ivan’s home, with the intention of killing his younger brother, when he found out the truth, and yet raised Lynise as his own.

During the same interview, Boris made no secret of the fact he was looking forward to Ivan’s death, remarking that he “hoped he passes before me”.

He admitted he doesn’t love his brother, because in his eyes that would be like “me forgiving him”.

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Ivan Milat in 1997. Image: Getty.
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In the recent interview with the Telegraph, Lynise said of her family, "some don’t speak to us and I’ve had counselling for it".

On the topic of her father's crimes, Lynise is sceptical.

“If the police suspected him, why did they take so long to charge Ivan and allow him to build himself into a serial killer they say he was and let kids get murdered?" she asked.

"I do not know if the police have got the wrong man. I know he’s a smart-arse… but I don’t know if he is of the calibre of a serial killer."

Despite these comments, Lynise doesn't visit her dad, but she rejects reports he has dementia.

Milat appealed his sentence numerous times over the decades and has staged several hunger strikes.

He even chopped off his little finger with a plastic knife in 2009 with the intent of mailing it to the High Court.

Milat has been linked to numerous murders and missing persons cases over the years, but police have never been able to prove his guilt beyond the seven backpacker murders he was convicted for