Ivan Milat ‘diagnosed with terminal cancer, unlikely to return to supermax’

Notorious serial killer Ivan Milat is unlikely to return to the high security prison he’s been kept in after tests have reportedly confirmed he’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

According to 7 News, the 74-year-old – who was admitted to hospital on Tuesday – is battling with advanced stages of cancer and he will most likely spend his remaining time at Long Bay jail in Sydney instead of Goulburn Supermax prison, where he was kept in solitary confinement.

The ABC reports that testing was undertaken on a number of lumps found in Milat’s throat and stomach. The murderer was initially tested for multiple organ failure due to his rapid weight loss, but after further investigation, it was reportedly found he has advanced cancer.

Milat was transported 200km from the country’s most secure jail Goulburn on Tuesday to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, 7 News reports.

“We’ve made very strong security arrangements, we’ve got specialist teams to ensure that at any time there is an absolute guarantee of safety and security, both in the context of the person but also the context of the environment that the person has to be in for a period of time,” Peter Severin from Corrective Services confirmed to the news outlet.

It has been more than 20 years since Ivan Milat was handed seven life sentences after he was found guilty of murdering seven backpackers in New South Wales, making him one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers.

Read more: Notorious serial killer Ivan Milat under police guard in hospital

A jury found Milat guilty on July 27, 1996, for the murders of Caroline Clarke, Joanne Walters, Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied, Gabor Neugebauer, James Gibson and Deborah Everist, without the possibility of parole. He was also convicted of the attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of Paul Onions.

Onions, from the UK, had been backpacking in NSW in 1990 when the driver of a hitched ride, later identified as Milat, attempted to kidnap him at gunpoint. He managed to escape, before flagging down a passing car and reporting the incident to police.

Later, in 1993, Onions made a call to Task Force Air officers after seeing an international news report about the discovery of the bodies at Belanglo State Forest, setting the case in motion.

Milat made his latest bid for a case review in October 2017, however this was dismissed by NSW Supreme Court justice Megan Latham.

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