Milat 'had female accomplice'
Posted by Joe on July 15 2005 10:37 AM
Not alone ... Ivan Milat after his conviction in 1997 SERIAL killer Ivan Milat was helped by a woman in his backpacker murder spree, his former lawyer has told The Saturday Daily Telegraph.
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Not alone ... Ivan Milat after his conviction in 1997 SERIAL killer Ivan Milat was helped by a woman in his backpacker murder spree, his former lawyer has told The Saturday Daily Telegraph.
The explosive claim was made by solicitor John Marsden - who is suffering cancer - in a deathbed interview at his Sydney home.
Mr Marsden said he has always been plagued by his decision to act for Milat in the 1970s on rape charges, saying seven young tourists could be alive today had he not been acquitted.
He said that while Milat "probably" killed the backpackers, he definitely did not act alone.
Mr Marsden said: "Ivan's a weirdo. I don't know whether he did it or not. Yes, he probably did it. But I don't think there was a brother involved, it was definitely a woman."
He would not - or could not - elaborate on the woman's role in the sickening killings.
The Saturday Daily Telegraph has been told the accused woman's identity, but she cannot be named for legal reasons.
Australia's worst serial killer is serving a life sentence in Goulburn's Supermax prison for the murder of seven backpackers between 1989 and 1992.
After torturing and murdering his victims, Milat buried them in shallow graves in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney.
It has long been suspected he killed others and could not have carried out his gruesome work alone, but until now the attention has centered on his brothers.
Milat's trial lawyer, Terry Martin, told the jury that "blind Freddie" could see Milat's brothers Richard and Walter played some part in the killings.
Both men deny any involvement in the murders.
But Mr Marsden's claim is the first time a woman has been mentioned as Milat's accomplice.
Mr Marsden told The Saturday Daily Telegraph he had recently discussed his theory with investigators involved in the case, including former Superintendent Clive Small, who captured Milat.
Mr Marsden was Milat's lawyer for 20 years until 1994, when the killer sacked him without explanation, shortly after his arrest.
In an extraordinary admission, Mr Marsden said he now regretted going out of his way to get Milat off rape charges in 1974.
Had he been convicted on those charges, jail might have prevented Milat's killing spree.
"If I hadn't done everything to get Ivan off that charge I could have been struck off as a solicitor," Mr Marsden said.
"Do I think those lives would have been saved? Ivan might have been out by then, so maybe, maybe not. Do I ever think about it? Yes."
In an ominous sign of what was to come almost two decades later, Milat picked up two girls in 1974 at Casula, in Sydney's southwest, and drove them to Belanglo.
He tied them to a tree and raped them, but they later led police to their abductor.
In the middle of the trial, Mr Marsden said he happened to see the two victims kissing in a wine bar and raised it in court.
"When it got to cross examination I said to them: 'Last night you were out with the other lady, getting rather close to her, weren't you?' " Mr Marsden said.
"Well ... people didn't like the idea of women kissing and those girls had no case after that.
"Yes I regret it, playing the gay card, but you put yourself in my situation as a lawyer and you would do the same."
Mr Marsden, suffering inoperable cancer, has just undergone a full bone marrow transplant.
He could live another 15 years if the treatment works, but will die within months if it fails.