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Interview with Chalinder Hughes
The following interview was published in Who Weekly, August 5, 1996. At the beginning of their relationship Milat and Hughes often went to the movies, dinner or to visit members of his family. “He liked staying at home quite a bit because he was pretty tired from work. He took me to Darling Harbour and Circular Quay on occasions.“ They didn’t see much of each other during the week, but spent many weekends together. On the weekend of May 22, 1994, Chalinder Hughes was staying with Ivan at the home he and his sister Shirley shared on Eagle Vale when the now-famous Task Force Air police raid was made. “From…
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Ivan Milat’s Younger Years
“These people like Milat are consummate actors,” forensic psychiatrist Rod Milton, who advised Task Force Air during their 20-month hunt for the killer, said. They “present themselves as loving and kind and nice. It’s very interesting to think that some of these serial killers’ families, when they find out, sever all connections. Others closes ranks.” By and large, Milat’s family has thus far stood by him, and so has his former girlfriend. Actor he was. Through his sheer energy and cowboy charm, Milat exerted a certain charisma that captivated and bullied those close to him and, like the distractions of a good magician, served to veil evil impulses that he…
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Wally Milat : My Brother Ivan
Less than a month after Ivan Milat’s arrest for the Backpacker Murders, his younger brother, Wally Milat, gave an interview to Who Weekly. The interview was published in the June 13, 1994 edition which was subsequently banned for showing Ivan’s face to the world. On growing up Like most of the Milat children, says Wally, Ivan left school at 15. “He’s always been in road work or construction work. He did work in construction for a while, digging foundations and things like that. He worked all over Sydney. About that time my dad was in the construction game and most of the work was jumping onto a train and riding…
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Margaret Milat about Ivan
The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Ivan Milat’s mother, Margaret Milat, before the verdict of the trial in 1996. She hoped beyond hope for a verdict of not guilty. “But if Ivan is innocent, then they’ll go and arrest Richard. They’re both innocent. They were living here when those murders were meant to happen. I did all their washing, there was no blood. They’re good boys.“ Mrs Milat, still lives in the yellow weatherboard house in Guildford where she and her late husband, Croatian-born Stephen, raised 10 sons and four daughters — not without the help of one of them, a conscientious little boy called Ivan. “He wasn’t the oldest boy,…
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Ivan Milat first months in Jail
Following his arrest on May 22, 1994, Ivan Milat was sent to the Metropolitan Remand Centre at Long Bay Jail while awaiting trial. Former prisoner Ian McDougall, who shared a cell with Milat for seven months, summed him up this way : “With Ivan you never had to worry about sleeping with your eyes closed. You share a cell with a bloke for 12 to 15 hours a day, you get to know them, their thoughts, their secrets. You develop a bond. He’s so typically average that he stood out from other prisoners, many of whom are on drugs or scheming and scamming. He was naive. Sometimes he would slap…
