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…
Corrective Services officer about Ivan Milat’s years at Goulburn Supermax
‘Frank’’, a career Corrective Services officer now in retirement who knew Ivan Milat during his years at Goulburn Supermax has no illusions about the backpacker killer. “I’d describe him as nondescript,” Frank tells me about the jail’s most infamous prisoner. “He was nothing startling, to me he was just another crim who’d vacuum the hallways. In later years he was flat out stringing two words together.’’ But Milat’s idiosyncratic nature still left something of an impression as Frank remembers. “He did teach me how to recharge flat batteries,” he chuckles, still puzzled by Milat’s curious behavior. “Milat had a lot of tricks like that he’d picked up while working on…
Chalinder Hughes about Ivan Milat
Chalinder Hughes was born near Delhi but left with her Hindu family when a year old to settle in the Midlands of England. In 1978, at age 17, she migrated to Australia with her English fiance, married him in 1985 but parted away a few years later. “The marriage broke up after my husband had returned from an American holiday. He told me he had met someone else. The experience left me cautious about forming permanent relationships in the future. I settled for living a quiet life.” She met Ivan Milat in 1992 after working at a Sydney accountancy firm with his sister, Shirley. “I got on well with Shirley…
Ivan Milat and the rubber glove
On the first day of his cross-examination, June 17, 1996, Ivan was being asked about items found in his car. At the end of the day, after a very long cross examination, just before 4 o’clock, just before the court is about to rise, the prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi asked Ivan a question about a rubber glove also found in his car, “And I ask you did you wear it by any chance in the crimes in the Belanglo State Forest in order to prevent fingerprints being left?”. Ivan blew it, “I wore no …” he stopped himself. You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom. Tedeschi: “You wore no…
Ivan Milat cross-examination, 1996
Ivan Milat cross-examination by the Crown prosecutor, Mr. Mark Tedeschi on June 20, 1996 : I suggest to you that you disposed of Mr James Gibson’s gear in the Galston Gorge and that you knew that area? IM : I never disposed of nothing and I don’t really know that area. I suggest to you that you took Deborah Everist’s property and that that’s how her sleeping bag came to be in your home? IM : I never took nothing of hers and I don’t know nothing about her stuff at our place. I suggest to you that you gave her backpack to your sister-in-law, Joan, knowing that the real…
Ivan Milat and Chalinder Hughes
When asked by a policeman, “how do you feel about your boyfriend being the backpacker killer?”, Chalinder Hughes, who’s been dating Ivan Milat for 4 years, could not accept the police allegations about her boyfriend that were thrown around like stun grenades. “The description of the wanted person didn’t fit Ivan. He’s not into provoking people. A very calm person. Not violent and he doesn’t lost his temper. He would never strike a woman, let alone rape and murder. He has a great respect for women. This I know. Ivan is more likely to walk away than have an argument. This is the worst crime imaginable. I’d rather be dead than…
