Ivan Milat 'CONFESSES': Terminally ill serial killer 'tells his mother and sister he committed the Belanglo backpacker murders'
- Ivan Milat reportedly confessed to his heinous crimes to his mother, Margaret
- With death close, detectives have been trying to extract a confession from Milat
- Claims come from a book written by a detective who headed the investigation
- Milat reportedly told his mother he is guilty in a jail visit before she died in 2001
Ivan Milat confessed to murdering a number of backpackers to his mother, while his little sister was also aware of his crimes and even helped 'get rid of' his gun, it has been revealed.
Time is running out for the serial killer to confess to police over the Belanglo backpacker murders in the 1980s and 90s, with the 74-year-old diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer in May.
Detectives have been hard at work over the past months, trying to extract a confession from Milat, who has always vehemently denied slaying seven people when probed by police.
But a lead detective in the case has revealed Milat confessed to his mother, Margaret, on a visit to the Supermax prison in Goulburn just before she died in October 2001, news.com.au reported.
Ivan Milat reportedly confessed to his mother, Margaret (far left), that he was guilty of the Belanglo backpacker murders
Clive Small, a top former NSW policeman and author of Inside Australia's Biggest Manhunt, claims Milat's youngest brother George managed to get information from their mother.
Mr Small presided over Task Force Air, which charged Milat for the murders of backpackers Joanne Walters, Caroline Clarke, Deborah Everist, James Gibson, Gabor Neugebauer and Simone Schmidl, who were found at Belanglo.
To the public, Margaret always staunchly denied Milat was responsible for the murders.
He was even her favourite among her nine sons and three daughters.
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Days before Milat was found guilty in 1996, Margaret publicly came to the defence of him and his other brothers.
'They were living here when those murders were meant to happen. I did all their washing, there was no blood. They're good boys,' Margaret said.
Ever since Milat did time in minimum security for robbery, his beloved mother continued to visit him in jail.
The last time Margaret visited him in 2001, he had just moved into the High Risk Management Unit, dubbed 'Supermax'.
Milat's escape attempts landed him in the new 'escape proof' prison.
Milat was seen for the first time in a decade in May when he was transferred from Prince of Wales Hospital, in Randwick, to nearby Long Bay Prison
Following Margaret's visit with her son, Mr Small says she went to have lunch with her youngest child George, who noticed a change in her demeanour.
George 'looked at her' and said: 'Mum, did he tell you something you didn't want to hear?'
'He admitted he was guilty,' George said Margaret replied.
Margaret died around October 10, 2001 at the age of 81.
Another family member who always professed Milat's innocence was his younger sister Shirley, who likely knew of his crimes.
Relatives acknowledged Milat had a close, if not sexual, relationship with Shirley, who he lived with in south-west Sydney when he was arrested in 1994.
Ivan Milat was convicted of murdering seven backpackers aged 19 to 22 in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney, and jailed for life in 1996
Camping equipment and the backpackers' belongings were found in the Eagle Vale home.
'Shirley was in on it. I can't really say Shirley did (commit murders), all I can do is say she was involved,' Small's books quotes George as saying.
'(There was) incest in the family … and Ivan had been having sex with Shirley since the 1950s when she was in her twenties'.
Another Milat brother, Richard, had said about Shirley and Ivan: 'What's the difference, one or the other, if you're doing it with your sister or your mate up the road?'
After Milat was arrested, Shirley reportedly gave an unlicensed .45 calibre pistol, which was hidden in the backyard, to her brother Walter and ordered him to 'get rid of it'.
Shirley died in 2003.
