Could more than 100 unsolved cold cases be linked to Ivan Milat? | A Current Affair

When Ivan Milat died, few people, if any, shed a tear.The backpacker killer went to the grave without making any admissions of his terrible crimes.Milat even refused to budge during a final police video interview just days before his death.Tonight, we'll show you more of that chilling interview for the first time, as debate rages over claims he murdered up to 100 people.

Today, Ivan is just about having a bit of a chat to see whether we can shed any light and get a bit of closure for some families out there.

He was the face of evil.

If you've got one religious man in your body, Ivan, and there's talk in the paper, and I don't know how true it is that you reckon you're going to heaven, mate, you're going to need someone to get a foot in the door, champ.I think it was five occasions that we interviewed him.

But to the very end, Molasse wouldn't budge.

The end result, Byvan, is that in three weeks or three months or however long you've got left on this earth after you've gone, mate, and in years to come after we're all gone, everyone left is still going to believe that you were responsible for those seven backpackers and probably for an abundance of others.

Retired Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Wayne Walpole and his team were the last police to quiz the backpacker killer.

He protested your innocence, but the jury found you guilty and 99 % of Australians believe you to be guilty.Completely arrogant.He showed no empathy.He cared for nothing but his own incarceration, basically.

In audio interviews during other meetings, Mallette maintained that arrogance.

Is there anything that you wanted to talk to us about at all, either?

With Malat close to death, Walpole thought the killer might confess.

We went in with expectations of that occurring because, you know, we'd been told he'd asked for a Bible.If everyone's got a soul, you might just kind of dig deep into that soul.

The seasoned homicide investigator also wanted to question Millat about a handful of other unsolved cases.

There wasn't a lot, there was half a dozen we wanted to discuss with him.

Among them, Amanda Robinson, Robin Hickey and Leanne Goodall, as well as Gillian Jamison and Deborah Balkin.Their bodies have never been found.

Deep down, you've got to realise that if you don't do the right thing in relation to some of these young girls, I reckon you've got no chance with a bloke upstairs.But it would be certainly good for the families to have some ID, perhaps some clothes.

On camera, Mallat feigned sleep.But during the audio recordings, he opened up.

There's no evidence, no police evidence or whatever.

He won't admit to the ones he was convicted of.He's not about to put his hand up to the ones that I'm talking to him about.

As cancer ravaged his body, Mallette remained tight -lipped.

I don't believe anyone is so devoid of decency that they would take to the grave the knowledge and location of people's loved ones.

Look, he didn't care one bit about victims or families.

Former Assistant Commissioner John Laycock helped set up the task force that eventually brought Malat to justice in 1994.

You would have thought, as he took his last breath, he might have just said something.He would not confess to anything.He wouldn't plead guilty to breathing.

Now, a parliamentary inquiry will examine explosive claims that Mallat could have been responsible for between 80 and 100 murders.

It's fanciful.It's totally inappropriate.It'll give families false hope.

The inquiry's the brainchild of legalised cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham.

It's like a boy scout trying to do a brain surgeon's job.

Excuse me, but some armchair critic with no expertise.in homicide investigations at all.

Was Ivan Milat responsible for far more deaths than we know?

We contacted Mr Buckingham, who declined our invitation for an interview.His controversial probe's been slammed by police and some families of homicide victims.

You've got to have some credible evidence, some fact -based evidence, if you're going to go down this road.

Would we have an inquiry looking at a man and what he may have done, who's dead now?

Martha Jabbaw is Chief Executive of the Homicide Victim Support Group.

What's to be gained by putting family members through an inquiry that can't compel anybody to do anything?

There's not a skerrick of evidence available to link him to any of those unsolved murders.

Laycock is a 37 -year police veteran and a barrister.He appointed Clive Small as the leader of Task Force Airwhich tracked Millat down.When Millat was arrested, detectives discovered he kept trophies of his murders.Tellingly, the only souvenirs that were located belonged to the seven backpackers.

I would imagine task force here wouldn't have just focused on the seven victims.

Surely their broad brush would have looked at other cases.Well, they did.They looked at all cases in New South Wales.Some did stand out.

I've reached the conclusion that Ivan Milat is a strong suspect for Karen's death.

Hugh Hughes is a retired British detective.His wife's cousin, Karen Rowland, was murdered in 1971.

I've spent eight years trying my best to rule Ivan Milat out.

Karen was 20 years old and five months pregnant.She went missing in the ACT.Milat was believed to be working in the Queanbeyan area at the time.

Once somebody comes into the frame as a suspect, you spend most of your time trying to rule them out.And when you can't rule them out, there is every chance that they are the person responsible.

We now have seven bodies recovered.We do have a serial killer.

Before Assistant Commissioner Clive Small died last year, he confided to Hugh Hughes that he suspected Mallette had murdered Karen.

I shared information with me that the New South Wales police had, which I've tried to get corroborated.through AFP.At one point they said this information didn't exist.

Hughes is here to present a 47 -page submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry.

Where we think there are holes and gaps.

He admits suggestions Malat was responsible for up to a hundred murders could be detrimental to investigations into some of those cases.

As we know, 98 % of all murders, the victim is some way connected to the offender, and they're pretty easy to solve.I've been around policing long enough to know you don't put all your eggs in one basket.

But he maintains Australian Federal Police investigations into Keren's murder were flawed.

I think they lacked the depth of experience to deal what has become a stranger murder.

Two other possible cases are those of Peter Letcher and Diane Panaccio, both hitchhikers who were murdered in the 80s and 90s.

We have come in here purely to try to get some closure and comfort for families out there who deserve it.

But investigators with intimate knowledge of the backpacker murders warn the parliamentary inquiry could be misleading and potentially damaging.

It's an avenue that should not even have seen the light of day.It should be discarded.

Former Assistant Commissioner Laycock is worried some evidence presented at the inquiry could mean the real killers will escape justice.

It's going to contaminate the current investigations and perhaps do some damage and stop matters being solved.

The people putting it up are just completely uninformed.It's just there's no credible evidence.

That can be quite reckless.and dangerous.

Andy Reid's sister, mother of two, Bronwyn Winfield, vanished from her Lennox Head home in 1993.The 31 -year -old is on the enquiries list.

I think it was just too easy to tick a box and just say, oh, it's just a runaway.

In your heart, though, Bronwyn was never a runaway?

No, no. 100%.She just devoted those two girls.It was the last thing that she would...She wouldn't have gone anywhere without Crystal and Lauren, no way.

Bronwyn's brother is openly critical of the initial police investigation.

There was no investigation, really, in Bronwyn's case.It was a bunch of boxers cheat a few people were spoken to.

While he thinks the Parliamentary Inquiry's motives are honourable, he doesn't want the ongoing investigation into Bronwyn's disappearance and suspected murder to be derailed.

There's already a noted person of interest by the New South Wales Deputy State Coroner.

And he agrees solvable investigations could be hampered if the Inquiry gets traction and the unsolved homicide team was handed scores of new cases to examine.

Last thing the police force need at the moment is to be swamped with heaps of other cases that probably don't really have the background or the evidence.

Martha Jabbaw fears some victims' loved ones will suffer as a result of the inquiry.

My advice to the Unsolved Homicide Unit is if they do not believe that reinvestigating these matters is going to bring any sort of justice for family members, my advice to them is do not touch them.

She's worried about the impact.the inquiry could have on murder victims' families.

They have an idea who might have killed their loved one, and when you throw Ivan Milat's name in the mix, it's actually taking police away from perhaps catching the real killer.And so there are going to be killers out there going, oh, I've got nothing to worry about because Ivan's going to cop it, and Ivan's dead.

She says many cases that the inquiry will highlight have already been thoroughly examined.

The important thing for us not to forget is every one of those matters has gone through a coronial inquest, which means another oversighting body has looked at that investigation.These investigations should be left to people who know the law, investigations, who know forensics, who know the science.

It's very well to speculate about who's done what, but you've got to have evidence capable of going to the Supreme Court.Beyond reasonable doubt, it's a very high standard.

This is about an opportunity that you're not going to have when the door closes.To me, this inquiry is setting a lot of people up, a lot of families up, to be devastated because it's false hope.There's no credible evidence.

But Walpole understands desperate families will seize any chance to find answers.

It's cruel.It's irresponsible.

And I think, isn't it all too easy to blame a dead man for all these murders?It's just a disaster.

And that parliamentary inquiry gets underway tomorrow.