The father of a British backpacker murdered by Australia's most infamous serial killer says his family tries to keep Ivan Milat out of their minds.
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As Milat lies in Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital with terminal oesophageal and stomach cancer, Ian Clarke has no sympathy but hopes for a deathbed confession to bring some form of closure to parents of other possible victims.
Mr Clarke's daughter Caroline and her friend Joanne Walters were among the seven young backpackers Milat killed and dumped in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney between 1989 and 1992.
"We still think of Caroline every day but it doesn't mean to say we have to think of Milat every day," Mr Clarke told AAP from his home in Northumberland.
Of the killer's demise, he added: "It's a horrible way for anybody to end their life but then it was even more horrible the way our daughter and so many others lost theirs, so sympathy isn't high on the list, I'm afraid."
Mr Clarke said a final confession and admitting where any other bodies were disposed of could bring some kind of closure to other families, who he said he feels "desperately sorry for".
"If he was to finally face up to the fact and admit to any others that he has done, if indeed he has, then I think that would be a wonderful thing for those parents, because for the short time that we didn't know, I know just how they must be feeling," he said.
He added that he and his wife, Jacqueline, had been thankful to be able to bury their daughter.
"It was in its way a form of closure, that we'd found her and we were able to lay her to rest properly," he said.
"It's these other parents who don't have the luxury of being able to do that."
Milat, 74, was convicted in 1996 and given seven life sentences, but a former police officer who led the team that captured him has said he is suspected of at least another three murders.
He has always maintained his innocence.
As well as Ms Clarke, 21, and Ms Walters, 22, Milat was convicted of killing Melbourne couple James Gibson and Deborah Everist, both 19 and German backpackers Simone Schmidl, 20, Gabor Neugebauer, 21, and Anja Habschied, 20.
Milat was diagnosed with cancer in May and reportedly has days to live.
Australian Associated Press
