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Ivan Milat Hopeful of Again Being Cleared by New DNA Evidence

Anon | 14.12.2007 09:30

Ivan Milat, allegedly the 'Backpacker Murderer', has lodged another application for a review of his case. New DNA evidence may be tested by an eminent British archaeologist.

Posted December 11th, 2007 by Anon

Ivan Milat has lodged a new 474D application, which is an application to a judge for a review with a view to allowing an appeal.

He is currently not eating, as he has been refused a request to transfer
to the mainstream gaol population on the grounds of his outstandingly
good behaviour. Ivan has been on the highest level of trust for years
in the notorious H.R.M.U. prison in Goulburn, which does not conform to
international human rights standards. Ivan Milat has always treated prison officers with respect and has never been violent.

As readers would know, Ivan Milat and every member of his family have been cleared by the DNA
evidence which was examined some years ago. No member of the Milat family was in Belanglo Forest.

But Ivan Milat and his family have always known that further samples were being kept by
police which could also clear him of any involvement. The state
government was unwilling to pay the tens of thousands of dollars it
would cost to have these samples sent to England and tested. Ivan was
pinning his hopes on funding by the new Innocence Panel.

Now Dr Stuart Black, the U.K.'s foremost forensic archaeologist has developed a
technique to test hairs which has been hailed as a revolution in
investigations.

The technique developed by Dr Stuart Black involves chemical and
isotope analysis sectioning of hairs which can date the hair's owner,
how much growth it represents, what geographical region or country they
came from and even what their diet was at the time.

Matches can also be made to other samples if they are available.

Dr Black said yesterday the science was combining techniques usually
reserved for the identification of ancient remains and new forensic
technologies.

"It's a last resort in many ways and police will try standard
techniques such as DNA and various other ways before they come to us,"
he said yesterday. "It's a new packaging of techniques used for
identifying ancient humans and is relatively new for the forensic
world."

Of course, as we know, N.S.W. police do not want to try new
techniques. They have shown no interest in finding the 'accomplices'
which were spoken of during Ivan Milat's trial.

In fact during the trial it was admitted that no-one could prove
Ivan Milat had killed anyone. But the Crown's case was that there must have
been accomplices (however imaginary they sound!) and that these
accomplices certainly did kill the murdered backpackers, and since Ivan
Milat was allegedly present during the killings, he was just as guilty
as those who did murder these people, as he did nothing to raise the
alarm or assist them. So we have a whole group of people that the Crown
could not even prove existed who were used to convict Ivan Milat.

It seems to me a huge leap to find that the person who attacked and
robbed Paul Onions was the backpacker murderer. Who decided that this
person was? In any case, Paul's original description was of a very tall
man with dark hair in his 30s, a description that did not fit Ivan
Milat, and which police conspired to assist Paul to change. This
attacker was also described by another Hume Highway robbery victim,
B.N., whose story appears here on Indymedia. I am not saying Paul
Onions was dishonest: not at all. I am saying his evidence was severely
contaminated by corrupt police.

As well, Paul's original evidence was that the vehicle stopped and he got
out, and saw three armed men and a woman coming towards him. How did
this evidence manage to be covered up? This evidence places a woman at
the scene, at least of the Paul Onions attack. But it is only
conjecture whether this was related to the backpacker murders.

Remember that no murder weapon was ever found, and of the dozens of
guns owned by Milat family members, not one was fired in Belanglo
Forest.

Police 'evidence' included new backpacks and other items and during
the trial, police did not even attempt to say that these items had
belonged to the murdered backpackers. Instead, they held up these items
one by one stating "This is a backpack similar to the one owned
by......." "This is a sleeping bag similar to the one owned by....." In
the matter of the drink bottle, Caroline Milat states that the drink
bottle had nothing written on it when it was taken by police, but came
back from the police lab with 'Simi' on it.

As well, prosecutor Mark Tedeschi was instructed to inform the court
that these backpack brands were not available in Australia. This was a
blatant lie. Thousands of people owned backpacks of the same brands as
those found in Milat family homes. As well, a Next brand shirt was
found in Ivan Milat's home. It was stated that this must have been the
one belonging to Paul Onions, which was in his stolen backpack, because
Next brand shirts were not available in Australia. This was another lie
presented to the jury by Prosecutor Tedeschi at the suggestion of
police. No doubt Mr Tedeschi's job is not to find out if the police
'facts' are true, so he did not go down to Paddy Pallins to find rows
and rows of these backpacks on sale or to the shirt shop where he would
have found rows of Next brand shirts. Nevertheless I believe Mark
Tedeschi has a moral duty to now speak up about the evidence he was
made to present to the court which was false and misleading.

The most blatant planting of evidence by police was in the case of Simone
Schmidl's sleeping bag, camera and reading glasses. These were found
beside the highway in Victoria - which would back up a sighting by
railway staff in Albury of Simone which the Crown sought to discredit
and ridicule. Those railway staff are, to this day, absolutely certain
they saw Simone at the station. Simone's mother was interviewed in
Germany where she identified her daughter's property. This property was
later planted in Milat family homes and 're-discovered'.

The Benetton top, famously photographed being worn by Chalinder Hughes, was
known to have been purchased from a Sydney retail outlet by both the
prosecution and the defence. Yet that photo was still tendered as
'evidence' that Chalinder was wearing a murdered backpacker's top. On
close examination of the two photos, it is clear the tops are different
in design.

A blue day pack 'discovered' at Walter Milat's home
could not have belonged to Simone Schmidl, either. A Milat family photo
of the day pack predated Simone's death.

Dr Stuart Black has volunteered to test DNA material from Belanglo Forest.

Last month, Dr Black was called on by police to test two 9cm-long
hairs found five years ago in the hand of a murdered British woman. As
in the Milat case, conventional testing showed it was not hers nor
her killers but the case was reopened after Dr Black established it
belonged to another woman who had been travelling in Spain and southern
France.

The geographical match was done since hair breathes and environmental particles can be matched to established databases.

Dr Black said he was prepared to help NSW Police if approached.
Strands of hair found in the hand of Joanne Walters have not yet been
tested and may well reveal an alternative suspect.

It remains to be seen whether the N.S.W. governnment is willing to
allow Dr Black to intervene. The government has been more than happy to
let overseas tourists believe the backpacker murderer is locked up
safely in the H.R.M.U., Goulburn.

If these strands of hair are tested, I believe the DNA should be
compared with that of the other backpacker murders suspect W.M.K. who
lives in Lake Heights and is a convicted paedophile as well has having
a long history of violence not only in Australia, but in Toronto,
Canada, where he was gaoled for several years for a violent attack,
in England and in Greece where he lived with a woman called
Antigone, about whom nothing further is known. It is thought he
originally fled Germany following an incident where he attacked
someone. He entered Australia in early 1972 by lying on his application
for residency about his former convictions.

Police are holding samples of blood found in the boot of this man's
car in 1993 and these should be compared with the DNA of missing
persons' relatives or murdered persons. There were witnesses to W.M.K.
picking up and murdering hitch hikers from 1989 to 1993. Police have
interviewed the two witnesses and journalist Brett Martin, formerly of
The Bulletin, also interviewed the witnesses and recorded their
statements on tape.

It is vital that police get a DNA sample from W.M.K. It could solve a lot of unsolved crimes.

Ivan Milat has already been cleared by the DNA evidence once: let us see if
he is cleared yet again - and then whether N.S.W. judges will continue
to refuse him the chance to appeal on the grounds that there is new
evidence.

Anon

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