Even after his death in prison, Ivan Milat’s chilling crimes haunt Australia

Ivan Milat, whose grisly serial killings of seven young backpackers horrified Australians in the early 1990s, has died in a Sydney jail.

Ivan Milat smiles in a police car after attending court, on 4 November 1997. Source: AAP

Ivan Milat and the Belanglo State Forest; an evil man and a pine plantation inextricably linked and etched into the darkest pages of Australia's modern history.

Milat murdered seven young backpackers and dumped their bodies in the 3800-hectare forest south of Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

He died early on Sunday in Long Bay jail's hospital from oesophageal and stomach cancer.

While cancer took the elderly prisoner's life, his victims were slaughtered in the prime of youth.

"These seven young persons were at the threshold of their lives, with everything to look forward to - travel, career, happiness, love, family, and even old age," said Justice David Hunt who jailed Milat for life in 1996.

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