Belanglo backpacker murders
In four incidents between December 1989 and April 1992, a total of seven backpackers disappeared while travelling south from Sydney. They were all travelling in circumstances where they were unlikely to have been missed for some time after they were killed. All had set out along the Hume Highway, near Liverpool, in order to hitchhike south. Their bodies were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest over a period between September 1992 and November 1993. Forensic evidence showed that each victim had been attacked savagely, with a great deal more force than was necessary to cause death, and apparently for some form of psychological gratification. The murders received international notoriety as the ‘backpacker murders’. In 1996 Ivan Milat was convicted of seven offences of murder and one offence of ‘detaining for advantage’.
For each of the offences of murder Milat was sentenced to penal servitude for life. For the offence of detaining for advantage he was sentenced to penal servitude for six years. Milat has appealed unsuccessfully against his convictions.