Ivan Milat was the face of evil, but to the very end he wouldn’t budge.

Retired homicide squad detective inspector Wayne Walpole and his team were the last police to quiz the backpacker killer.

Ivan Milat during one of his final police interviews with Wayne Walpole. A Current Affair

“[He was] completely arrogant, he showed no empathy, he cared for nothing but his own incarceration,” Walpole said.

When Milat was close to death, the seasoned homicide investigator thought the killer might confess.

He also wanted to question Milat about other unsolved cases including Amanda Robinson, Robyn Hickey, Leanne Goodall, Gillian Jamieson and Debra Balken.

Their bodies have never been found.

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On camera, Milat feigned sleep but during the audio recordings he opened up.

“There’s no evidence … No police evidence or whatever,” Milat told officers in one recording.

Walpole said Milat would not even admit to the crimes he was jailed over.

“He’s not about to put his hand up to the ones I’m talking to him about,” he said.

As cancer ravaged his body before his death, Milat remained tight-lipped.

Former assistant commissioner John Laycock helped set up the taskforce that eventually brought Milat to justice in 1994.

“He would not confess to anything, he wouldn’t plead guilty to breathing,” Laycock said.

Ivan Milat. A Current Affair

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

The inquiry is the brainchild of NSW Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham.

A Current Affair contacted Buckingham, who declined an invitation for an interview.

His controversial probe has 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,” Walpole said.

Homicide Victims Support Group chief executive Martha Jabour has also questioned the need for the inquiry.

“What’s to be gained by putting family members through an inquiry that can’t compel anyone to do anything?” Jabour said.

Inquiry ‘setting a lot of families up’ for devastation

Investigators with intimate knowledge of the backpacker murders have warned the parliamentary inquiry could be misleading and potentially damaging.

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

“It’s an avenue that should not even have seen the light of day, it should be discarded,” Laycock said.

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

Relatives of long-term missing people, including Andy Read, have also questioned the point of the inquiry.

His sister, mother-of-two Bronwyn Winfield, vanished from her Lennox Head home in 1993.

The 31-year-old is on the inquiry’s list.

Mother-of-two Bronwyn Winfield vanished from her Lennox Head home in 1993. The 31-year-old is on the parliamentary inquiry’s list. A Current Affair

“It was just too easy to tick a box and just say ‘runaway’, say ‘oh it’s just a runaway’,” Read said.

“She was just devoted to those two girls, so that’s the last thing that she would do.

“She wouldn’t have gone anywhere without Crystal and Lauren, no way.”

Winfield’s brother is critical of the initial police investigation.

“There was no investigation really, in Bronwyn’s case, it was a bunch of boxes ticked, few people were spoken to,” Read said.

While he thinks the parliamentary inquiry’s motives are honourable, he doesn’t want the ongoing investigation into his sister’s disappearance and suspected murder to be derailed.

He agrees solvable investigations could be hampered if the inquiry gets traction and the unsolved homicide team is handed scores of new cases to examine.

On camera, Milat feigned sleep but during the audio recordings he opened up. A Current Affair

“The 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,” Read said.

Jabour 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 re-investigating these matters is going to bring any sort of justice for family members, my advice to them is do not touch them,” she said.

She is worried about the impact the inquiry could have on murder victims′ families.

“They have an idea who might have killed their loved ones and when you throw Ivan Milat’s name in the mix, it’s actually taking police away from perhaps catching a real killer,” she said.

“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.”

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

Retired homicide squad detective inspector Wayne Walpole and his team were the last police to quiz the backpacker killer. A Current Affair

“It really disturbs me that this inquiry can get legs,” he said.

“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.

“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 is no credible evidence.”

SOURCE: https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/a-current-affair/ivan-milat-chilling-final-police-interview-20260610-p605np.html