A car reported to be carrying Ivan Milat is seen leaving Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, Sydney, Australia on May 28, 2019. Photo: IC

 

Ivan Milat, one of Australia's worst convicted serial killers, has died in prison after spending 23 years behind bars for the murders of seven backpackers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, authorities said Sunday.

Milat, 74, was serving seven consecutive life sentences ­after being convicted in 1996 of killing two Britons, three Germans and two Australians in a case that made grim headlines around the world.

A spokesperson said Milat died early on Sunday, without disclosing the cause of death. Australian media ­reported that he had been undergoing chemotherapy since a cancer diagnosis in May.

The former road worker never admitted to the murders of the young men and women, some of whom were sexually assaulted, shot or stabbed. The bodies were found in shallow graves in a New South Wales forest. Milat was also linked to several other unsolved missing person cases, and died under suspicion of committing more crimes than those for which he was convicted.

While in prison, he remained in the news, cutting his finger off and attempting to post it to the country's top court, swallowing razor blades and swallowing parts of toilet flushing mechanisms.