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SYDNEY - A Sydney judge has rejected Ivan Milat's request for an inquiry into his convictions for murdering seven backpackers.
Milat, one of Australia's worst serial killers, had requested the inquiry into his 1996 convictions for the murders and one count of obtaining a person for advantage.
He
had sought an order in the NSW Supreme Court to have his case referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal.
But Justice Peter McClellan today rejected the application, saying there is nothing in Milat's application that provides any "doubt or question as to his guilt".
In rejecting the application today, Justice McClellan said Milat had provided no material that "would support the referral of this matter to the Court of Criminal Appeal".
"I have no unease and no sense of disquiet in allowing the convictions to stand.
"The material provided by the applicant does not raise a doubt or question about his guilt."
It was the second time Milat has tried, unsuccessfully, to have an inquiry into his 1996 convictions of the murder of seven backpackers and one count of detaining a person for advantage.
His application for an inquiry was rejected by the Supreme Court in October last year.
Milat is serving a life sentence in Goulburn's Supermax Jail for slaying the backpackers, who went missing between 1989 and 1992.
Their bodies were found in the Belanglo State Forest, in the NSW Southern Highlands, concealed in makeshift graves.
His victims were Deborah Everist and James Gibson, of Melbourne, German backpackers Simone Schmidl, Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer, and Britons Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke.
In his latest application, Milat sought an inquiry into his convictions, arguing the trial judge had directed the jury to act on evidence not established by the crown, Justice McClellan said in his judgment.
Milat also claimed that, when summing up to the jury, the trial judge had introduced evidence that was not established by the crown as being the evidence of British tourist Paul Onions.
Mr Onions gave evidence during the trial that he was kidnapped by Milat but managed to escape.
Justice McClellan said he supported the crown submission that Milat's claims had been dealt with previously in both the Court of Criminal Appeal and the High Court.
In 2004, Milat lost a High Court application to appeal his convictions.
He was not in court for today's decision.
- AAP
