Serial killer 'swallows toilet part'
Serial killer Ivan Milat, serving a life sentence for the slaying of seven backpackers, has attempted self-mutilation for the second time in recent months by swallowing part of a toilet flushing mechanism, authorities said today.
Milat was rushed from his maximum security cell at Goulburn Jail to a public hospital three weeks ago after swallowing a spring from the toilet in his cell, said Kerry Mumford, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrective Services in New South Wales state.
Mumford said authorities would not by swayed by the killer’s attempts to have himself moved to a different prison.
In a previous attempt in February, Milat swallowed three disposable razor blades.
‘‘We want to manage him as best we can in humane conditions, so we’ll continue to monitor him, we’ll continue to work with him to stop him doing things like this, and we will continue to keep him in what we believe to be a humane fashion,’’ Mumford said.
Mumford said Milat’s hospital visit was brief.
‘‘He didn’t need a general anaesthetic, just a local, and he was in and out of the hospital in just three hours,’’ she said.
Milat was jailed for life in July 1996 for the kidnapping, shooting and stabbing of Australian, couple Deborah Everist, 19, and James Gibson, 19; German traveller Simone Schmidl, 21; German couple Anja Habschied, 20, and Gabor Neugebauer, 21; and British friends Joanne Walters, 22, and Caroline Clarke, 21.
Their bodies were found in makeshift graves in the Belanglo State Forest in New South Wales between September 1992 and November 1993.
