A former New South Wales police detective who played a pivotal role in the arrest of notorious serial killer Ivan Milat has died aged 69.
Paul Gordon unearthed key evidence and was one of the arresting officers in the 1994 capture of Milat, infamously nicknamed the Backpacker Killer.
Despite being at the center of the investigation that brought Milat to justice, tensions with another senior police officer eventually resulted in Gordon being kicked out of the force and ending his days in relative anonymity as a taxi driver. Brisbane.
Peter Gordon said his brother brought a new perspective to Task Force Air, which had been set up to find the killer after seven bodies were found hidden in Belanglo State Forest in the southern highlands of New South Wales in 1992. .
“Paul was a different type of thinker and joined Task Force Air to investigate the murders after it had been running for a while and believed they were looking in the wrong places,” Peter said. The daily telegraph.
He recalled his brother traversing “mountains of paper”, which led to a report made at Bowral police station, where English backpacker Paul Onions said he had been hitchhiking when a man called “Bill” picked him up.
Seeing a rope and a gun in the car, Onions realized he was in serious danger and jumped out of the vehicle.
Milat chased him on foot down the Hume Highway, shooting, but Onions was able to flag down another motorist and escape.
Former police detective Paul Gordon, who some say was instrumental in the arrest of notorious serial killer Ivan Milat, has died at the age of 69.
Although Onions reported the incident to Bowral police station, the police took no action and filed it away undisturbed until Gordon dug up the report.
In 1993, the unsolved “Backpacker Killer” case was attracting global publicity, prompting Mr Onions to call Crime Stoppers Australia from England.
When Gordon discovered this, he was able to link it to the previous report.
Although Milat was strongly suspected of the murders, police had not been able to gather enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for his home.
However, when Onions was able to identify Milat, the police raided his home and found sufficient evidence, including possessions of the victims, to make an arrest.
Gordon was caught on television cameras on May 22, 1994 as one of the arresting officers.
“For a week, Paul was one of the most famous people in Australia with those images,” his brother recalled.
However, the head of Task Force Air, former NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Clive Small, has questioned whether Gordon played a central role in the arrest after the two police officers had a spectacular fight.
Peter claimed that his brother “was basically fired from the task force” shortly after Milat’s arrest and then “was left without the police force.”
Milat, nicknamed the Backpacker Killer, murdered at least seven hitchhikers and hid their bodies in a state forest.
“Instead of being treated as a hero, Paul was treated very poorly by the NSW Police at the time and fought for a long time,” Peter said.
“He had no pension or benefits and ended up driving taxis in Brisbane.”
Gordon was a consultant for a 2014 television series called ‘Catching Milat’, which portrayed tensions between him and Deputy Commissioner Small.
Peter said the show wasn’t entirely accurate, but admitted he gave his brother some of the credit he deserved.
Between 1989 and 1992, Milat kidnapped and murdered at least seven victims aged between 19 and 22: three Germans, two British and two Australians.
Milat died at Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Centre, where he was serving seven life sentences without parole, on 27 October 2019 at the age of 74.