'Friend' fights to visit Milat

Phil Denmeade persuaded authorities he could get Milat, 67, to admit to the murders of two Sydney nurses who vanished more than 30 years ago. Queensland-based Mr Denmeade was granted unique clearance for the Goulburn Supermax prison in New South Wales from April 2009 to May 2010 due to his involvement with the cold-case investigation 15 years ago, when he was a rookie policeman. He had at least six supervised meetings with Milat.

Now he has been banned from seeing the killer because he failed to give updates to authorities, who suspected he was compiling a tell-all book.

NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham said yesterday: ''A decision to grant access was made following verification from both police and a leading forensic psychologist who worked on the Milat case. That clearance was granted as an act of decency to two grief-stricken families desperately searching for answers. They were probably led to believe this was their last chance for answers and closure. He did not deliver on his promises.''

Mr Denmeade has dismissed suggestions he is writing a book as ''misguided''. He says he was making progress with Milat, despite the killer's initial suspicions of him, and is now seeking to regain access to the prison.

Milat is serving seven life sentences for murdering seven backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest, south-west of Sydney, between 1989 and 1992. But police have always suspected there were more victims.

After his 1996 trial, police began re-examining 16 unsolved murders and 43 missing persons cases they thought might be linked to Milat.

Among the cases were those of Sydney nurses Gillian Jamieson and Deborah Balkan, who disappeared on June 12, 1980, after leaving a hotel in Parramatta. The flatmates were last seen with a man dressed in dirty work clothes and a floppy black cowboy hat. At the time, Milat was living nearby and working at a road depot less than two kilometres from the hotel, a popular pub with road workers.

Ninety minutes after the pair left the bar, Ms Balkan called fellow flatmate Susan Gilchrist to say she and Ms Jamieson were headed to Wollongong with the ''gardener fellow''. It was the last contact anyone had with them.

Mr Denmeade received the files in 1997, and became convinced Milat was the killer. But disillusioned with community policing, he quit the force in 2001 for a new life up north.

When this reporter confronted him in 2010, he said: ''I knew this day would arrive sooner or later. Yes, I have something running … The bottom line is, there are still a lot of people whose disappearances, around that time, have never been explained. Some are likely [victims of ] Milat.''

It is now clear Mr Denmeade was given access to Milat by the NSW Corrective Services on the grounds he had previously worked on the case and wanted to ''seek justice'' for the families of the missing nurses.

A Corrective Services spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Denmeade's access was granted on the ''strict condition'' that visits be used for investigative purposes and a progress report be made to the NSW Police and Corrective Services. When he did not provide a report, access was stopped.

Last week, Mr Denmeade lodged an appeal against the decision - made in late 2010 or early 2011 - to terminate his visits. He says he is still hopeful of getting Milat to confess to killing Ms Jamieson and Ms Balkan.

"Everyone talks in the end … He now calls me a friend. That's a development and I believe there is a very strong chance of getting a result,'' he says. ''This is not about me. It's about … closure for the families.''