A former NSW police detective who played a key role in the arrest of notorious serial killer Ivan Milat has died aged 69.

Paul Gordon revealed key evidence and was one of the arresting officers in the 1994 capture of Milat, who was nicknamed the Backpacker Killer.

Despite being at the center of the investigation that brought Milat to justice, tensions with another senior police officer eventually led to Mr Gordon being removed from the force and ending his days in relative anonymity as a taxi driver from brisbane.

Peter Gordon said his brother brought a new perspective to Task Force Air, which was set up to find the killer after seven bodies were found hidden in Belanglo State Forest in the NSW Southern Highlands in 1992.

“Paul was a different kind of thinker and he joined the Air Task Force investigating the murders after he had been around for a while and thought he was looking in the wrong places,” said Peter. The Daily Telegraph.

He recalled his brother going through “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, Mr. Onions realized he was in grave danger and jumped out of the vehicle.

Milat chased him on foot along the Hume Freeway, firing shots, but Mr Onions managed to chase down another driver and escape.

Former police detective Paul Gordon, who by some accounts was instrumental in the arrest of notorious serial killer Ivan Milat, has died aged 69.

Despite Mr Onions reporting the incident to Bowral police station, police took no action and filed it away undisturbed until Mr Gordon unearthed the report.

In 1993, the unsolved ‘Backpacker Killer’ case attracted worldwide publicity, prompting Mr Onions to call Crime Stoppers Australia from England.

When Mr. Gordon discovered this, he was able to link it to the previous report.

Although Milat was strongly suspected of the murders, the police were unable to gather enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for his home.

However, with Mr Onions able to identify Milat, the police searched his home and found sufficient evidence including victims’ belongings, to make an arrest.

Mr. Gordon was caught on TV cameras on May 22, 1994 as one of Milat’s arrested officers.

“For a week Paul was one of the most famous people in Australia with those pictures,” his brother recalled.

However, the head of Task Force Air, former NSW police assistant commissioner Clive Small, disputed that Mr Gordon played a central role in the arrest after the two officers had a spectacular row.

Peter claimed his brother “basically got fired from the task force” shortly after Milat’s arrest and then “ran away from the police force”.

Milat, nicknamed the Backpacker Killer, killed at least seven hitchhikers and hid their bodies in a state forest.

“Instead of being treated as a hero, Paul was treated very badly by the NSW police force at the time and struggled for a long time afterwards,” Peter said.

“He had no pension or benefits and ended up driving taxis in Brisbane.”

Mr Gordon consulted for a 2014 TV series called “Catching Milat”, which depicted the 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 killed at least seven victims aged between 19 and 22 – three Germans, two British and two Australians.

Milat died in Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Centre, where he was serving seven life sentences without parole, on 27 October 2019, aged 74.