Inquest reveals how notorious serial killer Ivan Milat died

The cause of death of one of Australia's most notorious serial killers has been revealed.

Ivan Milat, known as the backpacker killer, was serving a life sentence at Sydney's Long Bay Jail when he died.

A coronial inquest into his death ruled that at 4.07am on October 27, 2019 the 74-year-old succumbed to oesophageal cancer.

In the early hours of that morning, Milat was found unresponsive in his cell.

There were instructions not to resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead.

In the months and weeks leading up to his death the serial killer repeatedly refused treatment for his terminal cancer.

Milat was offered appointments with medical professionals including gastroenterologists but did not attend any until he was very sick.

The inquest also found his brother William found out about his death through media reports.

This lead to NSW Police changing their policy when notifying family about deaths, especially when it comes to high-profile cases such as Milat's.

In 1996, Milat, a former road worker, was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences for murdering seven backpackers.

His victims were British friends Joanne Walters and Caroline Clarke, Melbourne couple Deborah Everist and James Gibson, German Simone Schmidl and German couple Anja Habschied and Gabor Neugebauer.

Their bodies were found in makeshift graves in NSW's Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s.

The deaths would become known around the world as the backpacker murders.