Ivan Milat is escorted from hospital by prison officers to be returned to Goulburn Prison. Milat received treatment at the hospital for his left pinky finger that he severed and put into an envelope to send to the High Court in Canberra.

Milat has been corresponding with his Sydney-based nephew Alistair Shipsey from the country’s most notorious maximum security prison since 2002.

Mr Shipsey self-published The Milat Letters in Australia last year but now the book is about to be released in the UK after being picked up by a major publisher.

In the letters viewed by news.com.au, Milat whinges about his cell resembling an “enclosed cement box”.

He explains why he hacked off his own finger with a plastic knife and addressed it to a judge in 2009.

According to Milat, he knows how to get what he wants behind bars. Hunger strikes, self-harm and displaying aggressive behaviour are two of his favourite tactics.

Handwritten letter from Ivan Milat in Goulburn Supermax Prison.Source:News Limited

He also claims to get his “share of women” who write to him in search of love.

But according to Milat, he’s not interested in romance. Some of the women are “crazy f**k (s)”. In fact, he’s not overly interested in anyone other than himself, professing to avoid other inmates as he shares his views on them.

The killer’s words do not give any mention of sympathy for the families of the seven young backpackers he killed in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

They were abducted, shot, stabbed and one was decapitated while she was still alive, her head was never found. Police believe some of the backpackers may have been raped.

Milat is serving life without parole in Goulburn's Maximum security jail for the murders of his victims.

He has been described as a “highly manipulative inmate” by prison authorities.

But that hasn’t stopped him from reaching out to those on the outside and convicincing at least one person — Mr Shipsey — of his alleged innocence.

NSW Belanglo state forest where serial killer Ivan Milat killed seven backpackers in the 1990s. Picture: Adam TaylorSource:News Corp Australia

Extracts from letters written by Ivan Milat to his nephew Alistair Shipsey:

HEALTH

March, 1, 2003

“Things are pretty ordinary here. The tinnitus — my hearing defect — is really getting to me at times, severe noise sending me crazy at times, makes me think of weird things.”

PRISON CONDITIONS

May 10, 2009

In here they use what’s called the safe cell to break you down. It’s a total enclosed cement box, a lot smaller than an ordinary cell, no openings of any kind, nothing in it, cannot tell whether it’s day or night, cannot hear anything. I refuse to eat so after a couple of days of it, I don’t give a f**k. So I choose my way, and I don’t regret it at all and will do it again when meanness and unreasonableness is used against me.

Letters written from Ivan Milat’s maximum security jail cell reveal an insight into the mind of Australia’s worst serial killer. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

CUTTING HIS FINGER OFF

June, 2009

For seven days after I chopped my finger off, I was locked away (safe cell?) light on 20 hours a day, no idea of time. It’s in a cement box, no windows or openings. The best way I deal with that sh*t is don’t eat, and after a couple of days I had all that pain in my hand, so after a couple of days I didn’t give a f**k what happened. It took seven days to negotiate as usual once I agreed to start eating.

February 2009

I never cut my finger off to go anywhere; I was surprised at them wheeling me into that hospital. It was my way to say how f**ked the court system is. I’ve been told a lot of people had a lot to say about why I did it; I didn’t see or hear any of that sh*t they had me well and truly out of the way, and I didn’t see sunlight for a week later.

Pictures inside Goulburn's Maximum security jail. This board shows all the high-risk prisoners in maximum security.Source:News Limited

HUNGER STRIKE

March 1, 2004

At the moment I’m on a protest here. I started on 25 February a hunger strike (I’m bloody well hungry). No food eaten, only drink of water, coffee. I’m too old for this sh*t and my body is in poor shape particularly as I’ve done it before (to get anything, this is what I have to do). This time it’s only about the Carr government’s continuous attacks on me simply to further discredit me (if that’s possible).

FAN MAIL

“I get my share of women, writing to me some real good-looking ones, too (if it’s their photographs they’re sending). For some reason they all say they around 20 to 30 years old, though their writing suggests they’re much older. I’m very careful in my replies. I’m not real keen on writing to young ones. If you get your book up, you have to devote some chapters on what and why they write to prisoners, and weirder is that sheila I got charged for rape in 1970.

April 2005

“To me it’s a puzzle (why women write to me). I often get them, even had some crazy f**k from Mulawa prison (I used to write to her in the past, she was doing a few years and got out, but lasted about three months). She started writing again; in her last letter she asked me to marry her. I haven’t replied to her.”

Convicted serial killer Ivan Milat smiles in a police car after attending a court in Sydney in 1997.Source:AP

ECONOMY

April 22, 2008

“Even in here we notice the price of things going up. F**ken rice used to be $2.10 for a kg; now it ís $4.08 a kg. I don’t buy the stuff but a lot of the lads do, and we are restricted to 2kg a buy-up.”

MILAT’S VIEWS ON OTHER INMATES

May 2007

“The Muslims in here are a fairly docile bunch (there is (sic) quite a few); they get sh*t put on them all the time by the screws, and the Muslims calmly go on their way, never do anything.”

February 2005

“The lebs basically appear to run most things these days crime-wise. A lot in the prison system and quite a few join them. I had no idea they’re into bikes; I imagine it’s not bikes but the distribution or whatever ór the sales? I guess you know what I mean. What I do notice, they can do okay but they’re not real smart for any length of time. I don’t get involved with them (or anyone in here). I do my own f**ken thing and don’t give a f**k what they do; I know they are as deadly as anyone else can be.”