The father of a British backpacker murdered by Australia's most infamous serial killer says his family tries to keep Ivan Milat out of their minds.

As Milat lies in Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital with terminal oesophageal and stomach cancer, Ian Clarke has no sympathy but hopes for a deathbed confession to bring some form of closure to parents of other possible victims.

Mr Clarke's daughter Caroline and her friend Joanne Walters were among the seven young backpackers Milat killed and dumped in the Belanglo State Forest, south of Sydney between 1989 and 1992.

"We still think of Caroline every day but it doesn't mean to say we have to think of Milat every day," Mr Clarke said from his home in Northumberland.