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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
National
Sam Rigney

'Burn in hell, you grub': MP's victims get a chance to speak

Milton Orkopoulos during his 2008 trial for sexually assaulting boys. Last time, one man he targeted told him "burn in hell, you grub". He will face a sentence hearing in August.

"BURN in hell, you grub."

That was the enduring message from one victim, fifteen years ago, when former Swansea MP Milton Orkopoulos was first revealed to be a cunning and ruthless paedophile.

The young man had just finished reading his victim impact statement and was walking past the dock when he looked Orkopoulos directly in the eye and said the five words that would be forever tied to the unimaginable case of a politician raping and selling drugs to young boys.

That was 2008.

Fast-forward 15 years and Orkopoulos has again been convicted of sexually assaulting boys and plying them with drugs and now four other victims, all now men aged in their 30s, will get their chance to send him a message.

Orkopoulos was earlier this month found guilty of 26 charges, a jury left with no doubt the now 65-year-old had abused his power and preyed on the young boys, providing them with drugs and cash so he could sexually abuse them.

Orkopoulos had spent five weeks on trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court accused of indecently and sexually assaulting four boys at Belmont, Caves Beach and Swansea between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, including two who attended his electorate office to ask him about building a skate park.

He had pleaded not guilty to 28 charges including aggravated indecent assault, committing an act of indecency, supplying a prohibited drug, sexual intercourse with a person aged between 10 and 16 and doing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice.

But on April 5, after deliberating for a little over a day, the jury returned and found him guilty of 26 of the 28 charges, including 11 counts of sexual intercourse with a person aged between 10 and 16 and multiple counts of indecent assault and supplying cannabis.

He was acquitted of one count of supplying cannabis to a boy and of perverting the course of justice for allegedly attempting to get the boy to retract his police statement.

After the verdicts, Orkopoulos' matter was mentioned in Sydney last week when a date for a sentence hearing was set for August 25.

It's expected that the four victims will read statements about the impact of Orkopoulos' many crimes, which for some has included drug addiction and serving time in jail.

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