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ABC News
ABC News
National
Mark Reddie

Former NSW Labor minister charged with child prostitution offences

Former NSW Labor minister Milton Orkopoulos was questioned by police.

Former NSW Labor minister Milton Orkopoulos has been charged with 15 new child sex abuse offences.

Detectives arrested the former Swansea MP at his cell inside Silverwater Jail in western Sydney this morning.

The 62-year-old is accused of sexually abusing two young boys at Lake Macquarie and on the Mid-North Coast in the 1990s.

The fresh charges include five counts of aggravated sexual assault and three counts of causing a child to participate in child prostitution.

The convicted paedophile spent 11 years in prison for child sex offences.

Orkopoulos, who served as Aboriginal affairs minister under former premier Morris Iemma, was released on parole last year.

However, he was put back behind bars after allegedly breaching his parole.

He is expected to appear in Newcastle Court via audio visual link tomorrow.

Okopolous served in Parliament from 1999 to 2006 and was a Lake Macquarie councillor for four years.

NSW Police Superintendent Danny Sullivan said the alleged offences took place "all the way through" the 1990s.

He could not go into specific details about how Orkopoulos and the boys knew one another with those details to come out in court.

He said the police had offered counselling and support to the alleged victims.

"These matters are very delicate and when a victim comes forward we're very conscious of the trauma that coming forward may cause them.

"We have very experienced detectives who work with those victims on this journey to where we are today with someone being charged with 15 offences," Superintendent Sullivan said.

He also said he could not elaborate on the charges of causing a child to participate in child prostitution.

"They're very difficult matters and they arise directly from the investigation, and they'll be put before the court as that person has now been charged."

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