Paroled denied again for convicted paedophile Milton Orkopoulos
A FORMER Labor MP and Aboriginal Affairs Minister who has spent the past decade behind bars for paedophilia and supplying boys with drugs has had a fresh bid for parole denied.
NSW
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A FORMER Labor Cabinet minister and convicted paedophile Milton Orkopoulos has had a fresh bid for parole knocked back.
The former NSW Aboriginal Affairs Minister has spent the past decade behind bars for sex offences against teenage boys and supplying them with drugs.
He became eligible for parole last year after serving nine years and three months, but was refused early release in January last year.
Prison authorities again refused Orkopoulos’ bid for freedom in January this year and today rejected parole for the third time.
“The Serious Offender Review Council do not consider release to parole appropriate,” a NSW State Parole Authority spokeswoman said.
“The State Parole Authority today (Friday) declined to consider a 61-year-old offender’s application for parole under the provisions of manifest injustice.”
She said Orkopoulos, who introduced a 15-year-old boy to heroin and gave him cannabis at various locations around Newcastle in exchange for sex, was originally sentenced to a maximum of 13 years and 8 months, with the sentence expiring on 18 October 2021.
MORE: MILTON ORKOPOULOS BASHED IN PRISON
Orkopoulos, an ALP frontbencher under former Premier Morris Iemma, is now kept at Long Bail Jail and was understood to have refused to complete a sex offenders course last year.
A jury had found him guilty of 28 counts of drug and sex offences, and he had pleaded guilty to two other counts of possessing child abuse material.
An appeal court into his sentence was told his “modus operandi” was to “befriend young men, introduce them to cannabis, alcohol or heroin and then attempt to have sexual relations with them”.
Despite being sacked as a minister and expelled from the ALP, several Labor politicians came to court in support of Orkopoulos, attesting to his good character and standing.
Legislation was later passed banning parliamentary pension entitlements for any member who resigns when charged with serious crimes prior to the resolution of charges as a result of the case.