Ex-Labor MP, convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos arrested again

Former Labor NSW minister and convicted child sex offender Milton Orkopoulous has been re-arrested.

Disgraced former NSW Labor minister and sex offender Milton Orkopoulos was released from prison just 32 days ago. Picture: AAP

Former Labor NSW minister and convicted child sex offender Milton Orkopoulous has been arrested at his southeast Sydney home.

The 62-year-old was arrested at 7am on Wednesday at Malabar and is being held at Maroubra Police Station, NSW Police confirmed.

The arrest comes after police on Tuesday said Orkopoulos would be issued with a court attendance notice for failing to comply with reporting obligations.

The NSW State Parole Authority is set to meet on Wednesday to consider revoking Orkopoulos’ parole.

He is due to front Waverley Local Court over the matter on March 4.

Orkopoulos was released from prison in December after spending more than 11 years behind bars for child sex offences.

The 62-year-old failed to report to his local Eastern Beaches Area Command in Sydney’s east, which is one of the several harsh rules attached to his parole that also includes electronic monitoring.

On Tuesday, a State Parole Authority spokeswoman said Orkopoulos’ matter would be considered at a panel meeting on Wednesday morning after Corrective Services NSW issued a breach report seeking to revoke his parole.

“The State Parole Authority (SPA) will tomorrow consider revoking parole for a 62-year-old offender after receiving a breach report from Community Corrections this afternoon,” the spokeswoman said.

“The man has been charged with failing to comply with reporting obligations and is listed to appear before Waverley Local Court on March 4.”

The former NSW Aboriginal Affairs minister spent 11-and-a-half years in prison for dozens of crimes including supplying cannabis to and injecting an underage boy with heroin before having sex with him.

His victims were aged between 15 and 20.

Orkopoulos served as a Labor MP from 1995, and was a minister in Morris Iemma’s government until his arrest in 2006.

He was later convicted and jailed for 13 years and eight months, with a non-parole period of nine years.

Orkopoulos was granted parole after previous applications were rejected due to non completion of reoffending preventive programs while in prison.

At the time of granting his parole, Justice James Wood justified his decision as being in the “paramount interests” of public safety, because “without the opportunity of a supportive transition to the community” through parole, Orkopoulos being released at the end of his sentence without any supervision would be “only likely to increase the risk to the community safety”.

He failed two drug tests while in prison earlier in 2019, the most recent case of which was in February 2019, when Orkopoulos failed a drug test for Buprenorphine, an opioid used to treat addictions to harsher opioids as well as acute pain.

He also created prohibited goods while in prison, and received an unauthorised article from a visitor.

As part of his parole conditions, Orkopoulos was prohibited from being alone with someone aged 16 or under, and was forbidden from visiting Lake Macquarie and Newcastle, the city where he and his family have lived.