Jailed Australian politicians: State and federal MPs who have been locked up
Former NSW Labor MP and convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos, who was sentenced for dozens of offences including rape, is one step closer to parole after he was arrested in 2006. And he's not the only politician to have spent time behind bars.
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Former NSW Labor minister and convicted pedophile Milton Orkopoulos is a step closer to parole.
But the 62-year-old sex offender’s victims and the state government will be offered the opportunity to contest his conditional release after the parole authority on Friday formed an intention to grant parole during a private hearing.
Orkopoulos was the NSW Aboriginal Affairs minister in the Iemma Labor government when arrested in November 2006.
He was immediately dumped from the Labor party and quit office, and was later convicted of dozens of offences, including rape and seven counts of sex with a child.
The former MP for Swansea and former Lake Macquarie local councillor also pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after being caught in November 2006 with a 19-page document downloaded from a website called “MeninBoys”.
The public parole review hearing will be scheduled at a later date, a State Parole Authority spokeswoman said in a statement.
Orkopoulos was first eligible for parole on February 18, 2017. His sentence expires on October 18, 2021.
And he's not the only Australian politician to have spent time behind bars.
There are plenty of state and federal MPs who have faced convictions, too:
THOMAS LEY
More than 70 years ago, one state had it’s very own “Minister for Murder”.
NSW politician Thomas Ley was given the grim name during his time as the state’s Justice Minister, where he ruthlessly knocked back death penalty appeals.
He too would face the same life-ending sentence after paranoia drove him to kill.
Ley’s mother, Elizabeth, brought he and his three siblings to Sydney in 1886 from England. He was just six-years-old at the time, and his father had died four years earlier.
After leaving Crown St Public School at age 10, he worked with his mother at a grocery store she had bought. But Ley always had vaulting ambition, and was eager to pursue a career in law.
He married Emily Louisa Vernon in 1898 while working his way up the legal ladder, and was finally admitted as a solicitor in 1914.
But Ley was also dipping his toe in political life. After moving from Glebe to Hurstville in 1907, he became a councillor and a staunch advocate of the prohibition movement, picking up the nickname “Lemonade Ley”.
But reportedly, the killer pollie was anything but abstinent, and would go on to have a career marred by allegations of bribery, violence and even an affair.
His focus shifted to state politics after failing to win a mayoral position, and eventually picked up the seat of Hurstville in 1917 under the Nationalist Party — a predecessor to the modern Liberal Party. But Ley was no loyalist, and in 1920, he won the seat of St George under the Progressive Party, before it was absorbed by the Nationalist Party in 1922.
Ley’s reputation began to plunge across the following three years, yet he was still successful in his bid to snare the federal seat of Barton in 1925. But it wasn’t a clean win. His Labor opponent Frederick McDonald alleged Ley had tried buy him out in an attempt to remove him from the ballot paper. While on his way to discuss the bribe with NSW premier Jack Lang, McDonald disappeared, never to be seen again.
After failing to secure a federal ministry position, Ley formed legal practice Ley, Andrews and Company while on the backbench. Shady business dealings dogged the firm, and in 1928, critic Hyman Goldstein was found dead at the base of cliffs in Coogee.
With his character in disrepute, Ley lost his seat that same year and left for England with his mistress Maggie Brook, leaving behind his wife and three children.
Brook’s husband had also died mysteriously six years earlier.
He continued his dodgy dealings in Britain, and eventually Brook had an affair with barman John McMain Mudie.
Ley was convicted for Mudie’s murder, after he convinced two of his associates that Mudie was a blackmailer.
Together, they tortured and killed him. The case became known as the “Chalk-pit Murder” because Mudie’s body was dumped in a Surrey chalkpit.
He dodged a death sentence in 1947, but died just months later of a brain haemorrhage.
PAULINE HANSON
In 2003, the controversial Queensland MP spent 11 weeks in jail while awaiting to appeal a Queensland court’s decision to issue her a three-year jail sentence for electoral fraud. The court ruled Ms Hanson dishonestly obtained almost $500,000 in electoral reimbursements following the 1998 state election. Prosecutors alleged she falsely claimed 500 supporters were paid members of her political party, allowing her to gain registration and apply for electoral funding.
After a successful appeal, she was released immediately, but only after spending time in maximum security protective custody, in a women’s prison containing a “high percentage” of Aborigines and Asians — both of whom she has had no hesitation in attacking on the floor of parliament.
DERRYN HINCH
When Derryn Hinch delivered his 2016 maiden speech to the Senate, he wasn’t afraid to flex his parliamentary privilege to name and shame paedophiles. But during his days as a radio broadcaster, that’s exactly what landed him 50 days in jail.
The man once nicknamed the “human headline” was charged for breaching a court suppression order when he published the criminal history of Jill Meagher’s killer, Adrian Bayley. Refusing the pay a $100,000 fine, he chose to spend time behind bars instead.
But it wasn’t the first time Hinch had been charged. In the 1980s, he spent 12 days in prison after revealing the prior conviction of paedophile priest Michael Glennon while his trial was running.
GORDON NUTTALL
He served as the state Labor member for the Queensland division of Sandgate for 14 years, and held a number of ministerial positions in premier Peter Beattie’s cabinet. But behind the scenes, Gordon Nuttall was no stranger to shady dealings.
But they eventually caught up with him, landing the corrupt politician with a jail term as long as his political career. Two businessmen had thrown a combined total of about $510,000 at the disgraced MP in order to secure $3.6 million in government work — a dodgy transaction the court didn’t look kindly upon.
While Nuttall was released just six years into his hefty sentence, he was then ordered to pay back $400,000 of his taxpayer-funded pension.
BILL D’ARCY
Horrifying charges of child sex offences now mar the career of former Queensland state member Bill D’Arcy.
Sitting in the Legislative Assembly from 1972 — sans a two year hiatus — the Labor MP retired in 2000 before facing a court over allegations he molested children during his time as a teacher before venturing into the political scene.
A court found him guilty, handing him an 11-year sentence of which he served just seven years. D’Arcy would not be allowed unsupervised access to children under the age of 16, attend schools or childcare centres, or make money from selling his story.
He never attended a rehabilitation program as he always maintained his innocence, and upon release, his defiance was slammed by a child protection group.
“The most dangerous ones are those who won’t admit their guilt,” Hetty Johnston of Bravehearts said in 2007.
“He should be in indefinite detention.”
BARRY MORRIS
It was bizarre death threats that landed former NSW state Liberal MP Barry Morris in prison.
Morris first took aim at Blue Mountains councillor John Pascoe in 1990, threatening him after a dispute over a development. He then put on a Chinese accent in 1991 to intimidate Mr Pascoe further.
But it was his Italian persona “Tony the Wheel” that delivered the final message. In a faux Italian accent, he threatened to blow up the local newspaper office, “city hall” and Mr Pascoe.
“Morris was intent on turning his Blue Mountains seat into an impregnable position from which he could terrorise anyone who opposed him,” Judge Kenneth Shadbolt said in 1996 during sentencing.
He served 12 months of his original 2½ year sentence, and died in 2001.
EDDIE OBEID
The NSW Labor-right powerbroker was expelled from the party in 2013, and from there, things got much worse for the former state upper house member.
In 2016, Obeid was sentenced to a maximum of five years prison after he was found guilty of dodgy dealings. The NSW Supreme Court found he pretended to act on behalf of constituents when lobbying the state’s Maritime Authority over Circular Quay cafe leases. In fact, he was working to ensure his family didn’t have to compete in a public tender to renew the leases of the cafes they had interests in.
He originally was in a special protection unit among paedophiles and rapists, before being moved to a minimum security prison at Berrima. In November last year, Obeid’s lawyers sent a letter to all NSW state MPs, warning them to not discredit him during the election campaign.
He will be eligible for parole in 2019.
IAN MACDONALD
Former NSW politician Ian MacDonald was sentenced to 10 years jail over his decision to give a coal exploration license to former union boss John Maitland, who will spend at least four years behind bars. MacDonald gave the license to Doyles Creek Mining, a company chaired by Maitland, while Macdonald held the minerals portfolio in December 2008.
Maitland made $6 million selling shares as a result of the deal.
At the time, Justice Adamson said Macdonald had “sought to cloak his misconduct” in the “apparently worthy” venture of a training mine to promote mining safety.
MacDonald has launched an appeal, and maintains his innocence. He also argues his sentence is excessive and should be reduced.
His barrister Phillip Boulton, SC, said it was never proven that Macdonald’s intentions were sinister.
“There was no evidence that could sustain the existence of a motive,” Mr Boulton said.
“The fact was the appellant got nothing out of it.”
Mr Boulton said Macdonald’s decision complied with mining laws and ministerial guidelines. “He had a discretion and he exercised that discretion,” Mr Boulton said.
The appeal continues.
Originally published as Jailed Australian politicians: State and federal MPs who have been locked up
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