Minister sacked after being charged with child sex and drug offences

A GOVERNMENT minister in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, has been sacked after he was charged by police with 30 child sex and drug offences.

Police told a court in Newcastle, north of Sydney, that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Milton Orkopoulos, aged 49, had used government money to pay for sex and supplied marijuana to boys, Australian Associated Press (AAP) said.

According to a police document tendered to the court, Orkopoulos met one victim, then aged 15, in 1997. The boy, now 24, told police that Orkopoulos supplied him with marijuana on two occasions before the first sexual assault. When the boy was 18, Orkopoulos — who has vowed to vigorously defend himself against all charges — paid him about A$250 a week to have sex with him, according to the document.

“These payments were made with government funds allocated to the accused each month,” said police in the document.

Police said the alleged victim became reliant on the payments because of his addiction to cannabis, which began about a year after he met Orkopoulos. The alleged victim and Orkopoulos smoked cannabis together over a period of seven or eight years, the police said.

Orkopoulos is alleged to have supplied the teenager with cannabis to relax him before they had sex.

The politician has been charged with six counts of homosexual intercourse involving boys aged 10-18, and 12 counts of supplying a prohibited drug.

According to local media reports, he also faces two counts of sexual assault without consent, three of aggravated indecent assault, four of procuring by drug for prostitution, and one count each of indecent assault, act of indecency and engaging in an act of child prostitution.

The married father-of-three is alleged to have carried out the offences between 1997 and 2005.

He was granted bail of $20,000, but must report to police three times a week, not leave New South Wales and not have contact with someone under 18 unless an adult is present.

Orkopoulos was also ordered to surrender his passport.

He was released on bail to appear again in court in January 2007.

Orkopoulos was sacked by State premier Morris Iemma shortly after being charged.

“These charges are extremely serious and warrant his immediate dismissal as a minister and an MP,” Mr Iemma said.

The premier made clear that he was not making a judgment regarding Orkopoulos’s guilt or innocence, but said the ex-minister must face the court as a private citizen.