Orkopoulos found guilty

The former NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Milton Orkopoloulos, has been found guilty on 28 charges by a Newcastle court today.

The charges include eight counts of having homosexual intercourse with a minor, 13 counts of supplying cannabis, four counts of supplying heroin, and three counts of indecent assault on a minor.

The offences related to three men who claimed the MP offered them drugs and sexually assaulted them when they were teens.

The three testified that Orkopoulos gave them cannabis before making sexual advances ranging from indecent assault to oral and anal sex.

One victim told the court he got him hooked on heroin then demanded sexual favours in return for his drug debt.

Orkopoulos met two of the boys at Labor party functions and regularly met his second victim for sex at the Swansea electorate office late at night.

Witnesses told the court that the MP took a raft of drugs including cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine and heroin and had sex with men and boys at the office, including during his wife's pregnancy.

The jury today delivered a decisive indictment on his guilt, convicting him of 28 of the possible 29 charges on which they deliberated.

The panel of six men and five women took little more than a day to reach its verdict.

Orkopolous bowed his head with his eyes closed as the jury read out the verdict.

He was taken into custody immediately after the verdict was announced and refused bail. Sentencing proceedings will begin next Thursday.

His defence counsel, John Fitzgerald, refused to comment outside court.

Detective Chief Inspector Brad Taylor, who led the investigation since August 2006, said: "I'd like to thank the investigators who worked on the case and more importantly I would like to thank the young boys who had the courage to stand up and come forward."

Joking with journalists outside the court yesterday, Orkopoulos speculated that the jury would return on Friday at 11.30am - the precise moment at which he stepped into the dock.

Orkopoulos's sister Sofia, who has supported the MP throughout the trial, was today conspicuously absent as Orkopoulos learned of his fate.