Milton Orkopoulos used his position as a councillor and New South Wales government minister to gain the trust of young boys before giving them drugs and sexually abusing them, jurors have been told.
During her closing address in the former Labor MP’s trial on Thursday, crown prosecutor Cate Dodds said one victim had been enticed in through Orkopoulous’ claims he was a “powerful mover and shaker” who could get things done.
The boy, who cannot be legally named, says he was around 11 or 12 years old when he first met Orkopoulos when he was a Lake Macquarie councillor who said he could get a skate park for Swansea.
“Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing (Orkopoulous) has preyed on (this young boy) who did not see the danger until it was too late,” Dodds said in Downing Centre District Court.
The boy claims he met the now 65-year-old on four occasions where he was sexually assaulted in Orkopoulos’ car and on a bushwalking track.
He says he was offered small amounts of cash and cigarettes after the sexual activity and did not tell anyone because he was young, scared and confused.
“I was only a kid. I didn’t see the seriousness of what actually was happening,” he told jurors earlier on in the trial.
Orkopoulous has denied any wrongdoing, pleading not guilty to 28 charges, including sexual offences against four underage boys he allegedly supplied drugs to over a decade, ending in 2003.
The former state member for Swansea has also been accused of perverting the course of justice by asking one complainant to retract his allegations.
That man now says he was touched on the genitals and then watched naked in the shower while on holiday at Seal Rocks sometime between 1993 and 1995.
Dodds said Orkopoulos had used the same pattern of behaviour with his alleged victims, including first initiating the grooming by asking whether they had smoked cannabis and apologising later on when the sexual activity got too rough or painful.
Orkopoulos was motivated by his sexual desire for young boys and acted on those desires opportunistically, supplying his vulnerable victims with drugs, money and alcohol, the prosecutor said.
He then would become more brazen after finding out his victims’ silence was guaranteed, the jury heard.
“It’s all part of the accused’s modus operandi ... to provide young boys with drugs, sexually assault them when they are drug affected and keep them coming back for more,” Dodds said.
The Crown is also relying on evidence from three other complainants, including one boy who alleged he was injected with heroin before being sexually assaulted in the rear seat of Orkopoulos’ car, to show the former MP had a tendency to act in a particular way.
“The only explanation for the degree of similarity in the independent accounts is that they are true accounts of what the accused did,” Dodds told jurors.
His prior pleas of guilty to possessing child abuse material in 2006 and to supplying a year 12 boy with drugs in Parliament House were also relevant for the jury to consider, she said.
The trial continues.
