HOMELESSNESS, drug addiction, mental illness and years wasted behind bars.
Anger issues, suicidal thoughts, flashbacks, guilt, fear and shame.
Slumped in a chair in a tiny room in a Sydney jail, disgraced former Swansea MP and convicted paedophile Milton Orkopoulos spent Friday morning listening to the impacts of his many horrific crimes.
Young boys who lost their innocence, were corrupted, sexually abused and became addicted to drugs to suit Orkopoulos's depraved needs and the profound effects that it had on them, their families and the community.
"The life I wanted and deserved is so different to the life I got dealt because of what you did and the drugs you gave me," one of Orkopoulos's victims said in a powerful statement read to Sydney's Downing Centre District Court. "Since age 10, because of you, I have spent years in jail due to my addiction that you gave me. "I would never have hurt all the people I have hurt if it wasn't for what you did to me. "You and the juvenile justice experience ruined me."
Fifteen years after he was found guilty of 28 child sexual assault and drug charges, Orkopoulos was in April found guilty of 26 more, a jury left with no doubt the 65-year-old had abused his power and preyed on four young boys, providing them with drugs and cash so he could sexually abuse them.
Orkopoulos had spent five weeks on trial accused of indecently and sexually assaulting the four boys at Belmont, Caves Beach and Swansea between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, including boys who attended his electorate office to ask him about building a skate park.
During the trial each of the victims claimed Orkopoulos had indecently or sexually assaulted them when they were children growing up in Lake Macquarie and each said he had provided them with cannabis, heroin, money or cigarettes.
Crown prosecutor Cate Dodds said the former politician would encounter the boys in Lake Macquarie, including through his role as an MP and before that Lake Macquarie councillor, speak to them about using drugs, take them to an isolated spot where they would use cannabis and then he would sexually assault them.
Orkopoulos faced a sentence hearing on Thursday, during which he heard from three of the four victims whose life he had so irreversibly altered.
"I felt not wanted anywhere and would spend a lot of time on the streets, sometimes in dangerous situations, and often had no food or money," one of the victims said. "I have struggled with depression ever since then. I felt confused. I thought no one believed me. Even everyone hated me."
Another victim spoke of how their life changed after Orkopoulos repeatedly sexually abused him and introduced him to drugs.
"I've been incarcerated for most of my life since the age of 11," the man said. "I have had multiple overdoses and a drug-induced heart attack. "I have two children, and although I have wanted to be present in their lives, my ongoing psychological issues, drug addictions and ongoing incarcerations have made it difficult for me to do so. "I was alone with my trauma and basically tore my family apart and ruined my own life. It'll take the rest of my life to make things right for me and my family."
A third victim said he wanted to be a mechanic and had goals in life before he met Orkopoulos.
"I blamed my nan for taking me to see you, the member of parliament for the local area to try support and guide me in the right direction," he said. "My nan took me to see you as she thought you were someone to trust. She carried guilt and would say to me: 'where did I go wrong?' But I couldn't tell her what you did to me."
Orkopoulos was in 2008 jailed for a maximum of 13 years and eight months, with a non-parole period of nine years and three months for sexually abusing three other boys and supplying them with marijuana and heroin between 1995 and 2006.
He was released from jail in December 2019 after serving 11-and-a-half years but was returned to jail three months later after breaching his parole conditions by speaking to a child in a phone call with a relative.
His parole was revoked and while in custody, detectives charged Orkopoulos with the child sex and drug supply offences that he was convicted of in April.
Orkopoulos is looking at least another decade behind bars when he is sentenced in November.
