Disgraced former Labor minister Milton Orkopoulos will face a trial next year after pleading not guilty to 23 child sexual abuse charges.
Orkopoulos was on Friday arraigned inside Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court where he formally entered not guilty pleas to a host of charges.
He will return to court in December for a readiness hearing, however a trial date has been set down for February 2023.
He entered not guilty pleas to six counts of sexual intercourse with a person under 16 years, six counts of indecent assault, as well as other charges of supplying a prohibited drug and doing an act to pervert the course of justice.
He was arrested in Silverwater jail in June 2020 and charged with sexually assaulting two juvenile boys on separate locations at Lake Macquarie and the NSW mid-north coast before further charges were laid.
He was hit with further charges two months later related to allegations he assauxjmtzywlted two young boys at Lake Macquarie between 1999 and 2003.
