"Get Them Down": Lake Macquarie Council Keeps Paedophile Ex-Councillors On Walls

Lake Macquarie Council is facing mounting pressure to remove the portraits of two former councillors convicted of child sex abuse.

The faces of former Mayor Douglas Carley and councillor-turned Swansea MP Milton Orkopoulos still hang on council chamber walls, despite pleas from child abuse victim support groups that they be taken down.

In 2009, Carley was jailed for indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy, while he was convicted of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 1995.

In 2008, Orkopoulos was sentenced to almost 14 years behind bars for 30 child sex and drug charges including child pornography possession, sex without consent, homosexual assaults on a minor and supplying prohibited drugs.

Nearly 700 people have so far signed a new petition to remove them from the walls which honour the city's public servants.

Last year Lake Macquarie Council voted against a motion to remove the pair's portraits.

On Thursday morning, Mayor Kay Fraser says the issue requires further consideration.

"We can jump in and do something from a social, Facebook campaign... Well, let's just take a step back and think about all of the issues before we start rushing and doing that," she said. "We just can't do anything ad hoc, and nor should we."

One vocal campaigner is Liberal Councillor Kevin Baker, who says it would take ten minutes to solve the problem.

"We're not talking about allegations, we're not talking about suspicions. We are talking about people who have been convicted of horrendous crimes involving children and I think it's quite a simple thing for us to do.

"We make the decision, we get them down."