He lived a transient lifestyle, evading the scrutiny of child welfare workers.
The department says Mikus was hard to pin down because he moved between families and used aliases to avoid detection.
"We would be with a family on another matter and Mikus would arrive, he would be the friend," chief social worker Shannon Pakura said yesterday. "Mikus seeped his way into families. He was like an insidious cancer. He was always on the border."
Mikus moved from town to town, and some of his alleged abuse victims were so young that it was difficult for authorities to gather evidence from them that would stand up in court.
He fathered at least seven children to different partners. At one point he was a solo father.
Often social workers, discovering Mikus' true identity and background, would try to convince the mother involved to throw him out of the home.
It was not always a successful ploy. That was partly because Mikus was in and out of jail for offences like burglary, fraud, and drink and drugs charges.
In at least one instance he disappeared behind bars before any action could be taken to remove him from a family.
But social workers also struggled to evaluate the risk he posed to children.
The decision of whether to remove the children and cause them trauma had to be weighed against the likelihood that Mikus would offend, and action was not always pursued.
Mikus targeted vulnerable women and their children.
Ms Pakura says his self-control enabled him to get away with "so much for so long".
Child, Youth and Family's file on Mikus now contains the names of 10 families he had influence over between 1977 and 2001. Within those families there are 18 children.
Four of them have now come forward to seek help from CYF since Mikus was arrested.
Shannon Pakura, Chief Social Worker, CYF:
Appendix: Action Plan
Herald Feature: Child Abuse
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