Don't expect to see many reports of this

[lovingboth]

Particularly given the Damilola Taylor result dominating the papers and the airport security alert radio and TV..

.. but, at fucking last, there's been an acquittal in a UK HIV tranmission trial. A clueful defence team, helped by THT, used a combination of expert evidence and the behaviour of the complainant to show that there was no proof of who had, in fact, infected who.

In comparison to the large and instant flow of stories following last month's conviction of Sarah Porter - where someone she'd had sex with heard rumours about her being HIV+, knew they hadn't been infected, but complained to the police who launched a year-long investigation into her sex life until they found one who had been - I can only find three reports on this on Google News.

Comments

[kellanethics.livejournal.com]

so you think that anyone who knows they have a life threatening condition, whatever the condition, who willfully acts in a manner that might cause others to become infected with that condition has no responsibility to adjust their behaviour so as to limit the possibility of other contracting the condition?

[lovingboth]

In the non-sexual sphere, 'flu kills around 12,000 people a year in the UK. Should we prosecute the people who recklessly gave it to them?

With sex, it takes two for there to be transmission.

In this case, the man moaning about being infected had had unprotected sex with a variety of other men, including some who were known to be HIV+. He's clearly made choices he now regrets(*), but ultimately, they were his choices.

And where do you draw the line, in an area as sensitive as sex? 'I only consented because they said they were infertile / weren't married / wouldn't come in my mouth / did love me.. and they weren't / were / did / didn't?'

* Going to court being one of them, I hope.

[nitoda]

Excellent news and a great precedent to have set.