Inner London 2006

In June 2006 a woman from South London, pleaded guilty to recklessly passing on HIV to one man, and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

A worrying feature of this case was the way in which the investigation was carried out.  The ex-partner who originally complained to the police that the woman had HIV and was having unprotected sex was not in fact HIV positive himself. However, on discovering that the defendant had HIV, the police seem to have actively investigated her previous sexual partners, one of whom decided to take a case against her.

Press reporting of this case was highly sensationalist and largely inaccurate. Despite the conviction for reckless transmission, tabloid newspapers speculated that the infection was “deliberate” and that the woman was “seeking revenge”.