Liverpool, January 2004

In 2004 an man reportedly seeking asylum from the Ivory Coast was convicted in Liverpool after pleading guilty to infecting a woman. He was sentenced to six years (including time for 20 other non-HIV-related offences), with a recommendation he is deported after serving his sentence.

The key aspect of this case was that the defendant had not been diagnosed with HIV at the time of the offence. It was reported in the press that he was told by his wife in South Africa that she had HIV but the judge ordered this to be corrected as it was not the case. The judge said, however, that he ‘should have known’ he was infected after a doctor treated him in Africa for sexually transmitted infections, told him he was at ‘high risk’ of HIV infection and recommended he take an HIV test.