← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Samuel
Thread ID: 10481 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-10-14
2003-10-14 18:37 | User Profile
[url]http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=7165576[/url]
14/10/03 - News and city section
Jailed for passing HIV By Paul Cheston and Richard Edwards, Evening Standard
A man who knowingly infected two women with the Aids virus was today convicted of grievous bodily harm.
Mohammed Dica, 37, callously tricked his lovers into unprotected sex even though he had been HIV positive since 1995. He faces up to 10 years in jail.
The historic verdict, the first of its kind in English law, was greeted with tears from his two victims who were in court. Doctors say the women may have only seven years to live and police suspect Dica may have conned many more.
The court heard that he told the first woman he had had a vasectomy and deceived his second victim with lies about starting a family.
Dica, a married father of three of Mitcham who is a refugee from Somalia, had denied the charges and told detectives that both women had known of his condition. But a jury at Inner London Crown Court took just over two hours to find him guilty of "biological" grievous bodily harm.
He will be sentenced next month by judge Nicholas Philpot who warned him he was likely to be "going to prison and for a long time".
During the trial the jury heard that Dica targeted vulnerable women, charming them with restaurant meals and empty boasts that he was a lawyer specialising in immigration and a Gulf War veteran fluent in 10 languages.
His first victim was a university graduate who worked for the United Nations. Dica claimed that she could have become infected through a blood transfusion, which she denied.
His second victim, known in court only as Deborah to protect her identity, is a mother of two from Surrey.
She told jurors as they left court today: "I thank you very much."
Hugged by her mother and father, who clambered over chairs in the public gallery to embrace her, she said: "There is justice after all. I am just so pleased it's over. Life is good, life is for me and my children from now on. I was weak before but now I am strong.
"He can no longer carry on wrecking lives with impunity."
Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, told the court "there is not a snowball's chance in hell" of any truth in Dica's claims that his victims knew he was carrying the virus when they slept with him.
Mr Gadsden told the jury that Dica was "criminally responsible for infecting these two women... coldly and callously".
He said that even though Dica himself would die from the virus, "he does not deserve your sympathy. "Detectives describe Dica as an arrogant man with no justification at all for his claims to be a lawyer or a company director.
Jeremy Carter-Manning, QC, defending, said there were "no direct precedents" for this case "litigated in this country before".
Dica's lawyers announced he would appeal.
Outside court Detective Sergeant Jo Goodall said: "I admire the courage of these two women for coming forward."
She added: "Today's verdicts mean that those who are not prepared to take responsibility for themselves and who continue recklessly to infect sexual partners with this fatal disease will in future face prosecution."
2003-10-15 05:30 | User Profile
[QUOTE]A man who knowingly infected two women with the Aids virus was today convicted of grievous bodily harm. [/QUOTE] Not possible. One can't "knowingly" infect someone with HIV through sex. One can only knowingly [I]expose [/I] someone to the virus. Chances are less than 1 in 150 that the woman exposed through vaginal intercourse will actually contract the virus.
2003-10-15 05:36 | User Profile
Reminds me of this:
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- An American rap artist was sentenced to 14 years in prison Thursday on 17 counts of attempted manslaughter by infecting Finnish women with the AIDS virus. Stephen Thomas, 36, of New York City, was arrested in January on charges of endangering the women by having unprotected sex with them without warning them he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Five of 17 women involved in the case have since tested HIV-positive.
After closed proceedings, the Helsinki District Court announced that it found Thomas guilty of attempted manslaughter because he had concealed that fact that he was HIV-positive from the women.
"It is a very stiff sentence," said his lawyer Aarno Arvelo. "It's certainly up there in the among the longest sentences ever issued in Finland." Arvelo said an appeal was planned.
The court also ordered Thomas to pay about $57,000 in damages to each of the five HIV-positive women, and $4,000 to each of the other twelve. The court also took the unusual step of ordering the trial transcript sealed for 40 years to protect the identity of the women.
Thomas, who had been married to a Finnish woman, moved to the country in October 1991. According to the court and investigators, Thomas learned that he was HIV-positive in 1993.
Finland, a county of five million, has one of Europe's lowest AIDS and HIV rates. In all, about 200 people have died from AIDS in Finland since 1982 and some 800 have tested HIV-positive.
Copyright 1997/The Associated Press.