France: Man sentenced to five years for infecting current, former partners and baby

A 31 year-old man from Perpignan in south-west France has been found guilty of "transmission of a harmful substance causing permanent disability" and sentenced to five years in prison, although 3½ years of the sentence is suspended. He will also have to pay compensation of about 50,000 euros. The case is the first in France since Christelle Grard was sentenced to five years suspended in December 2008.

According to a report by AFP in Le Figaro the man was found guilty of infecting not only two women - his ex-partner, and his current partner – but also the child of his ex-partner.

Knowing he has the disease, he had transmitted the AIDS virus in 2006 to his former girlfriend and her little daughter, born of their relationship and under triple therapy at birth, and his current partner. According to the lawyer of his former girlfriend, "he knew he was infected and he knew how to protect them," although he refrained from doing so.

The case made headlines all over France (but not elsewhere) with local papers in Perpignan sensationalising the story, naturellement. L'Independent includes background on the case, noting that the man was diagnosed in 2001 when his first wife was diagnosed during her pregnancy. Much of the rest of the piece focuses on the ex-partner who pressed charges when she was diagnosed with HIV following the birth of their daughter in December 2007.

She did it to alert the public about what happened, saying that it can happen to everyone, and especially for her daughter.

What is unclear is why she didn't undergo pre-natal testing, and what cuplability her doctors might have for not diagnosing her earlier. Although several men have also been blamed for infecting their babies (via undiagnosed partners) - including this case in Colorado, the only one I'm aware of where the man wasn't also prosecuted for also infecting the mother – it does seem illogical to place the legal blame solely on the man. If anything, it's a moral issue, not a legal one.

Midi Libre actually asks that question (sort of).

How can we hide our illness from the ones we love?...Selfishness, ignorance, or malicious intent to cause suffering? Beyond these issues, this trial is also an opportunity to reflect on how our society supports, in school and in everyday life, these sick children, subjected to heavy treatments [not sure if this is referring to stigma or actual HIV treatment]. Similarly, for infected adults, what risks do they have to transmit the virus to an unborn child?

It quotes the man (who remains unnamed, possibly to protect his current partner) in court.

"I was in total denial of the disease. For me, I was not infected with HIV. I lied, because I was afraid of losing her."

It also quotes the way the prosecution characterised him in court.

[He] "is a monster of selfishness, a liar, a manipulator, a public danger, a sex machine to kill."

Nevertheless, the man's defence lawyer, Pierre-Louis Bassolle, puts the nail on the head by noting how out-of-date society's (and the French legal system's) approach to HIV actually is

"Attitudes have not changed much in twenty years. "Criminal behaviour?" .... When somone has AIDS, they do not become a monster, a beast, an animal. Why have we not pursued people who transmit syphilis, or [other] STDs? In 2009, AIDS is no longer classified in France as a deadly disease, but as a chronic disease."

US: Colorado man gets 15 years in first-ever father-to-child transmission case

A 34 year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse charges for not warning his wife nor her doctors that he might have infected his wife with HIV during her pregnancy, resulting in their son being born HIV-positive.

I first wrote about the case of Shad Skov in January, highlighting the importance of third-trimester HIV testing. Since Mr Skov's wife has stood by her man throughout, it seems likely that the case was reported to police by the mother's and/or baby's doctors. I can't help but wonder whether this was a pre-emptive move to shift blame from the doctors to Mr Skov in case the Skovs decided to sue them for negligence. Perhaps they still could sue.

The sentencing has made several newspapers, including the Boston Herald, but the most detailed report comes from the local paper, The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

Shad Skov, 34, faced 10 to 20 years in prison under the terms of an agreement with the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office after pleading guilty to felony child abuse. “You had the specific ability to prevent an awful lot of suffering,” District Judge Valerie Robison said before passing the sentence. Skov apologized to the woman and his son; both were looking on in Robison’s courtroom. The boy’s mother asked Robison for a light sentence, saying Skov is a “good husband and father” who calls his son almost daily. “I should have been more vocal and proactive,” Skov told the judge.

There are no HIV exposure or transmission laws in Colorado, and no laws that mandate disclosure before unprotected sex. Hence, Mr Skov was only prosecuted for the harm to his son. Interestingly, police had investigated his previous sexual encounters, and Assistant District Attorney Rich Tuttle used this to underline how deceptive Mr Skov had been.

“Suffice to say the boy’s prenatal care would have been much different (had doctors known about HIV), and the failure to thrive could have been addressed with medications,” Assistant District Attorney Rich Tuttle told the judge. While keeping the information from doctors and his son’s mother, prosecutors said Skov misled others. Tuttle said investigators found two women who said they had sex with Skov after he’d met his child’s mother. “None of them knew he was HIV positive either,” he said.

Mr Skov's prison sentence may have been affected by his previous criminal record. Mr Skov was on parole at the time of his arrest in December 2008, which was about to be revoked because he'd recently tested positive for cocaine. He had previously served eleven years for burglary, assault and aggravated robbery and had been released in 2006. It seems likely, then, that Mr Skov was infected with HIV in prison.

US: Colorado man accused of criminal father-to-child HIV transmission

In what appears to be the first case of criminal father-to-child transmission to be prosecuted (that I am aware of), a Colorado man has been charged with child abuse resulting in serious injury.

It is alleged that, knowing he was HIV-positive, he had unprotected sex without disclosure, infecting his fiancée with HIV after she had tested HIV-negative in her first trimester and who then unknowingly passed the virus on to her newborn.

During the pregnancy the couple continued to have unprotected sex, and according to [the accused], he knew the whole time he was HIV positive. According to statements, she contracted the disease between conception and the birth. According to court documents, when the baby was four months he became so sick he was transported to Denver's Children's Hospital where he almost died. That's where they found out the baby and the mother was infected with HIV.

Colorado has no HIV disclosure laws, which partially explains why the charges only relate to the infected child. In addition, the man's fiancée appears to be standing by her man.

The DA's Office considered [the accused's] fiancee a victim, but she says she's not. She made an emotional plea in court to lift a restraining order against [the accused].
"I don't feel like I'm in harms way, I have his child at home," she told the judge. "I would like to continue to tell him what's going on."

I have to ask why the woman was not tested again in the third trimester. Was the child's infection purely the accused's responsibility? The latest guidelines for HIV testing and prophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in the United States include the following recommendations:

In the third trimester, preferably before 36 weeks of gestation, repeated HIV antibody testing is recommended for the following groups:

• Women aged 15 to 45 years in states with high HIV prevalence.
• Women delivering in hospitals in which HIV prevalence is 1 or more in 1000 pregnant women screened.
• Women with risk factors for HIV infection, such as diagnosis of a sexually transmitted infection during pregnancy, use of injection drugs or being a partner of an injection drug user, exchanging sex or money for drugs, being a sex partner of someone who is HIV-infected, having a new or multiple sex partners during pregnancy, or signs or symptoms of acute HIV infection.

Some experts recommend repeated HIV screening for all pregnant women in the third trimester. The rationale is that prevalence-based testing may be difficult to implement, evaluation of individual risk is unreliable, and the risk for MTCT of HIV is increased in women who first acquire HIV infection during pregnancy.

I include two reports below - one from The Daily Sentinel following his arrest in December 2008, and one from KJCT.com reporting the charges.

GJ man accused of passing HIV to son appears in court
Jan 6, 2009

GRAND JUNCTION (KJCT.com) -- The Grand Junction man accused of knowingly infecting his fiancee with HIV and then passing the virus onto their newborn son appeared in court this morning to be formally charged.

33-year-old Shad Skov is being charged with child abuse resulting in serious injury, a class three felony. No charges have been filed in regards to the mother of the newborn.

"We had to prove he knew he had it... withheld it and caused the child in this case to suffer consequences because of it," Deputy District Attorney Tammy Eret said.

During the pregnancy the couple continued to have unprotected sex, and according to Skov, he knew the whole time he was HIV positive. According to statements, she contracted the disease between conception and the birth. According to court documents, when the baby was four months he became so sick he was transported to Denver's Children's Hospital where he almost died. That's where they found out the baby and the mother was infected with HIV.

"He was crashing pretty hard... that's why they had to life flight him out," Eret said.

The DA's Office considered Skov's fiancee a victim, but she says she's not. She made an emotional plea in court to lift a restraining order against Skov.

"I don't feel like I'm in harms way, I have his child at home," she told the judge. "I would like to continue to tell him what's going on."

In Colorado there are no HIV notification laws. They are considering this a landmark case in Mesa County. He's only being charged with child abuse because, if doctors would have known, treatment for the baby would have been different.

Skov is currently being held at the Mesa County Jail on a 100-thousand dollar bond. His next court date is on January 29th where he's expected to ask for a bond reduction.

HIV-positive man accused of infecting fiancee, newborn
By Amy Hamilton
The Daily Sentinel
Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Grand Junction man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of felony child abuse for infecting his fiancee and their newborn child with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, without ever disclosing that he was infected.

Shad Skov, 33, who has a lengthy rap sheet in Colorado that includes an 11-year stint in prison, never told anyone he was HIV-positive, said Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger.

“There’s definitely no question the baby suffered serious bodily injury,” Hautzinger said. “I have never seen anything like it before.”

Hautzinger said the baby’s mother revealed in open court Monday during Skov’s advisement of charges that Skov never told her that he was a carrier of the virus. Skov is in custody at Mesa County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond. He also faces a felony charge of violating conditions of his parole.

According to an arrest affidavit, Skov’s fiancee became pregnant in January 2007. The allegations came to light after the baby was 4 months old and became so ill he was taken by helicopter to a Denver hospital. While in her first trimester of pregnancy, the baby’s mother tested negative for HIV, but the mother likely contracted the virus sometime between conception and the baby’s birth, the affidavit said.

Had Skov disclosed his condition to medical personnel, the baby could have been born by Cesarean section, decreasing the likelihood the child would become HIV-positive, doctors have said, according to Hautzinger.

Hautzinger also said charges were still possible against the baby’s mother, who has voiced opposition to the district attorney’s office filing charges against Skov.

Skov was sentenced to prison in 1995 on charges of second-degree burglary, third-degree assault and aggravated robbery, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Also included on Shov’s long list of arrests around the state are charges including second-degree homicide, larceny, first-degree burglary and driving under the influence of alcohol, which date back to 1993, according to CBI records.