Canada: African migrant pleads guilty to aggravated sexual assault - again

An HIV-positive man originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been in an Ontario prison since December 2005, and who pleaded guilty to three counts of HIV-related aggravated sexual assault in April 2007, and was sentenced to an additional 30 months imprisonment, has now pleaded guilty in Saskatchewan on similar charges.

According to a brief report in The Windsor Star the 45-year-old HIV-positive man pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault for not disclosing his HIV status to a woman before having unprotected sex with her. The report says the woman "is a single mother who is now HIV-positive."

I reported on the man's previous conviction here.

Canada: Ontario man imprisoned for a second time for HIV exposure

An Ontario man who had already been convicted of aggravated sexual assault (HIV exposure) because he failed to disclose his HIV status to his female sexual partners, and who served almost three years in prison, has been imprisoned again for five years for the same 'offence' with a different woman.

Apart from raising the obvious point that rehabilitation was obviously not achieved in this man's case, the case also shows how informed members of the criminal justice system are about the risks of sexual HIV transmission.

Justice Johanne Morissette, who has already presided over the trials of Tendai Mazambini, Owen Antoine, and Mark Hinton said it was “miraculous” that Edward Kelly had not transmitted HIV to his female sexual partner. Since he was found guilty of having unprotected sex once with the latest partner, it is hardly a miracle that HIV transmission did not occur.

Even more worrying was that Mr Kelly's lawyer, Robert Farrington, had no idea about HIV transmission risks, either.

Farrington told Morissette he consulted the AIDS Committee of London to understand how Kelly had never infected his sexual partners.

He learned Kelly hasn’t transmitted his illness, largely because his CDA blood-cell count — cells that help protect the body from infection — remain high while his viral count remains low.

Although it is possible that reporter Jane Sims, who has covered on every single criminal HIV exposure/transmission case in London, Ontario, – or subeditor – got the details wrong (CD4 counts have nothing to do with HIV exposure or transmission risk, it is related primarily to viral load) she probably reported what the lawyer said (but then again, why didn't she correct him?)

Report from The London Free Press below.

Man with HIV gets five years
By JANE SIMS
SUN MEDIA
Mon, September 8, 2008

The judge said it was “miraculous” Edward Kelly never transmitted HIV to unsuspecting sex partners.

Already punished with a three-year prison term in 2003 for not disclosing his health status to four women, the London man was ordered today to serve five more years for the same crime.

“I realize the severity of the crime I have done and I realize what I did was wrong,” Kelly told Justice Johanne Morissette.

“Hopefully it will never happen again,” he said, then corrected himself. “No, it will never happen again.”

Morissette noted Kelly’s abrupt correction. “You have to understand your status,” she said.

“You have five years to think about your future and think about having this status for the rest of your life.”

Kelly, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual assault in July.

His victim was a 37-year-old woman who hooked up with him through an Internet chat line on June 3, 2005.

They met a day after communicating online and had protected sex two days later.

Kelly never told her he was HIV positive — which was diagnosed in 1997.

On June 11, 2005, they had unprotected sex. Again, he didn’t disclose his HIV.

They broke up at the end of July and, in August 2005, Kelly was arrested and his parole was revoked.

When Kelly was released from custody, he called the woman. They saw each other as friends, but she didn’t know about his HIV until one of his roommates disclosed it to her.

She called police on May 2, 2006.

The woman, who remains HIV negative, sobbed softly in the courtroom during sentencing.

Kelly’s lawyer, Robert Farrington, said his client is the father of four children — two who are teenagers and have no contact with him.

The other children are twins born to Kelly and a woman who met and started a relationship with him after the latest charge was wending its way through the courts.

He told that woman of his status. Neither the woman nor the twins have tested positive for HIV.

Farrington said Kelly’s actions were “a tremendously serious offence,” but his guilty plea shows he has accepted responsibility.

Farrington told Morissette he consulted the AIDS Committee of London to understand how Kelly had never infected his sexual partners.

He learned Kelly hasn’t transmitted his illness, largely because his CDA blood-cell count — cells that help protect the body from infection — remain high while his viral count remains low.

Kelly was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and his name will be added to the sex-offender registry for life.

US: Ohio man serving six years prosecuted again for HIV exposure

An Ohio man, already in prison for six years after pleading guilty to HIV exposure without disclosure is to be prosecuted in another Ohio county for the same 'crime' (felonious assault), where he may face an additional 88 years (up to eight years for each of the eleven times it is alleged that he has unprotected oral or vaginal sex with the complainant without disclosing his HIV status).

Story below from the Ohio News-Herald.

Man accused of not telling partner he is HIV positive
Tracey Read
News-Herald
26th June 2008

Jerome McIntosh already is serving six years in prison for having sex with a woman in Cuyahoga County without telling her he has the virus that causes AIDS. Now the 37-year-old former Cleveland man is accused of committing the same offense in Willoughby with a different woman. "The victim contacted us. It's a very serious accusation, and we're taking it seriously," Willoughby police Lt. Tom Trem said.

McIntosh recently was indicted in Lake County Common Pleas Court on 11 counts of felonious assault. If convicted, he could receive up to 88 additional years in prison.

Knowing he was HIV positive, McIntosh had oral and vaginal intercourse with an adult female on several occasions in August through October without disclosing to her that he had the virus, according to the indictment. "I believe this is the first time in Lake County the jury has returned an indictment for something like this," Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson said.

In Cuyahoga County, McIntosh was sentenced in March to the Lorain Correctional Institution in Grafton after pleading guilty to one count of felonious assault for a similar case that also occurred in 2007, according to court records.

Court officials said the Lake County woman's blood work has tested negative for HIV so far. The suspect's new attorney, Assistant Lake County Public Defender Carolyn Kucharski, was not immediately available for comment.

McIntosh's most recent case is scheduled for trial Sept. 2 before Judge Vincent A. Culotta.

Canada: Saskatchewan plans to prosecute man already convicted in Ontario

An HIV-positive former bodyguard from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who has been in an Ontario prison since December 2005, and who pleaded guilty to three counts of HIV-related aggravated sexual assault in April 2007, and was sentenced to an additional 30 months imprisonment, will now stand trial in Saskatchewan on similar charges.

According to a report in the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network Policy and Law Review (Vol 12, No. 2/3, December 2007) Fidel Mombo MacKay, now 44, "learned he was HIV-positive while receiving medical treatment for injuries suffered in a car accident in November 2002. In December 2005, the Greater Sudbury Police arrested MacKay in relation to a Canada-wide warrant issued by the Saskatoon police against MacKay for having unprotected sex without informing his partner of his HIV status. MacKay was arrested while he was in bed with one of the victims.

"After his arrest, police released MacKay’s picture to the media, urging individuals who had sex with him to seek medical advice and to contact them. This resulted in two more Sudbury women coming forward. Of the three women, one tested positive for HIV after having unprotected sex with MacKay.

"In addition to his prison term, MacKay’s name was entered in the federal government’s national registry of sex offenders, his DNA was placed in the federal DNA databank, and
he was prohibited from possessing weapons for 10 years. At the time of his sentencing, MacKay was expected to be returned to Saskatchewan to respond to the original charges that
resulted in the Canada-wide warrant."

According to a report in The Star Phoenix, below, that processs has now reached a preliminary hearing, although no trial date has yet been set.

HIV-infected man faces sexual assault trial
Betty Ann Adam
The StarPhoenix
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

An HIV-infected man who is serving a prison sentence for having unprotected sex with three women in Ontario will stand trial in Saskatoon on a charge of aggravated sexual assault.

The charge against Fidel Mombo MacKay, 44, alleges he committed an aggravated sexual assault and endangered the life of a Saskatoon woman between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 31, 2005.

MacKay was committed to stand trial at Court of Queen's Bench following a preliminary hearing Tuesday. No date has been set.

He is also charged with fraud, forgery and possessing proceeds of crime.

Evidence from the preliminary hearing is subject to a publication ban. Another ban protects the identity of the complainant.

MacKay was sentenced in April 2007 in Sudbury, Ont., to 30 months on top of the 16 months he had spent in custody awaiting trial there, according to reports from the Sudbury Star newspaper.

He had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual assault related to contacts he had between Sept. 1 and Dec. 11, 2005.

One of the Ontario women became infected with the virus that causes AIDS as a result of that contact, the Sudbury court heard.

MacKay's activities in Ontario came to light as a result of the Saskatoon complaint and a resulting Canada-wide warrant, says the Sudbury news report.

Police there had responded to a complaint of a noisy party and had taken names of people present. When they later discovered that one of the names matched a warrant they returned to the residence, where they found MacKay in bed with a woman, Sudbury court heard.

Police released MacKay's photograph to the Sudbury media and asked that anyone who'd had sexual contact with him to come forward and to seek medical advice. Two more women came forward.

The sentencing judge ordered that MacKay's DNA be submitted to the national databank.

MacKay had previously worked in Zaire as a bodyguard for diplomats and other dignitaries, the Sudbury court heard.

The case has similarities to that of Trevis Smith, a former football player with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who is serving a 5 1/2-year sentence on two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced in February 2007 for having unprotected sex with two women without telling them he was HIV-positive.

US: Kansas man already convicted of HIV exposure in one county convicted again

Conviction is second for HIV exposure

J-W Staff Reports

November 29, 2007

Emporia — An HIV-infected man already convicted in Douglas County of knowingly exposing women to the virus has been convicted in a second county.

A judge found Robert Richardson II, of Lawrence, guilty Wednesday in Lyon County District Court of two counts of exposing another person to a life-threatening communicable disease.

Richardson had waived his right to a jury trial and instead had requested a trial before Judge Jeffry Larson.

Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 16.

Richardson was sentenced in November 2006 to 32 months in prison after being convicted in Douglas County on four counts of HIV exposure involving three women. It was the first time someone in Kansas was taken to trial and convicted on those charges and one of the few such cases nationwide.

Richardson’s Douglas County victims said he charmed them by making them think he cared for them but he never told them he was HIV-positive.

“The whole thing was just a complete sham and then it makes you not be able to trust other people,” one of the victims told the Journal-World in an October 2006 interview.

None of the women at the time had tested positive for the virus.

After the trial, jurors told the Journal-World that they were appalled by Richardson’s deception, most of all his explanation that his health problems were caused by a heart condition. He claimed he was being truthful by saying he had a “HAART” condition, or highly active anti-retroviral therapy.

Richardson still has cases pending in Wyandotte County and Johnson County, Mo.

Originally published at: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/nov/29/conviction_second_hiv_exposure/