HIV-positive man gets two years for unprotected sex

A man will spend the next 13-and-a-half months behind bars after he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault after failing to disclose the fact he has HIV to two teenagers he had unprotected sex with on multiple occasions.

In Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Monday, court was told the defendant had sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman in Niagara in July 2017.

The man, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, went to a Niagara Regional Police station the following month and reported he had HIV and had unprotected sex with both women. He said he turned himself in so police could contact the two victims.

Assistant Crown attorney Pat Vadacchino told Judge Tory Colvin that the 16-yearold has been tested for HIV and her first test came back negative. A second test is required in order to confirm she has not been infected. The 18-year-old has not yet received the results of her initial HIV test.

Vadacchino said the two women are stuck in a “holding pattern” as they await the results of the tests. She requested the judge impose a jail sentence of between two and three years.

“We don’t know if they are infected,” she told the judge.

If the man had not come forward to police, court was told, the two victims would never have known they had been exposed.

“Had he not gone to authorities, this probably would have been undetected,” the judge said. “If the victims had become HIV positive, they may not have been able to ascertain from whom they contracted the virus.”

Defence lawyer Donald Wolfe requested a one-year jail term, saying the defendant should be given credit for coming forward and telling police.

Colvin imposed a sentence of two-years, reduced to 13-and-a-half months given credit for time spent in pretrial custody. He was also placed on probation for three years and he will be listed on the national Sex Offender Registry for life.

Court was told the man now has a tattoo on his right shoulder that reads “HIV positive,” to alert future sexual partners.