This is totally fucked...
http://criminalhivtransmission.blogspot ... ty-of.html
WHEN Michael John Neal picked up his lover from the doctor on December 9, 2002, he comforted him. The man had been told he was HIV positive, and he was shocked.
"I said, 'I can't understand how I could have returned a positive result', because (Neal) was the only one I'd bare-backed with," the man told the County Court in June.
He claimed that Neal had then said: "It's better to get it from someone you know out of love than a stranger and to not know."
After a police investigation, Neal was arrested and charged with numerous crimes including two counts of intentionally infecting a person with HIV.
The case shone a spotlight on the State Government's approach to monitoring and containing the spread of the HIV virus and ultimately led to the sacking of Victoria's chief health officer.
Yesterday, after a six-week trial, a jury delivered a mixed verdict. It found Neal, 49, of Coburg, not guilty of the two counts of deliberately infecting a person with HIV, but guilty of 15 further counts, including nine of attempting to infect a person with HIV, two of rape, three of reckless conduct endangering a person and one of procuring sex by fraud.
He has also pleaded guilty to 12 additional counts, including producing child pornography, possessing child pornography, indecent acts with a child under 16, trafficking in a drug of dependence and possess a drug of dependence.
During the trial, prosecutor Mark Rochford said Neal had set out to infect as many people as possible with HIV to serve his own needs and fulfil his desire to have unprotected sex.
He said that Neal also told a number of his sexual partners that he wanted to make others HIV positive so that he could increase the amount of people he could have unsafe sex with.
Some of the people he told made complaints to the Department of Health and a file on Neal was opened in 2001.
But by then Neal had already begun attempting to infect his victims with HIV, and visits from State Government officials warning him to practise safe sex made little impression on him.
A series of written warnings from the health department also failed to curb his behaviour.
Between November 2001 and April 7, 2006, the department served Neal with three letters and four orders issued under section 121 of the Health Act. But Neal continued to have unprotected sex.
Incredibly, restrictions the health department had placed on Neal's movements were relaxed after he wrote to the chief health officer, Robert Hall, in 2005 telling him that his viral loads were undetectable and he was not able to pass on HIV.
Then health minister Bronwyn Pike stood down Dr Hall after it emerged he had not acted despite knowing Neal posed a serious risk to public health, and had ignored advice from an expert advisory panel that Neal should be detained under the Health Act.
At the time, Ms Pike said: "It's a lack of judgement that has been displayed over the past 12 months … that has led me to take this action."
But Neal's counsel, George Georgiou, maintained throughout the trial that Neal genuinely did not believe he was able to pass on the HIV virus because of his undetectable viral load — the amount of HIV in the bloodstream.
He said that Neal had not really wanted to infect others and was simply engaging in a "sick fantasy" when he spoke of his "pos pigs" or made comments to sexual partners such as "I've made 75 people pos".
After 3½ days of deliberations the jury returned a mixed verdict, seemingly accepting the defence argument that Neal believed he was no longer infectious.
As the verdict was read out, Neal was impassive, making no comment.
Outside court, Detective Sergeant Eric Harbis said: "There would be a degree of disappointment to some extent, but overall we are very happy with the result. It was a team effort.
"I commend the many victims and witnesses that came forward who had to recount some very private parts of their lives, which they did in the public arena, and should be commended."
Neal, who faces up to 25 years in jail on some counts and was remanded in custody, will appear for a pre-sentence hearing before Judge David Parsons on October 29.
June 19: Court told man bragged about infecting people with HIV (ABC News)
A Melbourne jury has been told it will hear of some bizarre sexual practices, in the trial of a man charged with infecting people with HIV.
June 19: Man accused of spreading HIV 'arranged "conversion" parties' (Herald Sun)
Prosecutor Mark Rochford said Neal arranged "conversion'' parties where some people were not aware they risked being infected. "It was the aim of Neal to infect people with HIV in order to have more people come into the grip of HIV-infected people (and) to engage in unprotected ... sex,'' Mr Rochford said. He said the case involved some bizarre and graphic details but told jurors they would have to put aside their prejudices.
July 2: Man 'boasted of spreading HIV' (The Australian)
A witness, who cannot be named, told the Victorian County Court today Mr Neal spoke to him about using gay beats to spread HIV. "He said he liked going to beats because he liked to go out and spread the virus to people," he said. The witness said Mr Neal invited him to a sex party he was hosting so he too could have sex with a man he had infected. The witness said he engaged in sexual activity with Neal after they met in 2005 but neither disclosed they were HIV positive.
A second witness who gave evidence today said Mr Neal spoke to him about arranging a "conversion" party. "He told me he was planning to organise a conversion party where the person would have his HIV status changed," he said. He said Mr Neal also told him he had chatted online to a man from Sweden who wanted to come to Australia to be deliberately infected. The witness - who is HIV positive - said he had unprotected sex with Mr Neal after meeting him on gay internet chat site Gay.com in 2000. He said he assumed Mr Neal was also positive because they did not discuss condoms.
A third witness told the court he had unprotected sex with Mr Neal a number of times but would not have consented if he knew he was HIV positive. The man said at one stage Mr Neal asked him whether he wanted to "be one of his pos pigs". He said he did not know what he meant and on another occasion he questioned Mr Neal about his HIV status following health concerns. He said Mr Neal told him: "You don't need to worry about me mate, you'll never catch anything off me."
The witness said he took Mr Neal at his word and did not seek medical advice. "I was quite relieved, he put my mind at ease," he said.
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