Woman gets jail for infecting lovers with HIV virus

BRITAIN: A 43-year-old woman was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison Monday by a London court for knowingly infecting a lover with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS.

Sarah Jane Porter, from Kennington in southeast London, who pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, had had sexual relations with at least four men, always hiding that fact that she was HIV positive, according to police.

One of her victims, a 36-year-old man who contacted police in May 2005 who then managed to track down some of Porter's lovers said she did not reveal she had HIV and encouraged him into having unprotected sex.

One of the four men, aged 31, is HIV positive.

Porter, who is the mother of a six-year-old boy, deliberately led these men into a potentially lethal "nightmare", said detective sergeant Brian McClusky of the Metropolitan Police.

But forensic tests, carried out during a year-long investigation by a communtity safety unit in Brixton, south London, proved that Porter was the source. After the court hearing, McClusky said: "We located four victims. One was infected, and the quality of his life has been severely curtailed."

"But for the others, there was still heartbreak and stress for them and their current partners as they waited for test results. It is hard to comprehend how or why Porter set about this deliberate chain of events."

"She gave us no help to identify potential victims throughout the investigation. We hope that by bringing this case to prosecution and the sentence handed out today, the victims will feel that justice has been done."

Porter's sentence is less than the 10 years given in May 2004 to Feston Konzani, 28, a native of Malawi after he was convicted in Middlesborough, northeast England, for giving HIV to three women aged 15 to 27.

A man from Kenya, Mohammed Dica, who went on trial in November 2003, was meanwhile sentenced by an appeal court to four years and six months for infecting two lovers.

London, Tuesday, AFP