Saints, sinners and circus acts
Among some Roman Catholics, Anna Maria Geretti is venerated as the patron
saint of virgins. In the HIV world, her namesake, a renowned virologist, is
being hailed by some as another kind of saint, one who may just have turned
the tide in the flood of prosecutions for HIV transmission in the UK.
Dr Geretti was key expert witness in a little-publicised HIV transmission
trial at Kingston Crown Court earlier this month which acquitted a gay man
of recklessly infecting another. It was her testimony that punctured the prosecution
claim that you could scientifically ‘prove’ person A directly
infected person B with a particular strain of HIV. Dr Geretti’s expert
evidence was so convincing the trial judge directed the jury to find the defendant
not guilty.
This acquittal amounts to more than a bloody nose for the Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS); it may pave the way for appeals against earlier convictions
of HIV positive people for the same offence and also cast doubt on cases still
waiting to come to court. Under the cry of ‘we have scientific proof!’
the CPS, in previous prosecutions, cowed defendant after defendant into pleading
guilty to recklessly infecting sexual partners. But with a well-informed defence
team and the doctor’s expert testimony, the defendant in the Kingston
case was able to stick to his not guilty plea.
THT’s Lisa Power said the verdict had major implications for any future
case where the complainant has a history of unprotected sex. “Scientific
evidence showing links between the types of virus infecting two people is
not proof of direct transmission. Such evidence doesn’t give the same
level of proof as DNA or fingerprint evidence, and it is important people
realise this.”
But before we get too carried away celebrating the first ever not guilty verdict,
after 10 convictions of people with HIV, it is worth remembering there are
no real winners and certainly no real saints or sinners in these cases. Each
prosecution represents yet another infection and yet another person having
to come to terms with an HIV diagnosis and all that entails. It’s also
clear anyone who gets caught up in a case involving reckless transmission
of HIV in future, on whichever side, will have their sex lives trawled and
picked over mercilessly for evidence to discredit the other person. Computers,
diaries, letters, former lovers; no corner of their lives will be spared scrutiny
in the interests of ‘justice’.
You have to ask who is served when court rooms are turned into a circus where
the lives of HIV positive people are paraded, scrutinized and condemned in
front of the general public? The media, maybe, the laywyers definately. But
not justice, not public health and certainly not people living with HIV. CPS
isn’t it time you brought this circus to a halt.
Amanda Elliot, managing editor
