Posted on December 1, 2005

Man Jailed After Tourists Get HIV

BBC News, Dec. 1

An Australian court has jailed an HIV-positive man for 12 years for having unprotected sex with two European tourists.

Stanislas Kanengele-Yondjo, from DR Congo, admitted causing grievous bodily harm by knowingly infecting the women between January and March 2003.

He admitted falsely telling the women — one from Ireland and one from Germany — that he was not HIV positive.

The judge in Sydney called the offences heinous and callous.

“To have subjected innocent persons to your own horror shows a poverty of spirit and moral bankruptcy which beggars belief,” said Judge Warwick Andrews.

He gave Kanengele-Yondjo six years for each offence, with a non-parole period of four-and-a-half years for each offence.

Kanengele-Yondjo, a married father-of-five in his 40s, was diagnosed with the virus in February 1999.

Sentence welcomed

A spokeswoman for the victims, Bernadette Ingrim, said they welcomed the length of the sentence, which was “a genuine reflection of the offence”.

“They appreciate that at least for the next nine to 12 years he won’t have the opportunity to hurt anyone else like this again,” she told reporters.

The New South Wales chief executive of People Living With HIV/Aids, Geoff Honnor, said it was a unique and exceptional case.

“It’s not the ideal message we’d want to send on World Aids Day . . . it’s important to remember that he is in no way indicative of the way in which people with HIV/Aids normally live,” he was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying.