A man who infected a woman with HIV after he stopped his treatment and did not tell her about his diagnosis has been jailed for almost five years.
Luke Davis, 31, was found guilty last year of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a woman, who described contracting the infection as a ‘life sentence’.
Davis, of George Street, Kidderminster, showed no emotion as he was sentenced at Hereford Crown Court by video-link from HMP Hewell in Worcestershire.
He had initially taken his medication after being diagnosed with HIV in 2017, but disengaged completely from his care in 2019, the court heard.
His victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, discovered she was HIV positive in 2021 after a routine screening.
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Judge Martin Jackson said Davis chose not to tell the woman about his diagnosis for ‘entirely selfish reasons’.
How is HIV spread?
The most common way HIV is caught is via unprotected sex.
It can also be spread using shared needles, for example, injecting heroin.
Mothers can also spread the virus to babies during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, if they are not being treated.
By the way, here are several ways you can NOT catch HIV:
- Using a toilet seat
- Touching someone, for example, hugging
- Insect bites
- Sharing things like towels or food utensils
- French kissing (except for the unlikely possibility that both people have a cut in their mouth)
The judge told the defendant: ‘You had been told by the healthcare service, following your diagnosis, that it was important that you used protection, condoms, and that it was important you were open with any future sexual partners.
‘You chose to ignore that advice. I’m satisfied that somebody … who chooses not to tell that other person they are carrying a condition such as HIV, who chooses to ignore advice about informing partners … does so, in my view, with a significant degree of premeditation.
‘There are consequences (the victim) has to be aware of managing that, and she lives with the constant threat that that virus could prove really quite serious indeed… to the point of being fatal.’
Davis’s victim, whose statement was read to the court, said she felt ‘physically sick as though my skin was crawling’ after being diagnosed with HIV, which she described as ‘the darkest time in my life’.
She said: ‘I struggle to love myself as I see this disease as a part of me I can never get rid of. To me, it’s a life sentence as I will never be, or see myself, as the same.’
In a statement written by Davis’s mother, she said that life had been ‘unkind’ to him, referencing how his 13-month-old baby died in 2017.
She also said Davis had blamed himself for bringing COVID into his grandfather’s home, which caused his death in 2020.
The statement continued: ‘Emotional trauma led him down a path he never would have chosen in better circumstances.’
After the sentencing, Giovanni D’Alessandro, a senior crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service West Midlands complex casework unit, said: ‘This was a reckless and selfish individual who has caused irreparable damage by his actions.
‘We hope the sentence imposed provides some measure of justice to the victim and dissuades others from this type of dangerous and reckless behaviour.’
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