Jail for giving gay lover HIV

An HIV-positive gay man who told a sexual partner he was negative and then infected him with the virus has been been sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison.Brisbane District Court sentenced Mark Reid last Friday, a day after convicting the 37-year-old of transmitting a serious disease with intent, The Courier-Mail reported.Reid expressed remorse for his crime, but judge David Robin said he was satisfied the man had concealed his HIV status from his lover.The conviction was the first of its kind in Queensland and came a week after the NSW District Court sentenced a Sydney man for infecting two women with HIV.The court heard Reid picked up the man at a Brisbane gay bar in early 2003 and the pair began a sexual relationship that lasted several months.The partner said Reid assured him he was HIV-negative before and during the relationship, in which they had unprotected sex.The man, whose name has been suppressed, broke off his relationship with Reid when he learned he had been infected.He later said he never would have slept with Reid if he had known he was HIV-positive.Reid, who has had HIV since 1987, gave a different account to police, claiming he had told the other man he was HIV-positive. He said the pair had unprotected sex because they were drunk.But prosecutor Ross Martin told the court the infection could only have been deliberate.So gross was his behaviour that the only possible inference (was) that he intended to give HIV to (him), he said.