Mohammed Dica’s retrial on a charge of grievous bodily harm (GBH) after infecting a sexual partner with HIV has ended with his conviction.
At the Old Bailey on March 23rd he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison after a jury convicted him of GBH for recklessly infecting a woman with HIV.
Dica was originally convicted of two charges of grievous bodily harm in October 2003, but a retrial was subsequently ordered by the Court of the Appeal because the judge in the initial case did not allow the jury to consider questions of consent. The first retrial was abandoned on a point of law, and in the second, the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Earlier this month, Feston Konzani’s appeal against conviction for three similar offences failed and his sentence of ten years in prison was confirmed.
The verdicts in these cases are thought to effectively place a legal duty on HIV-positive individuals to disclose their health status before engaging in high risk sexual activities.