Stephen Kelly (centre) had denied the charge
News (March 18, 2001)
[Home] [previous
news]
Stephen Kelly, 33, was found guilty by majority verdict last month of reckless conduct after a landmark trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Throughout the nine-day trial, Kelly denied that he had acted with total disregard for the health and well-being of his former partner Anne Craig, 34, during their relationship in 1994.
Anne Craig said Kelly did not reveal his condition
|
But the jury rejected his version of events and their majority verdict was the first time anyone had been found guilty of deliberately infecting another person with the virus in Scotland.
Sentencing Kelly, the judge Lord Mackay said the jail term should reflect the "gravity of the charge" and "mark the severe consequences" of what Kelly did to Miss Craig.
He said: "She has suffered several years of serious illness and her life expectancy has been seriously reduced."
The judge said it was for the prison authorities and Scottish ministers to decide whether a deterioration in Kelly's medical condition warranted early release from prison.
Kelly showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.
'Fragile state'
On his appearance for sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, his defence counsel Petra Collins said Kelly believed Miss Craig knew he had HIV prior to them having a sexual relationship.
She said: "He believed that Anne Craig knew of his condition prior to having sexual relations with him. That is still his position today."
When asked by Lord Mackay what evidence Kelly had of that, Ms Collins said: "Everyone in the area knew and he understood that his aunt told Anne Craig of his condition."
Ms Collins told the court that the relationship which Kelly had with Miss Craig was not a fling and Kelly had not "callously" taken advantage of his girlfriend.
The accused faced a nine-day trial in Glasgow
|
Kelly was told he was HIV positive in July 1993 within hours of returning from his girlfriend's funeral, which he attended on day release from prison.
Ms Collins said Kelly did not take medication for his condition for many years because it would have been a reminder that he was ill.
"He pushed the fact of his illness to the back of his mind and did not face up to it," she said.
Kelly and Miss Craig, from Manchester, had met at a party in Glasgow in January 1994 and had sex for the first time within hours of what was to become a long-term relationship.
The heard that Kelly, who had been in Glenochil prison for offences of assault and attempted robbery, never told her he had tested positive for the virus while in jail.
Former heroin user Kelly had taken part in a blood-screening programme after an outbreak of hepatitis in the jail caused prison staff to suspect that inmates were spreading HIV through shared needles.
He eventually revealed that he had the virus when Miss Craig went for a blood test in March 1994.
Dirty needles
Kelly at first alleged that he suspected he had caught it from a former girlfriend.
However, when Miss Craig's test showed she was HIV positive, he told her he had caught it in Glenochil from using dirty needles.
The court heard the two had discussed contraception before having sex for the first time, but Miss Craig said Kelly never disclosed his condition.
After learning that she had the HIV virus Miss Craig had stayed with Kelly for several months, but became addicted to heroin and developed severe arthritis as a result of the infection.
Aids campaigners expressed concern about the case and warned that Kelly's prosecution could undo the work that has been done to lift the stigma surrounding the disease.
Speaking on Newsnight Scotland on Thursday, HIV sufferer Mark Ward warned it could deter people from taking the HIV test and demonise fellow sufferers.
"I think it will set back a lot of the work that has been done over the last 15 years to create a space where people can be open and honest about their HIV status without fear of victimisation or retaliation, isolation or marginalisation."
Ivory Coast strikes deal for cheap AIDS drugs
ABIDJAN, Mar 12 (Reuters) - The government of Ivory Coast said on Saturday it had struck a deal with leading pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of HIV/AIDS treatment.
Assana Sangare, junior minister for the fight against AIDS, said Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol Myers Squibb had agreed to cut the price of anti-retroviral drugs by 80% to 90%.
"Negotiations are under way with other companies," she said in a statement.
She said that Ivory Coast was "the first country to benefit from this unprecedented effort."
She estimated that the cost of treating an AIDS patient would fall to between 65,000 and 75,000 CFA francs ($92 and $107) per month from 300,000 CFA now.
US drugmaker Merck and Co announced earlier this week a new round of price cuts in response to cut-price offers by producers of generic AIDS drugs and growing public concern about inadequate access to life-saving medicines in developing countries.
The move comes as the pharmaceutical industry is embroiled in a fierce legal battle over access to cheap drugs with the government of South Africa, the country with the world's highest number of HIV infections.
Ivory Coast is one of the worst affected countries in West Africa, with an estimated 10% of the population HIV-positive.
Survey: Over-50 crowd calls STD/AIDS info hotline
NEW ORLEANS, Mar 12 (Reuters Health) - People over 50 that call an anonymous sex information hotline are most interested about how sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like HIV/AIDS are contracted and where they can get tested, according to a new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC sponsors the National Sexually Transmitted Disease and AIDS Hotlines (NSTDAH).
The results of the study were presented here on Saturday at the first joint conference of the American Society on Aging and The National Council on the Aging.
"People over the age of 50 tend not be targeted by educational groups in general and are less likely to realize that they should be concerned about STDs," said Sandra Welch, manager of the NSTDAH services located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
This fact is particularly troubling for a group not accustomed to speaking frankly about sexual matters.
"Many also simply have an 'it's-not-going-to-happen-to-me' attitude, or think that STDs are for younger people. Advertising may also reinforce this belief because ads almost always depict younger people," she said.
The investigators found that of the 183,521 calls to the hotline between September 2000 and February 2001, over 11,000 (6.3%) were from men and women over the age of 50.
This result is somewhat disconcerting because this number is far less than the percentage of Americans who are over the age of 50 and may be an indication that, as a group, they are not aware of the service, Welch noted.
Of those who called, 42% were married, 39% were single, 11% were widowed and 5% were separated, Welch reported.
In many cases, married individuals were interested in learning about the risk that they might pose or have been exposed to as a result of infidelity by themselves or their partner, Welch added.
Nearly 50% of the callers wanted to discuss HIV/AIDS risks of transmission and where to get tested.
Those callers under 50 years of age, on the other hand, were most interested in learning about the symptoms of STDs.
"They often call with specific questions about rashes, for instance," Welch said.
One finding of particular interest was that 12% of people over 50 who called the hotline service said that they had "poor communication with a healthcare practitioner."
"Basically, these people felt like their healthcare provider didn't give them enough information or explanation about an STD," Welch explained. This only highlights the need for healthcare providers to make a special effort to reach out to this group since they are likely to have trouble discussing matters of sex.
Welch also pointed out that "people over 50 tend to have more types of physical ailments that could have the effect of masking the fact that they have an STD and doctors often tend not to think that people over 50 are as sexually active as they are. This can result in a misdiagnosis."
"We are hoping that since we are a prevention hotline, we can help people decrease their risk (for STDs)...and that's what we do. We talk to people about how STDs are transmitted and the ways that they can reduce risks without saying that a condom is (a solution) for everything because that is not necessarily appropriate for everybody," she said.
"The most important thing that people over 50 should keep in mind when it comes to STDs is communication with their partners, family and healthcare providers. This tends to be the hardest thing for people in this age group to do," Welch said.
The CDC's STD and AIDS hotlines can be reached by calling 800-342-2437 or 800-227-8922.