Sweden: Woman given suspended sentence for alleged HIV-non disclosure, no transmission occurred

Sentencing

HIV-infected woman is sentenced for unprotected sex

December 8, 2015
Source: Upsala Nya Tidning
Google translation; for original article, please scroll down.

An HIV-positive Uppsala Woman sentenced to several years had unprotected sex with her spouse, without revealing that she was carrying the infection.

When the couple married the woman had already learnt several years earlier that she was carrying the HIV virus. Only when the husband found the woman’s medications in a closet, five years after the marriage, did he realized that she was carrying the disease. Through the years, the couple had regularly had unprotected sex with each other.

During visits at the hospital, the woman was informed that she was obliged to tell her partner that she was HIV positive. The woman during the examination explained that she did not dare tell her husband, because of the risk of losing him and because he would be angry. She was charged at Uppsala District Court, but she has denied the crime and claimed that there is no evidence that the virus levels in her blood was so high that there was a risk that her husband would become infected.

A forensic medical shows , however, that her levels were high for at least one year . The Court concluded that therefore there was a considerable risk that the man would become infected. The woman was sentenced for endangering another person and given a suspended sentence with community service for 240 hours. If prison instead had been imposed then the sentence would have been ten months. The woman must also pay 30,000 kronor in damages to the man, because he was at risk of a life-long disease through her actions. Meanwhile, he had to wait to hear whether he was infected, and had severe anxiety. Tests showed that the man was not infected.


En hiv-smittad Uppsalakvinna döms för att i flera år haft oskyddat sex med sin make, utan att avslöja att hon bar på smittan.

När paret gifte sig hade kvinnan redan flera år tidigare fått besked om att hon bar på hiv-virus. Först när maken hittade kvinnans mediciner i en garderob, fem år efter giftermålet, insåg han att hon bar på sjukdomen. Genom åren hade paret regelbundet haft oskyddat sex med varandra.

Vid kontroller på sjukhuset hade kvinnan informerats om att hon var skyldig att tala om för sin partner att hon var hiv-positiv. Kvinnan har i förhör förklarat att hon inte vågade berätta för maken, av risk för att förlora honom och för att han skulle bli arg. Hon åtalades vid Uppsala tingsrätt, men har nekat till brott och hävdat att det inte är bevisat att virusnivåerna i hennes blod var så höga att det fanns risk för att maken skulle smittas.

Ett rättsintyg visar emellertid att nivåerna under åtminstone ett års tid var höga. Domstolen slår fast att det därför fanns en beaktansvärd risk för att mannen skulle smittas. Kvinnan döms nu för framkallande av fara för annan till villkorlig dom med samhällstjänst i 240 timmar. Om fängelse i stället dömts ut hade strafftiden blivit tio månader. Kvinnan ska också betala 30 000 kronor i skadestånd till mannen, eftersom han riskerade att drabbas av en livslång sjukdom genom hennes agerande. Under tiden han fick vänta på besked om han smittats levde han med svår oro och ångest. Kontrollerna visade att mannen inte smittats.

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