Timeline of developments in the criminalisation of HIV and STI transmission in the UK

1888: In the case of R v Clarence, it is found that the transmission of an STI cannot amount to the offence of “inflicting grievous bodily harm” under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (England and Wales), because the term “infliction” implies some sort of attack, rather than simply causing harm.

1992: Media outcry after a 24 year-old HIV-positive man (Cornes) is accused of deliberately infecting four women with HIV. It is thought that no criminal law applies, and so no prosecution is brought. The Home Secretary states in Parliament that he has no plans to legislate to make the deliberate transmission of HIV a criminal offence.

1993: The Law Commission publishes a review of the law on offences against the person, proposing that there should be offences covering the reckless and intentional transmission of diseases, including HIV.

1995: A 25 year-old woman (Ndegga) who injected a man with HIV-tainted blood is found guilty of administering a noxious thing and sentenced to two years in prison, followed by deportation. The man had not seroconverted by the time of the trial, five months later.

1997: The House of Lords decides, in R v Ireland, that a man who causes psychiatric injury to a woman by means of silent telephone calls can be guilty of “inflicting grievous bodily harm”. Commentators subsequently note that this seems to have the effect of overruling the 1888 decision in R v Clarence, and opens the door to prosecutions for the reckless transmission of HIV under English law.

1998: A prosecution is brought in York for the transmission of hepatitis B, but the trial judge rules (seemingly on the basis of R v Clarence) that this cannot be a criminal offence.

1999: The Home Office publishes a consultation paper following on from the 1993 Law Commission proposals, suggesting that there should be legislation to make it an offence to deliberately (but not recklessly) transmit HIV or other diseases. No legislation is subsequently passed.

2001: First conviction in the UK for the transmission of HIV. Stephen Kelly is convicted in Scotland (where a different system of criminal law applies) of having recklessly injured his girlfriend by infecting her with HIV. (The relevant Scottish offence does not have a precise name and is sometimes described as “culpable and reckless conduct”.)

2002: A prosecution is brought in London for the transmission of viral herpes (Sullivan) but is dropped after the court hears that the complainant had sought hospital treatment for the symptoms of herpes ten months before having sex with the defendant.

February 2003: the first English prosecution for the transmission of HIV (Mvula) is abandoned after evidence that the defendant did not know she was HIV-positive at the time of the alleged offence.

October 2003: the first English conviction for the transmission of HIV. Mohammed Dica, 38, is convicted of two counts of reckless transmission for “unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm”.

January 2004: Kouassi Adaye, 40, pleads guilty to one charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV.

May 2004: Court of Appeal hears an appeal against Dica’s convictions and confirms that the reckless transmission of HIV is an offence under English law, with R v Clarence no longer representing the law. However, the court quashes Dica’s convictions and orders a retrial on the basis of a misdirection by the trial judge on the effect of consent. The court confirms that consent by the complainant to the risk of infection is a valid defence to a charge of recklessly transmitting HIV.

May 2004: Very shortly after the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Dica case, Feston Konzani, 28, is found guilty of three counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV. His appeal against conviction is dismissed in March 2005.

March 2005: After a fourth trial (the second having been abandoned for unspecified legal reasons, and the third abandoned after the jury failed to reach a verdict), Mohammed Dica is convicted of one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm by transmitting HIV. Whereas there were two complainants in the first trial, one of them subsequently chose not to give evidence in later trials. He is sentenced to four years and six months in prison.

April 2005: Paulo Matias, 38, pleads guilty to one charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by transmitting HIV, and is sentenced to three years imprisonment. It is understood that he died nine months later from complications caused by HIV and hepatitis C, including liver cirrhosis.

May 2005: A second trial under Scottish law finds the defendant, Christopher Walker, 34, not guilty due to insanity. He is ordered to be detained in a psychiatric hospital.

July 2005: A 20 year old Welsh woman (the first female to be convicted of the offence) is sentenced to two years youth detention after pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV. Her name cannot be published due to a court order obtained by social services to protect the identity of her child.

December 2005: Derek Hornett, 44, pleads guilty to one charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV to an 82-year-old woman and is sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment. He is jailed again for three years in May 2009 for breaching an order banning him from contacting people over the age of 60.

April 2006: The first UK conviction for the homosexual transmission of HIV. Mark James, 47, pleads guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV to another man. James flees the country shortly before sentencing and is sentenced in his absence to three years and four months in prison. James is re-arrested in February 2010 following a return to the UK for cancer treatment and sentenced to a further ten months in prison to be served consecutively with the original sentence.

June 2006: Sarah Porter pleads guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by transmitting HIV and is sentenced to 32 months’ imprisonment. The case attracts lurid media coverage, where it is noted that a complaint had been made to the police by a sexual partner of Porter’s who was not HIV-positive. The police then obtained diaries and other personal information belonging to Ms Porter and tracked down her previous sexual partners in order to construct a case against her.

August 2006: A gay man in his 20s is acquitted of inflicting grievous bodily harm via reckless HIV transmission at Kingston Crown Court. The judge directs the jury to acquit after listening to a defence expert highlight the unreliability of scientific evidence in this case. The expert, Anna Maria Geretti, subsequently joins with other experts to co-author a briefing paper on the use of phylogenetic analysis in criminal HIV transmission trials. The paper is published by NAM and NAT in February 2007.

September 2006: The CPS makes available for public consultation a draft version of their policy for prosecuting cases involving sexual transmission of infections which cause grievous bodily harm. The document covers the intentional or reckless sexual transmission of HIV, as well as the following STIs: chlamydia; genital herpes; gonorrhoea; hepatitis A, B and C; lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV); non-specific urethritis (NSU), and syphilis. The draft is roundly criticised by many experts in HIV science, law and policy.

November 2006: Clive Rowlands, 43, pleads guilty in Liverpool to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV and is sentenced to 30 months imprisonment.

January 2007: An unnamed Zimbabwean man pleads guilty in Bournemouth to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV. He is sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment, with a recommendation that he be deported at the end of his sentence.

June 2007: Peace Marangwanda pleads guilty to reckless transmission of gonorrhoea through casual touch, apparently to save the two complainants, aged 4 and 6, from having to testify again in court. The jury in his original January 2007 trial for sexual abuse had been unable to reach a verdict. A 2009 appeal reduces his prison sentence from two years to one year.

February 2007: After being brought back from Italy to stand trial, Giovanni Mola pleads guilty in Scotland to 'culpable and reckless conduct' for having recklessly transmitted HIV and hepatitis C by sexual intercourse. He is sentenced to nine years in prison.

April 2007: A charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV is dismissed by a Preston judge following evidence that the complainant may have acquired HIV elsewhere. The defendant, a gay man in his 50s, is acquitted of these charges but convicted of another offence.

February 2008: Charges of grievous bodily harm by intentionally transmitting HIV are dropped, and charges of grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV dismissed by a Manchester judge. The prosecution was unable to prove that the defendant, a man in his 30s, was the source of the female complainant's infection.

November 2008: Ercan Yasar, 29, becomes the first person in the UK to be convicted of grievous bodily harm for recklessly transmitting hepatitis B. He pleads guilty in Leicester and is sentenced to two years imprisonment. The case is criticised by NAT and THT as "inappropriate" and a "miscarriage of justice."

November 2008: James Cawley, 41, pleads guilty in Preston to grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV. It is alleged that the female complainant infected a subsequent sexual partner before she was diagnosed. Mr Cawley is sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

November 2008: A 33 year-old man charged with grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV in Leicester has his charges dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to difficulties in obtaining evidence that only he could have infected the female complainant.

January 2010: A 41 year-old man, Richard Devereaux, pleads guilty in Scotland to four counts of 'culpable and reckless conduct' for having unprotected sex. Of the four female complainants, only one is infected: she subsequently applies to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) for damages. This first-ever HIV exposure conviction in the UK is criticised by THT, NAT and HIV Scotland for setting an "alarming" precedent.

May 2010: An unnamed man charged with grievous bodily harm by recklessly transmitting HIV in Doncaster has his charges dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service. There were two male complainants, but the police had not investigated the possibility that their previous sexual partners may have infected them.