The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has acquitted a woman who was accused by her ex-partner of transmitting the HIV virus after a year and a half relationship during which they had unprotected sex.
The Court believes that there is no conclusive evidence, nor the required certainty to dismantle the presumption of innocence and conclude that the woman infected the man, as it is possible that he contracted the disease through other relationships.
The Court remains doubtful about the guilt of the accused as the type of virus in both is different, one being HIV-1 and the other HIV-2, with different viral loads.
The judges point out that to demonstrate that it was the same virus, a phylogenetic analysis of both would have been necessary to see their genetic composition.
The verdict
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According to the verdict, which can be appealed to the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), it cannot be unequivocally concluded that it was the accused who infected the man with the virus, as there is no objective data that clearly demonstrates or proves that circumstance.
Furthermore, the ruling adds that “we cannot ignore the fact that before being with her, the complainant had a relationship with another person, and nothing rules out that the infection could have come from that person or from any other form of transmission other than the one claimed.”
Although there was a clinical analysis prior to the start of the relationship that did not detect HIV, “this does not rule out that the infection had not occurred previously,” the verdict states.
Different versions
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The Court highlights the existing contradictions between the two conflicting parties on aspects such as whether he was informed of the disease, the type and frequency of sexual relations.
The man was diagnosed with the condition in 2019 after being in a relationship with the woman, who, he claimed, never informed him of having this disease and justified the medicines in their house because she had a kidney condition.
She, however, stated during the trial that she had confessed from the beginning that she was a carrier of the virus since 2014, to which the complainant responded that he did not care, he knew what the medication was for, and at that time was having parallel relationships with several other women.
The prosecution sought nine years for grievous bodily harm and the payment of 300,000 euros, half of which would serve to cover the medical expenses, although the man acknowledges that these are covered by Social Security, and the rest for the moral and physical consequences he suffers.
The Public Ministry concludes that the woman knew she had the condition when starting this relationship and never informed the victim. Arguments that are also upheld by the private prosecution, which emphasized the contradictions that the accused would have incurred whilst the defence requests acquittal considering that there were not enough evidence to dismantle the presumption of innocence.
