Man who 'recklessly' infected three women with HIV jailed for eight years
Rodney is already serving a five-year prison term聽for breaching a sexual risk order, as well as an unrelated drug offence.
Wednesday 29 April 2020 15:18, UK
A man has been jailed for eight years for "recklessly" infecting three women with HIV after having unprotected sex with them.
John Rodney, 60, was said to have "played Russian roulette" with others' health as he continued to have unprotected sex for several years despite testing positive for the virus in August 2013.
Rodney, from Swindon, failed to tell the women he was HIV positive before sexual contact and on one occasion had denied it when asked, claiming he had a different condition.
He had also not been regularly taking medication that would have reduced his risk of infecting others, Bristol Crown Court heard.
An investigation was launched by Wiltshire Police in 2017 following a complaint from one woman who had been diagnosed with HIV in 2015 following unprotected sex with Rodney.
More than 50 women were approached by officers and health professionals, and at least three were found to have contracted the virus from him in 2015 and 2016.
The 60-year-old had wrongly told medical professionals in April 2015 he had not had sex more more than a decade.
Detectives also found evidence Rodney had been contacted by two former partners in 2009 to tell him they had tested positive for HIV.
He later pleaded guilty to three charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm on three women and was given an extended sentence of 12 years and six months - eight years in prison and four-and-a-half years on licence.
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He is already serving a five-year prison term for breaching a sexual risk order which prevented him from having sex without telling police beforehand, as well as an unrelated drug offence.
Rodney has a catalogue of previous convictions, but Judge William Hart accepted he had not intended to infect the women with HIV.
"You were, in my judgement, grossly reckless in having unprotected sex with each victim when the chances were so high that they would become infected," the judge said.
"You were prepared to play Russian roulette with your partners' health but Russian roulette where the chances of an adverse outcome were much higher."
Referring to Rodney's numerous convictions, the judge added: "You have brought misery on so many over the 60 years of your life."
In a victim personal statement, one of the three women in the case said: "The choice to have unprotected sex would have been different should he have made me aware of his condition and been honest with me.
"This all could have been prevented - this didn't need to happen to me and the other ladies affected.
"We are all paying the price due to one person's lack of responsibility for himself and other human beings."