HIV-positive man may be jailed for knowingly infecting partners

A French prosecutor on Thursday called for a minimum 15-year jail sentence for an HIV-positive man who knowingly infected one of his partners and exposed five others to the virus.

HIV screening. AFP PHOTO/ Isaac Kasamani

Christophe Morat, 40, appeared on Thursday before the criminal court of Aix en Provence, southern France, for having unprotected sex with the women even though he knew he was HIV-positive.

Having been found HIV-positive since 1998 at least, Morat was jailed for six years in 2005 for passing on the virus to two of his partners.

Freed from prison in 2008, had numerous affairs after subscribing to an online dating service where he made more than 400 contacts while hiding the fact that he was HIV-positive, prosecutor Martine Assonion told the court.

One of his partners, aged 17, decided to file a suit in 2012 after having unprotected sex with Morat and later finding out about his criminal record.

Three other women were identified but only one of the victims tested positive.

Morat said he "was fully informed of the contamination mode of the virus" before the court, but nonetheless he stopped his tritherapy between February 2009 and December 2010 and again in July 2011.

Assonion said that ending the treatment had turned Morat into a viral human bomb.