Summary
There is something profoundly disturbing about the case of Nadja Benaissa, the 34-year-old German singing star charged with having unprotected sex with several men, despite knowing she is HIV- positive. She faces a grievous bodily harm charge for allegedly infecting one of these men in 2004. On Monday, she sat in court in a severe Puritan-style purple pin-tucked blouse, her long curly hair pulled back into a pony tail. It was a scene reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's great study of adultery, guilt and redemption. "I am sorry from the bottom of my heart," her statement read.
The case brings to mind the 20-year-old unnamed Welsh woman sentenced to two years' youth custody in 2005 after pleading guilty to "recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm" by transmitting HIV to her former boyfriend, and Sarah Jane Porter, who received a 32- month sentence for a similar offence. Tried and convicted once by the court, they were then comprehensively pilloried by the tabloids, especially Sarah Jane. "Pure evil," opined the Daily Mail. "Aids avenger," declared The Sun.See the full content of this document
Extract
Hiv Women Deserve Sympathy, Not Prison
These women were portrayed as little short of sadists, who deliberately set out to destroy the lives of the men they slept with. Despite some extrem...
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