Supreme Court quashes man's conviction for harming women by infecting them with HIV

The man's wife submitted a victim impact statement alleging her life 'dramatically changed' since he took away her personality, health and positivity

The Supreme Court’s Ms Justice O’Malley said the scientific evidence to the court might have established that the man and his former partners each had the B subtype, which originates in Africa, but there was evidence from the defence expert that this conclusion could have been wrong. File photo: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

A man’s conviction for causing serious harm to two partners by intentionally or recklessly infecting them with HIV has been quashed by the Supreme Court.

The court said the 2018 case appears to be the first prosecution of its kind in this State, but there were flaws with how the trial judge guided the jury on the scientific analysis of samples of the virus taken from the three individuals, as well as the personal witness evidence.