Four held over deliberate HIV infection

Four men have been arrested in a bizarre sex crime investigation in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, in which two of the suspects apparently intentionally infected others with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, a police spokesman confirmed today.

Three of the men – all of whom have HIV and were arrested on Sunday – were suspected of drugging other men and abusing them during sex parties.

“The suspicion is that at these parties, they had unsafe sex with people they had drugged, and also that these people were injected with infected blood,” district police chief Ronald Zwarter said.

“The motive to do this was the ’kick,’ and the feeling that unsafe sex is ’pure,”’ Zwarter said.

Two of the suspects confessed to injecting the victims.

The fourth suspect is suspected of selling “a considerable amount of drugs,” including Ecstasy and GHB, an intoxicant that is sometimes known as a “date rape” drug, police said.

All four were brought before a judge yesterday and were ordered held for 90 days.

Police said they didn’t rule out further arrests and called on other victims to come forward, or contact a help line to receive HIV testing.