- A former soldier was jailed for three years yesterday
for not telling his girlfriend that he was HIV positive during their five-month
relationship.
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- Stephen Kenney's girlfriend only discovered the truth
when a former girlfriend of Kenney telephoned her. Helmut Seel, the presiding
judge at the court in Lippstadt, northern Germany, described Kenney as
"selfish person", adding that it was only through "unbelievable
luck" that Katrin Pieper, 31, had escaped infection.
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- Kenney, 41, who has lived in Germany for more than 20
years, many of them in the British Army as a driver, was convicted of multiple
counts of attempted bodily harm.
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- He admitted having unprotected sex with Ms Pieper at
least 25 times between last August and January, despite learning that he
was HIV positive in 1999. He and Ms Pieper met in Hamburg last year and
moved, with Ms Pieper's 11-year-old son, to Erwitte where Kenney was a
van driver.
-
- Kenney said that he did not tell Ms Pieper because he
could not bear the thought that she might leave him. He had found it difficult
coping with his condition and had demanded four tests before he would believe
that he was HIV positive.
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- Judge Seel also ordered Kenney to pay Ms Pieper £2,218
in compensation. Speaking before the trial to the German newspaper, Bild,
Ms Pieper said: "The woman phoned and asked if I knew that my boyfriend
was HIV positive.
-
- "I cried the whole night, then the next morning
I went straight to the doctors and cried, raged and cursed." She said
the worst thing was waiting for four months before she knew for certain
that she was not infected.
-
- She said: "I fell asleep with the fear - and in
the morning I woke up afraid. Every time I sneezed the panic grew. I didn't
even want to kiss my child any more because I was scared I would infect
him."
-
- "I asked him [Kenney], 'Why did you keep quiet?'
and he just said he didn't want to lose me. When I left he said to me,
'I wish I'd infected you, then you'd stay with me forever'."
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- http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/09/05/whiv05.xml
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