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Victoria Media

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Victoria 1

Victorian HIV transmission prosecutions. September 2008 issue of Positive Living 1

Christopher Dennis Dirckze 2

HIV positive doctor jailed for endangering wife AAP General News (Australia) 13 August 1999 2

Date: 8/28/99 2

Mr C’s Partner 3

HIV man sues former lover. 13 September 2003. 3

Michael Neal 4

Gay Aussie Convicted of Trying to Spread HIV. 31 July 2008. 4

Bureaucracy must be battle-ready to combat HIV/AIDS. 10 December 2007 6

We bungled HIV case: minister. The Age, 4 April 2007. 7

State, police plan new HIV policy. The Age, 3 April 2007. 8

Call to sack medic over HIV case. The Age, 2 April 2007. 9

HIV advice rejected by health chief. The Age, 31 March 2007. 10

Call to axe chief adviser over HIV policy. The Australian, 31 March 2007. 12

Officials failed to alert police about HIV man. The Age, 21 March 2007. 14

HIV man 'had sex with hundreds'. The Age, 11 October 2006. 16

‘Condom phobia’ man wanted AIDS. The Age, 7 August 2006. 18

HIV Victims Could Sue Government. Sydney Observer, 20 July 2006. 18

More victims in HIV infection case. The Age, 14 July 2006. 19

Lam Kuoth 20

Man likely to avoid jail in HIV sex case. The Age, 27 June 2008. 20

HIV-positive man had sex with girls, court hears. The Age, June 26, 2007 21

Victorian HIV transmission prosecutions. September 2008 issue of Positive Living

By David Menadue

http://napwa.org.au/pl/2008/09/victorian-hiv-transmission-prosecutions

At the same time criminalisation issues were being discussed in Mexico City, two cases of HIV-transmission offences were being tried in Victoria.

After a six-week trial, an HIV-positive Melbourne man, Michael Neal, was found guilty of deliberately trying to spread HIV in the Victorian County Court on July 31. The court found him guilty of 15 charges including attempting to infect another person with HIV, rape and administering a drug for the purposes of sexual penetration. The jury cleared him of eleven charges that alleged he had intentionally infected two men with the virus.

Neal had pleaded not guilty to 34 charges and his barrister George Georgiou argued that his client did not believe he was infectious because his viral load was low and he was careful not to endanger others. Neal pleaded guilty to 12 charges including possessing a drug of dependence, possessing child pornography and an indecent act with a child under 16.

Outside the court, investigators were happy with the result but disappointed that they were unable to uphold the more serious charges that he had caused two people to be infected with the virus. Neal is still facing the prospect of a lengthy prison term given the seriousness of the proven charges, including rape. Sentencing is likely to be held in October.

Several weeks later on August 11, Melbourne man Lam Kouth was found guilty of two counts of reckless conduct endangering another person. The court heard Louth met a woman at a Prahran nightclub and had unprotected sex with her without informing her of his HIV status. The woman did not become HIV-positive. The court was told the community had sympathy for those infected with HIV but expects people to behave in a way that does not affect public health. Louth was sentenced to two years prison, suspended for three years and remains on a Department of Human Services supervision order.

Mike Kennedy, Executive Director of VAC/GMHC said it was too early to comment on the implications of the Neal case, in particular, until a proper examinationof the transcripts of evidence was undertaken. There is also the possibility of an appeal.

Christopher Dennis Dirckze

HIV positive doctor jailed for endangering wife AAP General News (Australia) 13 August 1999

MELBOURNE, Aug 13 AAP - A former Melbourne doctor who is HIV positive was jailed for a minimum of three years today for endangering his wife by having unprotected sex with her.

County Court Judge Graham Anderson sentenced 43-year-old Christopher Dennis Dirckze to a total of four years and two months.

Dirckze had pleaded guilty to a charge of placing his wife in danger of serious injury by having unprotected sex with her over three years.

He also pleaded guilty to two fraud charges involving a $1 million life insurance claim.

Date: 8/28/99

A former doctor was yesterday jailed for four years after a judge found he deliberately had a sexual relationship with his future wife after he was diagnosed HIV positive. Christopher Dennis Dirckze was ordered to serve a minimum three-year term.

Judge Graham Anderson said Dirckse had been "totally irresponsible "to pursue a relationship with his wife, conceive a child with her and continue to having unprotected sex during their three year marriage. Dirckze had made no attempt to protect his wife.

Judge Anderson said in court, Dirckse had lied to police, claiming his wife knew about his condition, and had shown no remorse. Dirckse, 43, of Glenhuntly, in South East Melbourne, pleaded guilty to placing his wife in serious danger. Both his former wife and their daughter have tested negative to HIV.

Outside the court, his former wife said she was relieved the case was over and "justice had been done". In a victim-impact-statement tendered to the court, she said her "fairytale life" was destroyed by her former husband's double life. She told Judge Anderson she had found a diary written by him “that is so dreadfully appalling”.

Dirckze, who showed no emotion as sentence was passed, was struck off the medical register in 1997 for Medicare fraud and having sex with male patients.

At this trial, he also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting, to obtain a financial advantage by deception when he took out life and income insurance worth more than 1 million dollars in 1993, without declaring he had been involved in a high-risk relationship with a HIV-positive man.

Judge Anderson said Dirckze pursued his future wife in 1994, after he was diagnosed with the AIDS-virus. He had a long-term relationship with an HIV-positive man and many casual relationships with other man.

In July 1993, while living with his HIV-positive lover, Dirckze applied for a (!) million dollar life insurance policy that covered professionals at risk of contracting HIV thorough their work. In taking out that policy he declared he was not HIV positive and had not engaged in high-risk behavior or anal-sex.

He took out an income insurance policy on December 8 (1993) that year for 7500 dollar a month in income lost plus 6765 dollar a month for business expenses, and made the same declaration.

Dirckze on December 31 (1993) claimed he suffered a needle-stick injury while withdrawing blood from his HIV-positive lover. Dirckze made a claim on his policy in early January 1994. Several weeks after the alleged needle-injury, an investigation was launched by the insurance company. His former HIV-positive lover told police the incident did not occur and there was no incident report lodged at his place of work at the time.

End newspaper. Well what is your thoughts on all this?

Mr C’s Partner

HIV man sues former lover. 13 September 2003.

By Fergus Shiel, Law Reporter.

A Coburg man is suing his former lover for damages, claiming that he infected him with the AIDS virus, causing him horrible suffering and forcing him to quit his job.

The 40-year-old, identified simply as Mr C, says that his ex-partner hid his HIV-positive status from him for years.

"I am the victim of a crime and I want justice," said Mr C, who has filed a claim for unspecified damages in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Victorian AIDS Council executive director Mike Kennedy said it was the first case of its kind that he had heard about and one that raised complex issues about one person's responsibility for another.

"Our position has always been that responsibility for preventing HIV transmission is a shared one," Mr Kennedy said.

Having known each other as friends for several years, Mr C and the other man became a couple and moved in with one another in early 1990.

Mr C says that his doctor had given him a clean bill of health shortly before the move but in March of the same year was shocked to discover that he was HIV-positive.

He says that it was only three years later that his partner, who was gravely ill at the time, confessed that he had known that he was HIV-positive since 1987.

"I had assumed for four years that my contracting the illness was accidental when in fact my partner had hidden his HIV status from me," Mr C said.

Numbed by shock and fighting to keep his partner alive, Mr C says it was only years later that the full awfulness of what his partner had done struck him.

The two men remained a couple until last year and, according to Mr C, it was only after they split up that he became properly aware of his legal rights and felt strong enough to pursue them.

Mr C is suing his former partner for wilfully engaging in sexual activity without informing him of his HIV status and for conduct that recklessly endangered him.

His partner has lodged a defence denying that he knew of his HIV status and arguing that Mr C was contributorily negligent in engaging in sexual activity with him without checking it first.

The case is expected to go to trial next year.

Neither Mr C's former partner nor the man's solicitor wanted to comment.

Mr C made a statement to Coburg police about his former partner but says they have dropped the matter.

Unhappy with the police response, he complained to the Ombudsman.

It is believed that the Ombudsman has since referred it back to senior management in the Coburg police district for review.

"I believe that I am a victim of a crime and that this is a public health issue," Mr C said.

A detective at Coburg police said the matter was fully investigated but it was considered there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution.

Michael Neal

Gay Aussie Convicted of Trying to Spread HIV. 31 July 2008.

By Kilian Melloy, EDGE Contributor.

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=78319

An Australian court found a HIV-positive man guilty of 15 charges stemming from deliberate attempts to infect other people with the virus.

The Australian newspaper the Sydney Herald Sun reported in a July 31 article that Michael John Neal, a 49-year-old man from Coburg, had been found guilty that same day on 15 out of a total of 39 charges, including rape and attempting to infect people with HIV.

The court found Neal innocent of 11 other charges, including accusations that he spread the virus knowingly to two others who did become infected.

Evidence presented to the court over the course of Neal's month-and-a-half-long trial included the claim that the accused had convened sex parties where the intent was to infect HIV-negative people. The court was also told that as part of the attempt to spread the virus, Neal sported a piercing on his genitalia.

The newspaper account said that several of those who testified told the court that they had had unprotected sex with Neal, and that he had not warned them in advance that he was HIV positive.

The prosecutor, Mark Rochford, also claimed that Neal had boasted about "get[ting] off" by exposing HIV-negative partners to the virus; Rochford also said that Neal had made a claim to have infected 75 people.

But Neals lawyer, George Georgiou, told the court that Neal had taken the proper precautions to protect others. The defense lawyer also claimed that because Neal's viral count was low, Neal thought the risk of transmitting the virus was not a concern.

The government's Department of Human Services began keeping tabs on Neal following a 2001 report from Neal's physician, who notified the department that Neal was sexually active. The department subsequently sent several letters to Neal over the course of the next five years, and his physician also counseled Neal about the need to be sexually responsible, the article said.

Said Detective Sgt. Eric Harbis of the trial and the verdict, "It certainly sends a message that this sort of behavior was not tolerated," and added that investigators were satisfied with the outcome even though many of the charges were also dropped.

Said Harbis, "There would be a degree of disappointment to some extent, but overall we are very happy with the result. It was a team effort."

Added the officer, "I commend the many victims and witnesses that came forward who had to recount some very private parts of their lives, which they did in the public arena, and should be commended."

Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.

Bureaucracy must be battle-ready to combat HIV/AIDS. 10 December 2007

http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/bureaucracy-must-be-battleready-to-combat-hivaids/2007/12/09/1197135284016.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

FEW things are undeniably a matter of life and death, but the battle against the spread of HIV/AIDS is one. Unfortunately in Victoria, the fight against this insidious condition is taking place not only against the background of a disturbing increase in infection rates but also of concerns about how well equipped the state's health bureaucracy is to manage it. In April this year, serious questions were raised about the administration of health policy after the sacking of chief health officer Dr Robert Hall by the then health minister, Bronwyn Pike.

Dr Hall was sacked over the alleged non-disclosure of three HIV-positive people under police investigation and for rejecting a recommendation from an advisory panel to the Department of Human Services that another HIV-positive person, Michael John Neal, be removed from the community. Neal is now before the courts on more than 100 charges, including allegations that he deliberately infected two men and tried to infect 14 others.