Secrets and lies

She was infected by her boyfriend. A man she had known for a number of years. A man she had loved and trusted. A man who repeatedly lied about having the infection.

Today, as her former boyfriend began a three-and-a-half year jail sentence, Anne told the Daily Echo she had known her former boyfriend for a couple of years before they started a relationship.

A responsible young woman who practised safe sex and went for regular sexual health checks, Anne had broached the subject of whether her 35-year-old partner had any sexually transmitted diseases the first night they got together.

In what was the beginning of a web of lies and deceit, the man showed Anne an appointment card from a genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinic which, he told her, proved he had been tested for infectious diseases and was negative.

Anne said their relationship blossomed and they had unprotected sex, but when the issue came up again she asked him to take an HIV and STI test and he said he would.

"I trusted him and had no reason not to believe him," she said.

When she asked about the results, he told a series of lies: that the hospital had lost the results; he had called and been given the all clear; he even sent her a copy of a bogus text message from the clinic stating he was infection-free.

Eventually the man agreed to go to the clinic with Anne to be tested. It was only then she discovered she was HIV positive.

Paperwork later revealed her ex-partner had been diagnosed HIV positive some six years earlier.

Anne said: "I was very angry to start with and glad he was in prison as I could have seriously done something. But that's pointless, he has done enough.

"You can have a relationship with someone who's positive and keep it quite safe. I'm not saying I'd have stayed with him had he told me, but it was pointless that I contracted it.

"I think he wanted to pretend he didn't have it so he could lead a normal life.

"It's society's fault because of the stigma attached to having HIV and Aids. If it wasn't like that may be he would have felt able to say something."

Anne said: "I'd never do what he did because I have got a conscience. That's why I told the police, to stop him from infecting anyone else."

Anne is now trying to rebuild her life. She has only told a handful of people and is still coming to terms with what has happened to her.

"I still feel angry but he's in prison, he's got it himself so it's not like he's got away with anything. He's still got to live with it."

DS Phil Swanton, officer in the case, said: "This is someone who supposedly cared for her and was in a relationship with her. We have got to praise Anne for her courage and bravery for coming to the police station in the first place. It must have been a huge step walking through the front door, especially as she was still coming to terms with the fact she was HIV positive herself. She did it to stop him infecting others, as opposed to looking for vengeance.

"We believe it's only the tenth conviction nationally and that's because of the difficulty in proving who has passed on the infection or who they have contracted the infection from.

"Scientifically we can't prove this, as each strain, unlike DNA, is not unique. Because she had been proactively checking her sexual health we could prove she contracted HIV over a very short time frame."

Colleague DC Kim Goodenough added: "Other crimes sometimes make sense but I can't get my head around why anyone would want to do this to another person." Worryingly, Anne may not be the only victim of the man's recklessness. He has admitted to police that he has had one-night stands with women in Bournemouth but has refused to divulge their names, claiming he does not know them. Either way there may be a number of women in the town who are a ticking time bomb.

* The woman's name has been changed to protect her identity.