An HIV-positive Melbourne man organised orgies to deliberately infect other men with the virus, a court was told yesterday. Michael John Neal, 48, of suburban Coburg, faces 122 charges relating to sex with 16 men when he was knowingly infected with the HIV virus between 2000 and 2006. He is accused of infecting two people with HIV over this period. He appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for a committal hearing today. Prosecutor Mark Rochford told the court Mr Neal's reason for infecting other men with HIV was to increase the number of men he could then continue to have unprotected sex with. "In conversations and other material Mr Neal has demonstrated an intention to infect people with HIV,'' Mr Rochford said. "He indicated his reasons for doing that is for more people (to be) introduced to a particular group of HIV-infected persons actively participating in unprotected ... sex.'' Mr Rochford told the court Mr Neal organised sex parties and orgies, which were called "conversion parties'', to thus facilitate the infection of people with HIV. He said some people attending the parties were aware of this and others were not. When interviewed by police, Mr Neal denied deliberately infecting people with HIV and said that he had a document from a doctor saying the chances of him infecting others was very low. The committal hearing before magistrate Peter Reardon continues. Ref: Daily Telegraph (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 21st March 2007 - 12:00pm