It was the second time she had a relationship with him. The first time, in 1994, there was only one report. Already, he had not protected himself when he knew he was contaminated. She won’t get anything this time.
The accused learned of his contamination in 1993 while he was doing his military service classes. He stayed there for a few days and then he was discharged for medical reasons. He learns from the military doctor that he has HIV.
« I asked him if he had a condom but he replied that he was allergic and that he was not sick, that I had nothing to fear“, explains the victim to the court this Thursday morning concerning their first report in 2002.
Then, a long Way of the Cross begins for her. Despite everything, she remains kind to him and wonders if he knows he is contaminated. In 2006, she did research to find him and came across articles related to the rape of which he was accused and then sentenced in 2009 to 12 years in prison.
She explains to the court the ordeal she lives
She finds the passages where the accused explains his thirst for revenge. She decides to file a complaint alone and then contacts the lawyer who defended her rape victim. A procedure is in place.
Eric M. will be indicted and sent back to the Assize Court in November 2021. Postponed initially, the trial opened this Thursday, May 12, 2022. She explains to the court the ordeal she has been living since, both in his love life and in his daily life.
The forensic expert confirms that there is no doubt that the transmission is due to the accused. The sequencing is 99% identical.
Moreover, the victim is clear: his two relationships before and after Eric M. are negative, it can only come from him. « I can’t date, but it was contaminated before 2003″says the expert.
The professor in charge of comparing the two strains is also unanimous: « it is highly probable at 99% that one of them has contaminated the other« .
“He told me he wanted revenge on a girl who infected him”
The testimonies of the victim’s ex-girlfriends highlight the same elements: the accused had not told them that he was contaminated and worse still, he did not want to put on a condom. Most of the time they were learning »thatby his family.
However, one testimony stood out this Thursday morning: the young woman who was the accused’s rape victim. She was a minor at the time of the events and this time again, he had not protected himself. « I was raped by a girlfriend’s brother. He said he wanted revenge on a girl who infected him and pass it on to all the girls« , she explains with courage at the bar. The same words he had made in police custody after the rape.
The accused was able to speak at the beginning of the afternoon, questioned by the president. It turns out that he had multiple relationships and didn’t protect himself unless forced to. According to him, he knew he was a carrier but he did not know that he could transmit it, as evidenced by his companion with whom he was when the victim was infected but who was much more likely to remain negative. « You know how it’s passed on ’cause you say you caught it from a woman« , says the president. The tragedy is that the mother of his children died in 2001 of AIDS, it was he who infected her.
« I don’t wear a condom because I want someone with AIDS like me »
« I have hatred, his death has accentuated my rage even more. I want revenge even more. I do not wear a condom because I want someone to have AIDS like me. She is a woman who gave it to me, that’s why it’s a woman I have to give it to“, these are the comments made by the accused during the investigation of the first trial that the lawyer for the civil party coldly reminds him of this Thursday.
Eric M.’s lawyer will then focus her questions on the regrets expressed by her client but above all on the absence of intentionality. She highlights the fact that if her client knew he was contaminated, at no time was there intentionality: “I regret what I did, especially to the victim, because if I transmitted to him, I did not mean to do it knowingly“, explains his client.
Only one thing to do: « Protect yourself to protect others »
It is clear, after this first day of trial, that it was his remarks made in police custody for rape that led him a second time before the Assize Court. It is clear that the accused resented all the young women because he had never accepted that it fell on him. The president will explain to him that she understands that he had a bad feeling, that his life must have been an ordeal and that he felt rejected when he learned of his HIV status. She will insist on making him say throughout the debates that he had only one thing to do: « Protect yourself to protect others ».
The whole issue of this trial revolves around the premeditation of the transmission of HIV by the accused to the victim. The transmission being beyond doubt, the sentence pronounced on Friday by the Assize Court will depend on this notion of premeditation.
Eric M., who arrived free in court under judicial supervision, could leave tomorrow again in detention. While he had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for rape in 2009, this time he risks a sentence of 15 years in prison.
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