Man’s HIV serious-harm conviction quashed by Supreme Court

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

An unnamed man’s conviction for intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm by infecting two women with HIV was quashed by the Supreme Court on 14 December 2023. The offences concerned his wife and another woman.

The seven-judge court allowed his appeal against the 2018 conviction. It found flaws in the trial judge’s directions to the jury on scientific analysis and witness evidence, and said the prosecution’s circumstantial case required careful assessment of whether either woman could have been infected another way.

The Supreme Court did not decide that the allegations were true or false. The Director of Public Prosecutions’ lawyers said they needed time to establish whether their client wanted to retry him.