Defendants disagree on first day of Dutch HIV trial

One of three defendants accused of injecting a number of men with HIV-infected blood has confessed to injecting a syringe containing his own contaminated blood into the buttocks of another man. The two other suspects denied the allegations at the first day of trial in the northern Dutch city of Groningen on Monday.

During the hearing the defendants spoke in public about the case for the first time since being arrested in 2007. Hans J. told the court he had felt forced by main suspect Peter M. to inject the contaminated blood. “Peter put the syringe in my hands,” J. said. “I had to do it. Peter pointed out where.”

M., J., and M.’s boyfriend Wim D. have been charged with intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, assault and the possession of illegal drugs. The prosecution claims they deliberately injected a cocktail of their own HIV-contaminated blood into at least 12 men invited to gay sex parties. The victims were also drugged and sexually assaulted, the prosecution says.

Peter M. is considered to be the main suspect and the organiser of the sex parties where the alleged offences took place. Asked about the parties, which took place between 2005 and 2007, Peter M. said “everybody was doing it with everybody”. He added that the meetings were arranged so that everyone knew what he was getting himself into. Drugs, alcohol and unsafe sex were all voluntary, he said.

Peter M. admitted he had “messed about with” the blood of himself and Hans J. and that he held a syringe, without a needle, against the anus of a sex partner. “I never saw this as infecting someone,” he told the court. He said the injection incident as described by J. in court was not true.

Wim Anker, Peter M.’s lawyer, said on Monday that he thinks it will be hard for the prosecution to prove how the victims became infected with HIV. “They [the victims] had a lot of unprotected sex. I don’t think it will be simple to prove when someone became infected.”