Woman convicted of aggravated sexual assault in HIV case

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/12/2014 (3422 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took jurors just a few hours to find an HIV-positive Manitoba woman guilty of infecting her male partner during consensual sex.

Marjorie Schenkels was convicted of aggravated sexual assault on Wednesday evening. Jury deliberations had started earlier in the day following a week-long trial. Schenkels will be sentenced later this winter.

In closing arguments this week, defence lawyer Ian Histed portrayed his client as the real victim of this landmark legal case. Schenkels, 27, is the first woman in the province to go on trial for such a crime.

“You should have no difficulty whatsoever in coming to the conclusion she is innocent,” Histed said. He launched a blistering attack against the 37-year-old victim, claiming he has no one to blame but himself. He said the man should have known the risks when he initiated having unprotected sex with a woman he barely knew. As well, Schenkels was suffering from drug and alcohol addiction at the time — a fact Histed said calls into question whether the sex was truly consensual.

“She might have submitted to his advances. But that doesn’t make her guilty,” said Histed. “He should be charged with sexual assault.”

It was quite the allegation, considering there is no evidence to suggest the sex was anything but consensual. Schenkels never took the witness stand, although jurors did hear a statement she gave to police in which she admitted to hiding the truth from the victim because she was in disbelief about her condition and “scared of losing everybody.”

The victim also testified he never would have had sex with Schenkels on the three to four occasions they did had she told him the truth — another fact Histed scoffed at Tuesday.

“She was irresistible to him,” the defence lawyer said. “He would have had sex with her if she told him she had leprosy.”

The man learned he was HIV-positive in late 2011, several months after his relationship with Schenkels began.

In their closing arguments, the Crown told jurors the “undisputed” evidence here was remarkably simple and only pointed to a verdict of guilty. Jurors clearly agreed.

Schenkels was diagnosed with HIV in 2009, was repeatedly warned by doctors in 2010 about her duty to disclose the condition to any male partners, and failed to do so after meeting the victim through a family member while living in Gimli in 2011.

The Crown said this was an “intentional act on behalf of the accused” despite knowing and understanding her legal obligation.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1998 an individual can be charged with aggravated sexual assault if they have HIV and engage in consensual acts that “pose a significant risk of transmission of the virus without first disclosing they have the virus to their sexual partner.”

www.mikeoncrime.com