An HIV-positive B.C. man has been found guilty of committing sex crimes for having unprotected sex with women to whom he did not reveal his condition

CTV:

A jury in Westminster, B.C. convicted Adrien Nduwayo, 36, of five counts of aggravated sexual assault, one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault and one count of sexual assault.

"The message this sends I think is when you are HIV-positive you have a positive duty to disclose that fact to any perspective partners that you have," Crown counsel Andrew MacDonald said, minutes after the verdict was released.

He said that all of the women who testified against their former lover showed "tremendous amounts of courage and fortitude."

The charges relate to Nduwayo's failure to disclose his virus and engage in unprotected sex with seven women between 2000 and 2003.

Three of those women now have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

During the trial, court heard that Nduwayo carried on affairs, and slept with more than one woman at the same time.

Nduwayo contends he always wore condoms to protect his sexual partners and that he didn't have a legal obligation to disclose his condition to his partners.

But some of his former lovers said they had to insist that he wear them -- and that even then he often did not.

Defence lawyer Paul McMurray said outside the court that Nduwayo's defence was that all of his sexual partners in question were willing partners and that the fact he used a condom was sufficient in law to maintain their consent.

Nduwayo has said he didn't tell some of his lovers that he was HIV-positive because they didn't ask.

Some of them found out about Nduwayo's condition when they saw news reports that the police were looking for him for allegedly spreading the virus, court heard.

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