WA: HIV man admits to sex with boy

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-1998
WA: HIV man admits to sex with boy

By Kylie Walker

PERTH, Dec 14 AAP - A Perth AIDS sufferer admitted in court today to having sex with a
12-year-old boy but denied that he passed the deadly virus to the child.

Dwayne Ian Rowland, 30, pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a child under
the age of 16, and pleaded not guilty to the charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm through
the transmission of HIV.

He was the second person in Australia to be charged with grievous bodily harm over the
transmission of HIV.

Director of Public Prosecutions John McKechnie, QC, told the court he was prepared to drop
the second charge but still wanted to prove Rowland, whose address has been suppressed, gave
the Fremantle schoolboy HIV.

Rowland admitted that he had sex with the boy about five to nine times between April 1995
and October 1996 in toilets at the Fremantle train station, using a condom on only one of
those occasions.

"(Rowland) was well aware he was HIV-positive, and he was also well aware of the risks, yet
knowing of these risks he continued to have unprotected sex with the child," Mr McKechnie
said.

The boy was diagnosed after Mormon church clergy told him homosexual sex was a mortal sin,
and he admitted to having sex with another man.

They advised him to take a blood test, which confirmed in November 1996 that he was
HIV-positive.

Rowland, who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1994, has since developed full-blown AIDS, his
lawyer, Mark Trowell, told District Court Judge Peter Williams.

Mr McKechnie told the court Rowland had denied the boy the chance to make a choice by
failing to tell him of his HIV-positive status.

University of Western Australia infectious diseases section Professor Roger Dawkins said an
analysis of the viruses of Rowland and the boy showed one was very likely to have been
infected by the other.

"The samples we obtained are extremely close; the two samples turned out to be closer
together than those we find in some individuals who have been sampled over time," Prof Dawkins
said.

Although the boy frequently returned to the Fremantle train station toilets looking for
sexual encounters with men, Mr McKechnie said he had not had anal sex with anyone but Rowland.

He emphasised he did not intend the prosecution of Rowland to become an indictment of gay
people.

"It is hoped as a society we have passed beyond the grim reaper horror," Mr McKechnie said.

"This is a criminal prosecution, and gay men should continue to feel confident in the
integrity and confidentiality of the medical profession."

In a victim impact statement to the court, the boy, now 16, said he had enjoyed having sex
with Rowland.

"Before this happened my life was very routine; I am glad that this happened, it was a nice
change," the boy wrote.

"I enjoyed what we did."

Judge Williams remanded Rowland in custody until tomorrow morning, when he will deliver his
decision on whether the transmission of HIV was an aggravating circumstance to the child sex
charge.

Sentencing submissions will also be made tomorrow, but Judge Williams conceded today that
Rowlands shortened life expectancy would be taken into account.

AAP kbw/kr/de

KEYWORD: ROWLAND NIGHTLEAD

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