HIV positive witness learns of his status in courtroom

A judge last week demanded an inquiry into how a blood sample from a witness in a criminal case was handed to defence lawyers by police and tested for HIV without his consent.

The witness learned for the first time that he had tested positive for the virus when he was questioned about it by defence counsel in a packed courtroom in Leicester.

The shocked defence witness, who the judge ordered must not be named, denied all knowledge of his HIV positive status when he was questioned by the barrister, who assumed he must know of it.

It emerged that defence lawyers had sent a sample of his blood, handed over by police at the request of the Crown Prosecution Service, for an HIV test without his knowledge.

The man had given the blood sample for DNA testing last year after he was arrested on suspicion of an offence. He was later released without charge.

The judge said last week that the sample should have been destroyed after the man was discharged and ordered that he should be given immediate counselling.

The judge had been given a copy of the test result by the defence but did not realise that the witness was unaware of it.

To protect the identity of the witness, the judge banned any reporting of the details of the case, including why the man's HIV status was relevant to the issues in the trial, which finished last week. His questioning in court took place last month but could not be reported until the end of the trial.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had handed over the blood sample in fulfilment of its duty to make full and proper disclosure to the defence. It was in a list of unused material that prosecutors are required to supply, and the defence requested it.

“What the defence do with it is up to them and we can't stop them,” said a spokeswoman. “We were just the middle person in this.”