Man, Jermaine Scott, who knowingly infected woman with HIV jailed for three years

Man who knowingly infected woman with HIV jailed for three years.

At Chester Crown Court yesterday, Jamaica-born Jermaine Scott was jailed for three years for the incident after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm.  

Scott had been diagnosed with the virus in 2005 and had been prescribed medicine to control the condition and prevent it spreading to others. 

The victim had previously been in a relationship with Scott, which the pair struck up again 2009, four years after his diagnosis.  

But Scott did not regularly take his tablets or tell his victim he was carrying the virus and proceeded to have unprotected sex with her, infecting her with HIV. When he was arrested in 2011, police lacked ‘sufficient evidence to charge him’ and he was released, being deported to Jamaica nine months later after he was found to have been in the UK illegally. 

Meanwhile, his victim, who was living with the virus and taking pills to control her condition, asked authorities to reopen the case. 

Together with medical experts, police worked to identify a ‘number of genetic links between the strain of HIV that the victim had been diagnosed with and that of the offender’. 

When these were established, police were able to issue a charge of grievous bodily harm against Scott in February 2020 and he was extradited to the UK in 2022.

In post-sentencing remarks, Detective Sergeant Emma Myers said the victim would ‘live the rest of her life forever marred by the actions of Scott’.

“The victim became suspicious of his behaviour, and in October 2009, the pair attended a sexual health clinic. While at the clinic Scott provided a false name and false medical details to the health worker.”

The victim subsequently tested positive for HIV and the pair ended their relationship. Following their split, Scott left the Cheshire area.

The incident was reported to police in October 2009 and an investigation was launched to locate Scott. Following a public appeal, he was located and arrested in February 2011.

Scott refused to answer any questions put to him by officers and despite a detailed investigation officers were unable to gather sufficient evidence to charge him in relation to the incident and the case was closed. He was subsequently deported from the UK in November 2011 after it was found that he was in the UK illegally.

Shortly after his deportation, the victim asked for the case to be reopened and detectives subsequently sought help from a number of medical experts who revealed that it was highly likely that the victim had been infected with HIV in the three months prior to her diagnosis, while she was in a relationship with Scott.