No bail for HIV woman

A HIV-positive woman who went missing from custody at the Elizabeth Fry Society was back in bail court Tuesday.

Jennifer Murphy, 38, is facing three counts of aggravated sex assault after she allegedly had unprotected sex without telling the three males of her condition.

She was granted bail with 24-hour house arrest at the Elizabeth Fry Society in Barrie, but a week ago she left. On Friday, she turned herself in to police in Toronto and she was transported back to Barrie. She will now not be eligible to get out on bail.

Murphy will be held at CNCC and will be back in court June 15 where a pretrial will be held. She has a trial date set for September.

In the meantime her lawyer, Angela McLeod, says she is hoping for a Supreme Court ruling to be announced soon, regarding whether or not it is a crime for HIV carriers to have sex without telling their partners of their infection.

An aggravated sexual assault is one that endangers someone’s life – but health-care and legal advocates have argued that it should not be a crime as long as the infected person is on anti-viral therapy. They argue there is no risk to a sex partner, since modern medical treatment can reduce the HIV viral load to be undetectable. In Canada, an estimated 75,000 people live with HIV, with 3,300 people infected each year.