HIV after alleged rape 'felt like death sentence'

Adam Hall is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court

This article contains sexual details some people may find distressing

A man who claims he was raped and deliberately given HIV when he was 18 has told a court he thought he had been given a death sentence.

The man said Adam Hall, 43, was the source for his infection after Mr Hall raped him at the defendant's Washington home in 2016, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The complainant, one of seven said to have been infected by Mr Hall, said they met at a gay bar in Newcastle and later his repeated pleas for the defendant to stop made no difference.

Mr Hall, from Donwell, denies raping five men and seven counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

Prosecutors have said Mr Hall knew he was HIV positive, having been diagnosed in 2010, but did not tell sexual partners, did not use protection and did not take the drugs he should have to make him non-infectious.

'Am I going to die?'

The court heard the man, who is now 28, was 18 when he met Mr Hall in Newcastle shortly after moving to the city.

After drinking together, Mr Hall took the man back to his house where he put a film on pulled from a cabinet of DVDs, the court heard.

The pair began to kiss but Mr Hall became "more forceful" and started pulling the teenager's clothes off, the man said.

He said he told Mr Hall "no" multiple times but it made no difference, with the man saying he felt "weak and vulnerable" as Mr Hall went on to rape him.

Mr Hall then drove him back into Newcastle, with the man saying he felt in "shock".

He said he continued to message Mr Hall afterwards to "keep the peace" but he had no intention of seeing him again.

The court heard the man was sentenced to eight weeks in a youth detention centre for driving offences shortly after, and it was while incarcerated that a standard medical test revealed he was HIV positive.

When asked by prosecutor Kama Melly KC how he felt on receiving the diagnosis, the man said: "I thought it was a death sentence."

He said he was young and knew very little about it, having never had any sexually transmitted disease, with the first question he asked the nurse being "am I going to die".

The man said he felt "weak" and "disgusted", adding he began showering all the time to try and "wash it away".

He said at the time of the diagnosis he felt his life had "come to a standstill", but it was something he had "learned to live with" and he now took daily medication and had regular check ups.

Jailed for blackmail

The man said his only sexual partners had been female and he had never had a blood transfusion or injected drugs, which could have been other sources of the virus.

He said he had not known Mr Hall was HIV positive but found out afterwards that it was "quite well known around the gay scene".

The court previously heard from the man's relative who said it was "common knowledge" Mr Hall had HIV and, had he known there was a chance the pair were going to have sexual contact, he would have warned his young relation of Mr Hall's status.

The complainant said he reported the rape and HIV infection to police in 2017 but no prosecution was brought.

In 2024, Northumbria Police contacted him to say Mr Hall was under further investigation and his case had been reopened, the court heard.

In cross-examination, the man admitted he had made false sexual allegations previously which had seen him jailed for two years for blackmail.

Mr Hall's barrister Craig Hassall KC asked the man if the allegations he was now making about the defendant were "another lie".

The man said: "No, it's true."

Mr Hassall asked if the man had lied about Mr Hall in order to get money from a victim compensation scheme, which the man said he had applied for but not followed up with after there was an issue with his claim.

The man replied "not at all".

The trial continues.