ADELAIDE An HIV-positive man who insisted that there was no clear evidence that the virus caused Aids was sentenced to nine years in prison for having unprotected sex with three women.

A South Australia state supreme court jury convicted Andre Chad Parenzee, 36, in January on three counts of endangering life by having unprotected sex with the women, whose names have been suppressed by a court order.

He appealed against the conviction on the ground that there was no conclusive evidence linking HIV to Aids.

Parenzee, who has been held in custody since his conviction, was sentenced after two courts rejected his appeal.

In his sentencing, Justice John Sulan said that Parenzee had not come to terms fully with the fact that he had contracted HIV eight years ago, or the damage that he caused. One of his victims, a mother of two, later tested positive for HIV.

Parenzee will not be eligible for parole for five years.

It is the latest in a series of cases in which people with HIV have been jailed for knowingly passing on the virus.

In April this year, a Scottish judge sentenced to nine years an Italian chef who handed his lover a “death sentence” when he recklessly infected her with HIV and hepatitis C.

And last year, London receptionist Sarah Porter became the first publicly identified woman to be convicted of causing grievous bodily harm by having unprotected sex after she infected her boyfriend with HIV.

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