A MAN who knowingly infected a Liverpool woman with the HIV virus has been jailed for six years.
Liverpool crown court Judge David Lynch called South African Kouassi Adaye "a danger to women", after he pleaded guilty at to inflicting grievous bodily harm on a 48-year-old woman.
John McDermott QC, prosecuting, told the court Adaye (pictured), an asylum seeker who was originally from the Ivory Coast, had unprotected sex with the woman last April, just eight days after he was informed he may be HIV positive.
Adaye, 37, of Wynnstay Street, Toxteth, also had sex with two other women, one of whom he had married bigamously, but it was not alleged that he had infected them.
Mr McDermott said Adaye left his South African wife and daughter in 1999 and made his way to the UK, claiming asylum on the grounds of religious persecution.
His claim was refused, but following an administrative error, Adaye's claim was held in abeyance and was still being considered by the Home Office when he was arrested in May last year.
Adaye, who has a qualification in law from the Ivory Coast, obtained a French passport, identity card and driving licence so he could obtain a National Insurance number.
Calling himself Jean Michel Adaye, the asylum seeker got a job at the Kingdom of Leather furniture store in Edge Lane, then as a meter reader for Scottish Power, where he earned £11,000 a year.
Mr McDermott said it was while he worked at the shop when he met his 48-year-old victim, who was described as a married professional woman.
He told her he was a French solicitor and that he had been working in Chester until he had an accident.
The court heard their relationship became a sexual one and he had unprotected sex with her after being told it was probable he had the HIV virus.
Mr McDermott said: "The Crown say the defendant was fully aware on that day that he was a carrier of the virus.
"Enquiries in South Africa led to his general practitioner. He had attended her clinic on no less than six occasions, on each for sexually transmitted diseases.
"She diagnosed him to have various sexual infections and in September, 1997, sent him to be tested for HIV. He did not attend.
"She asserts that each time she saw him she told him that if he was not already HIV positive, he soon would be."
After being aware he could be infected, he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, but she did not contract the disease.
Adaye, who pleaded guilty to falsely claiming more than £12,300 in state benefits, also admitted bigamy.
He married a 57-year-old widow after claiming his South African wife was dead, but never lived with her.
Mr McDermott said: "At every twist turn the defendant falsehoods to obtain his ends."
He told the authorities he was the single parent of two children, aged six and 17, and that they lived in a cramped flat in order to obtain a crisis loan for clothes.
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