A court has sentenced a 43-year-old man, Adam Hall, to life imprisonment for deliberately infecting seven victims, including two teenage boys, with HIV.
Hall was given a minimum jail term of 23 years after the court found that he intentionally targeted young and vulnerable men between 2016 and 2023 in Newcastle, United Kingdom.
Prosecutors said he used online platforms and bars to identify his victims.
The court heard that Hall, from Washington near Sunderland, was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on seven people, four of whom he r@ped.
Prosecutor Kama Melly KC described his actions as a calculated effort to cause harm, stating he carried out a “campaign of r@pe” to “deliberately inflict HIV on the victims”.
Evidence presented showed that Hall had been diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and was repeatedly warned by health professionals about the risks of transmitting the virus.
He was said to be “well aware” of the need to take medication to reduce infectiousness and to disclose his status to s3xual partners.
However, he falsely claimed compliance while choosing not to take treatment and deliberately exposing others.
Melly told the court that Hall targeted men who were “vulnerable” and sought out high-risk encounters, adding that his “real s3xual interest” was in causing “pain and harm”.
The prosecution stressed that HIV remains a “lifelong irreversible condition” with “significant health risks”, requiring continuous treatment.
For victims of r@pe, the impact is compounded, as daily medication serves as a constant reminder “on a daily basis” of the abuse.
Victim impact statements revealed the lasting trauma suffered by those affected.
One victim, who was 18 at the time, said he had been “violated in the most horrific and dehumanising way” and continued to live with the emotional burden.
“There are days when I feel like I am just surviving, not living,” he added.
Another victim told the court he had been a “very carefree 17-year-old” before the encounter, but his life was “tarnished and altered irreversibly”.
He said, “There is a massive hole in my heart for the life I might have lived,” and described feeling he had “betrayed” his younger self.
A third victim said he had been “hurt in the most malicious way”.
Judge Edward Bindloss criticised Hall’s refusal to attend the sentencing, saying it reflected the same disregard he had shown “to the suffering of others”.
He told the court that all the victims shared “sad and moving stories” and that “They have all had their futures taken away, all deliberately because of [Hall].”
Rejecting Hall’s claim that HIV was not a serious injury, the judge described the virus as a “permanent and irreversible” condition requiring lifelong treatment.
He added that Hall acted with clear premeditation, knowingly keeping himself infectious while deceiving his partners.
The judge also noted that Hall failed to inform victims of his status even after sexual encounters, denying them the chance to seek early medical intervention.
On the r@pe charges, the court found that Hall acted “selfishly with little empathy and no interest” in the wellbeing of his victims.
Judge Bindloss concluded that Hall is a “dangerous” offender who poses a “high risk of serious harm” to others.
Northumbria Police said additional individuals have come forward since the conviction, and further investigations are ongoing.