MISPLACED TRUST: How Divorced Mum Contracted HIV After 14 Years of Celibacy

A mum-of-two, Annette Newman, 49, who became celibate after splitting from her husband has recounted how she contracted HIV from a man she met online after 14 years of celibacy.

According to Mirror UK, Annette believed she had found ‘the one’ and was excited to be able to have fun again since her divorce. However, after 18 months, she discovered that her new man, Jason Townsend, 45, had kept the fatal secret that he had been suffering from HIV for 26 years!

Townsend was jailed for 27 months and she gave in to depression and contemplated suicide.

She said: “I was devastated that it was such a short sentence. I don’t feel like I can trust anyone again. I have resigned myself to being single forever. He kept saying to me that it had been a long time since he had a relationship. I was getting to the point where maybe he didn’t fancy me and we should call it a day. That’s why I think he then initiated things looking back at it all. It was a very big moment, I was over the moon when he did it. I asked if he had any regrets and he said there were none at all and we had a normal relationship like anyone else. But there was always something wrong with him, he was a bit of a hypochondriac.”

Things slowly became clear when he spent Christmas 2012 with Annette and her daughters, Heather, 20, and Philippa, 18, in Wales having travelled from London. He quickly became ill and she rushed him to hospital but he aroused her suspicions by referring to her as his ‘new girlfriend’ to doctors. The doctors explained he was seriously ill but were secretive when discussing his condition.

She continued: “It didn’t seem right and one of the nurses kept looking at me. I was getting self-conscious. The nurse came round with his tablets and I asked what have you got. And he said, ‘I don’t know and I don’t care either’.”

However, during one hospital visit, Jason told her he had been diagnosed with HIV two days earlier.

She said: “I felt terrible for him. Then I thought ‘where did he get it from?’ He was looking at me. I felt so guilty. I felt I gave him the infection.”

She returned to her home to get him some clothes but stumbled across more medication in his bag.

Annette said: “I looked through his clothes and his bag was full of the tablets. I googled them and they came up as HIV tablets.”

When Anette confronted him, he casually told her that he had known he had HIV since 1986!

She said: “I felt completely and utterly floored. He was my soulmate, my best friend. We were supposed to be getting married. I was saying how much I loved him.”

Annette, who believes Jason contacted HIV around the age of 16, through unprotected sex, sadly tested positive too. She went to South Wales Police the following month and he was arrested, denying his crime until this year when he finally admitted causing grievous bodily harm on August 27 and was locked up for more than two years at Cardiff Crown Court.

Annette, who is due to start medication next month, said: “I still have feelings for him but my feelings have changed.”