Article content
Warning: this story contains details that may be unsettling to some readers.
Commercial
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
A man who was infected with the AIDS virus, allegedly during an encounter with an Edmonton sex worker, gave painful testimony on the first day of the defendant’s trial.
Anthony Lee Taylor was charged in late 2018 with aggravated sexual assault for allegedly failing to disclose his HIV status to a partner with whom he had sex twice for money in December 2016. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, the first day of what is expected to be. a two-week jury trial.
The author’s health began to deteriorate in the months following his meeting with Taylor. Eventually he was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His name is protected by a court-ordered posting ban imposed on the identities of sexual assault whistleblowers. Postmedia identifies it by the initials DN
Commercial
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
DN is over 50 years old. He spoke slowly and deliberately as he answered prosecutor Clint Clouston’s questions. Her hand shook as she took a drink from a bottle of water.
When asked about his diagnosis, his face twisted with excitement.
“When I first found out I was HIV positive in early February 2017, my thoughts were ‘life was over,'” she said. “And that I would go home that night and kill myself.”
Taylor was diagnosed with HIV in 2013, prosecutor Vernon Eichhorn told the jury during the Crown’s keynote address. He alleged that Taylor was giving up treatment when he had sex with DN
DN told the court that he met Taylor while driving home in December 2016. He saw Taylor on a Norwood corner a few hours after midnight. At the time, Taylor was wearing a wig, feminine clothing, and posing as a woman. Taylor introduced herself as Tatiana.
Commercial
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
“Sir. Taylor opened the passenger door and asked me if I wanted to get out,” DN testified. “I answered yes, he entered and we proceeded to go to my residence.”
DN and Taylor had a little chat at DN’s house, where he lives alone. They smoked a joint. Taylor toured the bungalow and commented approvingly on DN’s furnishings and a basement renovation project.
Then they went to the bedroom. As they became more intimate, DN realized that Taylor was not a woman. At first he withdrew, but then thought “this could be different.”
“I had two curiosities,” he told the court. “I didn’t know what it was really about. And I made the decision to move on. ”
The two finally had oral and anal sex without condoms. DN was the receptive partner, which poses an increased risk of HIV transmission .
Commercial
This ad has not been uploaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Afterward, DN cleaned up and prepared to take Taylor home, but she had disappeared overnight.
Taylor put down some clothes and did not respond to DN’s text messages. After about three weeks, he responded, and the two met for the second time.
About a month later, Taylor texted again and asked if DN was interested in sex. “I answered ‘no,'” DN told the court. “Right now, I am mortally ill.”
He described in detail the night sweats that left him so wet that he had to get up to change several times a night.
“I can run my hands through my hair and … it’s like I just jumped out of the shower,” she said, adding that she is now in treatment and in better health.
At no point during the meeting did Taylor use a condom or reveal his HIV status, DN testified.
“Sir. Taylor isn’t wearing condoms,” he said, his voice hardening. “Sir. Taylor knows exactly what Mr. Taylor was doing. “
When asked if he could identify the person he had sex with, DN said “absolutely” and pointed the defendant across the courtroom.
DN is expected to continue his testimony on Wednesday.
Reference-edmontonjournal.com