The Supreme Court confirms prison for a man who did not know he had HIV and tried to kill his ex-boyfriend for hiding the test from him

The defendant alleged before the Supreme Court that he suffered a "transient mental disorder" due to the consumption of alcohol with medication

MADRID, 25 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Supreme Court (TS) has confirmed the sentence of 11 years, 3 months and 1 day in prison imposed on a man who in 2019 tried to murder his ex-boyfriend at the hairdresser where he worked. The reason was that, at the beginning of the relationship, both underwent a serological test that revealed that the attacker had HIV and the victim did not, but the latter hid it from the other and, after finding out about the deception, tried to kill him.

In a sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, the magistrates have reviewed the case, which dates back to December 18, 2019, when the defendant went to the hairdresser who had been his sentimental partner for five years.

That day, the condemned man entered the premises located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and "with the purpose of ending the life" of his ex-boyfriend, he sprayed a "flammable liquid while trying to turn him on", while saying: "I I burn".

The hairdresser "instinctively jumped back" and managed to run away from his ex-partner, who yelled at him: "Don't run, I'll kill you." The man suffered an "inflammation of the left external auditory canal" and his hairdresser recorded damages worth 5,825 euros as a result of the fire caused by the defendant.

The Provincial Court sentenced the attacker to 11 years, 3 months and 1 day in prison for the crime of attempted murder with the aggravation of kinship. He also set a 10-year probation sentence.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, the man brought the case before the Superior Court of Justice. The magistrates did not give the reason and confirmed the decision. The convicted person then went to the Supreme Court, which now dismisses the appeal and ratifies his sentence.

The man alleged violation of the presumption of innocence and effective judicial protection. In addition, he defended that he did not see the aggravating circumstance of surprise treachery that was applied to him as pertinent. And he raised an error in the evaluation of the evidence, considering that the complete or incomplete defense should have been appreciated for "transient mental disorder due to alcohol consumption together with benzodiazepines, trankimazin or transilium".

In the resolution, for which the magistrate Ana Ferrer has been a rapporteur, the Supreme Court has concluded that the man did "act surprisingly taking advantage" of the fact that his ex-boyfriend "was crouching down closing the establishment where the events occurred to spray him with the gasoline that immediately afterwards he managed to arrest him".

In 20 pages, the High Court has considered that "the facts more than support" the application of "surprise" treachery. In addition, it has endorsed the conclusion reached by previous courts that at the time of the facts the defendant's faculties were not affected to the point of exonerating him of what happened.

Likewise, the magistrates have supported the conclusion of one of the reports evaluated by the lower courts in which the defendant's argument that the "main trigger for his violent reaction" was "having found out that his partner hid that he was infected with HIV.

The Supreme Court has considered that the aggressor's argument gives "credibility" to the victim's version, who explained that "at the beginning of the relationship" both had serology tests. The result: "the defendant's was positive and the victim's was negative."