An HIV-positive Australian man was found guilty of 15 charges in a Victoria County Court on July 31, including attempting to deliberately infect sexual partners with HIV, rape and administering a drug for the purposes of sexual penetration, Australia’s Herald Sun reports (news.com.au, 8/01).

According to the article, Michael Jon Neal, 49, from Coburg, was accused of intentionally infecting two men with HIV and attempting to infect 12 others between June 2000 and April 2006. The county’s Department of Human Services (DHS) was aware of Neal’s behavior but made no move to detain him, despite having the power to do so.

“It has to be questioned how the DHS were aware of this man’s behavior and really failed to exercise all of the powers they had at their disposal,” says one of Neal’s unnamed partners in court.

The Herald Sun reports that Neal held “conversion” parties and wore a genital piercing to make it easier to transmit the virus.