A “dangerous” rapist who deliberately infected five young men and two boys aged 15 and 17 with HIV has been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 23 years.
Adam Hall, 43, wanted to cause “pain and harm” to “vulnerable” men he targeted online or in Newcastle bars between 2016 and 2023, the city’s crown court heard.
Hall, from Washington, near Sunderland, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to seven victims, four of whom he raped.
The victims said they had been “violated” and left with lifelong conditions and trauma, while Judge Edward Bindals said “selfish” Hall had taken away their future.
Northumbria Police said more suspected victims had come forward since Hall’s conviction, with another investigation ongoing.
Hall, who refused to leave his courtroom for the sentencing hearing, carried out a campaign of rape to “deliberately transmit HIV to victims”, prosecutor Kam Melli Casey said.
After his own diagnosis in 2010, health professionals were “gravely concerned” about Hall’s behavior and repeatedly warned him about the risk he posed to others, the court heard.
Hall was “well aware” of the need to take medication, keep it at a non-infectious level, and inform sexual partners of his HIV status.
He falsely claimed he did both, the court heard, but instead “chosen” not to take the drug and “deliberately targeted” men who were “vulnerable” for “risky sexual activity”, Mellie said.
The prosecutor said Hall’s “genuine sexual interest” was in causing “pain and harm” by being aggressive and dominant.
Adam Hall was sentenced in his absence at Newcastle Crown Court [BBC]
Despite advances in healthcare, HIV remains a “lifelong irreversible condition” with “significant health risks” requiring treatment, Meli said, adding that the harm for rape victims was that every time they took medication, they would be reminded “on a daily basis”.
In a statement read to the court, one of the men, who was 18 when he was raped and infected by Hall, said he was “violated in the most horrific and inhumane way” and was left traumatised.
He said he felt “disgusted, ashamed and completely alone”, adding: “There are days when I feel like I’m living, not living.”
‘Lifelong Medical Dependence’
Another told the court he was a “very reckless 17-year-old” whose future had been “blurred and irrevocably changed” by the “mistake” he had made of trusting an older man.
“I have a big hole in my heart for the life I lived,” he told the court, adding that he felt he had “betrayed” the will of his younger self.
He described Hall as a predator who had “betrayed” him.
A third man, who was 19 when he was infected, said he was “bruised in the most malicious way”.
Judge Bindals said Hall’s refusal to attend the sentencing hearing was “completely indifference” to the rapist’s “suffering of others”.
He said the victims shared the same “tragic and moving stories”, adding: “All of them have had their futures taken away, all for deliberate reasons. [Hall].”
Rejecting Hall’s claim during the trial that HIV was not a serious injury, the judge said the men had been given a “permanent and irreversible” disease with a “lifelong dependence on medical treatment”.
Bindles said Hall had been warned “fully and repeatedly” about the risk of infection he posed, yet chose to keep himself “infected” by lying to sexual partners about his status with a “significant level of forethought”.
Hall also denied men the truth after sex, robbing them of an opportunity to seek early treatment and reduce the risk of developing the virus, the judge said.
In relation to the rape, Hall acted selfishly with “little empathy and no interest” in the welfare of his sexual partner, the judge said.
He was described as a “dangerous” offender who posed a “high risk of serious harm” to others.
‘opportunistic’
Hall continues to deny responsibility, with his barrister Craig Hassall Casey saying at the sentencing hearing that his client maintained his claim that “if” he was the source of the men’s HIV, he did not do it deliberately.
He also disputed the prosecution’s characterization of a “campaign of rape” and said the sexual assaults were “opportunistic” rather than planned.
After Hall’s conviction in March, according to Det Ch Insp Emma Smith of Northumbria Police, further men made allegations which were “subject to a direct investigation”.
“Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Adam Hall, please come forward,” she said.
Hall was also sentenced for drug dealing, some of which he gave to one of his victims before being raped and infected.
While jurors were unable to decide on rape charges against an eighth man, prosecutors in the court hearing will not seek a further trial.
Hall was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years and 42 days in prison after taking into account time spent in custody.
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