The ‘AIDS assassin’ who deliberately infected two

The ‘AIDS assassin’ who deliberately infected two women with the deadly virus was jailed for eight years today (Mon) in a landmark legal case.

Somalian refugee Mohammed Dica, 38, tricked both his victims into having unprotected sex knowing he had been carrying the disease for years.

He was convicted of inflicting ‘biological’ grievous bodily harm on the women aged 37 and 36 in the first case of its kind in English law.

Both his victims could be dead within seven years and police fear he may have infected other women who are too ashamed to come forward.

Besuited Dica, 6′ 4”, with a wispy beard, showed not a trace of emotion as Judge Nicholas Philpot told him: ‘The sentence must be enough to make it absolutely essential advice around the world to wear a condom.

‘

He described Dica’s behaviour as ‘despicable’ and said he had shown no remorse.

‘When you knew you were infected with HIV and had been advised of the dangers you entered into an emotional and more importantly sexual relationship with a woman which continued for about 12 months without any disclosure of your condition to her.

‘That relationship fell apart by which time you knew full well that she had become infected with HIV and was suffering from it and that it was very probably you that had caused the infection.

‘Count two relates to a second and later woman friend, the relationship lasting about 18 months and with the same result.

‘In each case you abused a loving relationship (loving on one side at any rate) and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

‘Each woman is now infected with an incurable disease, has suffered the florid effects of the infections, and manages to control her life but only with very frequent and heavy medication and that on a permanent basis.

‘The worst outcome is or may be prevented but each dosage serves has a reminder of your behaviour and the potential dangers still remaining.

‘And I have said almost nothing about the emotional effect on the lives of two previously healthy and lively women.

‘

Dica received four years consecutive on each GMC charge.

The maximum he could have received was five years consecutive on each count – making 10 years.

Inner London Crown Court heard how Dica had told the 37-year-old former United Nations worker he had undergone a vasectomy in 1997.

Dica charmed his second victim, a 36-year-old known only as ‘Deborah’ by claiming he wanted to start a family.

When she learnt Dica was HIV positive she reported him to the police to ‘stop him wrecking any more lives’.

Dica, a father of three children aged six, nine and 13, arrived in the UK in 1992 as a Somali asylum seeker on a Kenyan passport and has been granted indefinite leave to remain.

Prosecutor Mark Gadsden had told the court Dica had ‘coldly and callously’ infected the two women.

‘He knew full well all along he was HIV positive, and he had taken these reckless gambles with these complainants’ health, and indeed their lives.

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He had unprotected sex with his first victim, who was also a Somali asylum seeker in 1997.

She became ill six months after having sex with Dica ‘dozens’ of times while she lived in Hounslow, Middlesex.

The mother-of-two said Dica would always apologise after sex telling her: ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me.

God forgive me.

‘

She now realises he was begging for mercy because he had sentenced her to death.

‘He was a very nice chap at the time,’ she recalled.

‘He was kind, caring.

He was very friendly and social.

‘

But she learnt his deadly secret after taking a blood test when her her glands swelled up and she developed thrush.

When she accused him of infecting her with AIDS he told her: ‘I don’t have it.

‘I’m not HIV positive.

This is a homosexual disease.

It is a disease of cursed people.

‘

She only reported the matter to the authorities four years later after Dica infected his second victim after meeting her at a Christmas party in 2000.

Deborah left her partner of 18 years to be with Dica, who claimed he was a highly paid lawyer and fluent in dozens of languages.

They had sex at the Hilton hotel in Croydon, Surrey because married Dica told her he lived with his strict Muslim sister.

Once when she asked him to use a condom, Dica told her: ‘I don’t like to use them’

He even told her to take out her coil so that she could have his children.

But after she moved out of the home she had shared with her partner of 18 years she learnt she too was HIV positive.

Deborah initially believed that Dica had only recently caught the virus and hoped that they might be able to face the illness together.

She was then horrified to learn from a friend he had already infected another mistress and had been infected since 1995.

‘It all started coming out that this was a game that this man had played with my life,’ Deborah said.

‘I had to stop this man wrecking lives,’ she said.

Dica confessed to a detective and said: ‘I’m terminally ill.

‘I need to go to hospital today for an operation.

I will tell you everything.

I did it.

‘

Later he claimed that he had ‘a one night stand’ with Deborah in 1994 and that he had sex with his first victim in 1990, having already known her in Kenya.

He said he told both women he had the AIDS virus when he found out he was infected and they still both agreed to have sex with him.

The court heard he had many other girlfriends, including a woman in south Norwood and another woman in Milton Keynes.

His legal team are mounting an appeal against his conviction.

It was the first conviction in England and Wales for sexually transmitting a disease since 1888 when an Old Bailey jury found a man named Clarence guilty of grievous bodily harm for giving his wife gonorrhoea.

But the Lords backed an appeal by Clarence and ruled that passing a sexually transmitted disease during consensual sex did not constitute an assault.

After Dica’s conviction last month a senior officer had voiced his fears that he may also have infected men as he was also known to have ‘enjoyed’ their company.

Dica, of Fleming Mead, Mitcham, Surrey, had denied two counts of inflicting GBH on two women by giving them the HIV virus between January 1, 1997 and May 31, 2001.

Speaking outside court Rene Barclay, head of the London’s Serious Casework Sector for the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was a groundbreaking prosecution which was the result of a massive team effort.

‘The implications are that in future people that are reckless in this way will be vigorously prosecution.

‘

Dica’s victims were not in court today.

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