Richard Thomas, 27, sentenced to five years and four months for raping a sleeping woman, learned he might have contracted HIV from his victim. Thomas admitted to the assault but claimed ignorance about the woman’s illness. Upon hearing the news, he collapsed.
Thomas, heavily intoxicated that night and using cocaine and ecstasy, couldn’t recall much but believed the victim’s account. He entered her home uninvited, assaulting her while she slept after taking a sleeping tablet.
Prosecutor Harry Pepper stated, “She froze, and no words were exchanged.” Thomas left, later telling his lawyer, Virginia Hayton, that the woman “would not lie.”
Despite Thomas’s remorse, Judge Mark Brown sentenced him to five years and four months, placing him on the Sex Offenders Register. Thomas, struggling with addiction since childhood, faced an HIV test, a consequence Hayton attributed to his own actions.
