DARMSTADT, Germany, (Reuters Life!) – A German pop singer who confessed to knowingly exposing two men to the risk of HIV after finding out she had the virus herself was convicted by a court yesterday of grievous bodily harm.
Nadja Benaissa, 28, from German girl-band No Angels was given a two-year suspended sentence. She could have faced up to 10 years in jail. Prosecutors had sought a lenient sentence because Benaissa had confessed and expressed remorse. “I made a huge mistake,” Benaissa told the Darmstadt court in western Germany at the end of the trial on Wednesday, adding she had kept it all a secret because she was afraid of what would happen if the public learned she had been HIV-positive.
“I was a coward,” she said. “I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. I wish I could turn back the clock and make it all not happen.”
Benaissa was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm in one instance for infecting a 34-year-old talent agent, and attempted grievous bodily harm for another occasion when she had unprotected sex with another man between 2000 and 2004.
