He was convicted of five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm.
A “monster” who deliberately infected vulnerable and inexperienced sexual partners, including a boy of 15, with HIV has been jailed for at least 23 years.
Adam Hall, 43, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, hid his HIV status from partners, failed to take medication to keep his viral load low, then had unprotected sex with men, sometimes raping them.
He was convicted of five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm – by deliberately infecting younger partners with HIV after meeting them in bars in the Newcastle area or on the dating app Grindr.
Hall’s victims were aged from their late 20s down to just 15, with the schoolboy finding out he had contracted HIV in a phone call from health professionals moments after he stepped off a school bus.
Two of his victims were just 17 and 18.
Judge Edward Bindloss deemed Hall “dangerous” before jailing him for life with a minimum term of 23 years and 42 days.
For one man, his first same-sex experience was with Hall and he described himself as “naive” at the time. He has since been diagnosed with HIV.
The 15-year-old victim, now an adult, told the BBC how he was walking home from the school bus when he received a call from a sexual health nurse explaining that test results showed he was HIV positive.
He said: “Everything shattered, everything went numb.
“I was mortified, not only at the situation, at myself. How has this happened to me, I felt like I was sinking.”
A third victim said: “The whole thing is so unfair, he knew he was infected, and he thought he could get away with infecting me, that he was immune from any consequences.
“He didn’t even give me the option to take any pre or post-HIV exposure treatment.
One of the victims said: “I blame myself for letting the monster in.”
After a four-month trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Hall became just the second person in the country to be convicted of deliberately infecting other people with HIV.
Hall denied the charges, even claiming some of his victims wanted to be infected with HIV.
He was known on the Newcastle gay and chem sex scene, worked in bars and at a Tyneside sex shop, and had even tried to set up a charity for people with HIV.
He was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and could have kept his viral load low with modern treatments.
But in 2016, medical professionals became concerned he was not adhering to his treatment, making him infectious to others he slept with.
Despite being warned, Hall had unprotected sex with men between 2016 and 2023, in some cases raping them.
Prosecutors were sure Hall intended to spread HIV, although he continued to deny it.
Craig Hassall KC, defending, said Hall told the probation officer who compiled a pre-sentence report “he feels sick at the thought that he had transferred HIV to others”.
He added: “He maintains he did not do so intentionally.”
Outside court, senior prosecutor Amy Dixon said: “When we looked at all of that surrounding evidence in relation to his sexual activity with the victim-survivors, it was clear that he’d intended to pass on this virus.
“He hadn’t just been reckless.”
Detective Chief Inspector Emma Smith said: “He’s shown absolutely no remorse.
“He’s never apologised for his behaviour and we’ve interviewed him on a number of occasions.
“He provided a prepared statement via his legal representative, and then no comment answers.
“He came across as quite arrogant, quite dismissive, and I would say that that continued into the trial.
“In fact, he actually suggested that some of the victims wanted him to pass on HIV to them, which is absolutely not the case.
“There was witness testimony to say that he’d been bragging that the police investigation wouldn’t go anywhere and nothing was going to happen to him.”
The detective said the criminal case was “complex” and involved 35,000 hours of officers’ time, including 450 statements and 37 witnesses who gave evidence.
The case was further complicated by the difficulty of some of the medical evidence which was used to show the strain of HIV which victims contracted was consistent with Hall’s, and it involved exploring the victims’ sexual history with other partners.
Hall was not charged with underage sex with the 15-year-old as it would need to be proved that he knew the boy was underage.
Hall was brought to court from prison where he was held on remand, but declined to leave his cell and was sentenced in his absence.
Judge Bindloss said: “Refusal to attend today is entirely in keeping with the indifference you have shown to the suffering of others.”
Of the victims, the judge said: “All were young men, all had their futures taken away, all deliberately because of you.”
Hall was also jailed for drug dealing and failing to reveal his PIN to police.
