Dutch court hears evidence from victims of ‘HIV gang’
The trial of three men accused of deliberately injecting others with HIV-infected blood has heard testimony from some of their alleged victims.
49-year-old Peter Mulder and Hans Jurgens, 39, face up to 15 years in jail if they are convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting at least 14 men and injecting them.
Wim Dekker, 49, the partner of Mulder, faces eight years.
He is accused of initiating online contact with the men and allowing the assaults to take place in his home.
Mulder, a nurse, is accused of administering GHB and ecstasy to the victims and injecting them with Jurgens’ blood.
“I cannot understand why they did this to me,” one of their alleged victims told the court in Groningen yesterday.
“These men not only made me ill, but cause me to carry around a burdensome secret.”
Another said: “I feel fear, anger, sadness and anxiety.”
A third man, identified as Erwin, said in a statement read to the court:
“One must have incredible hatred.
“This question occupies my days and nights. For the rest of my life I will carry this crime with me, and its consequences.”
12 men are claiming they became HIV positive after chatting to the accused online and meeting up with them in 2006 and 2007.
The case continues.
