Trigger Warning: This post contains a description of sexual assault that may be triggering for survivors.
A British man named Richard Thomas was just sentenced to five years and four months in prison for raping a woman while she slept. But that wasn’t the only consequence of his actions. A BBC news article reports that Thomas reportedly collapsed when the police informed him that he might have contracted HIV from his victim.
Test results will confirm or deny the possibility in a few weeks, but until then, Thomas has something to take his mind off of how he forced himself into a woman’s home in the middle of the night, violating her emotionally, physically, and psychologically: the possibility of a life-altering sexually transmitted disease.
Perhaps Thomas, who claims he was high on drugs when the incident occurred, will take this situation as a lesson; invading the privacy of a person’s body has far reaching and long lasting results, not only for the victim, but also for the attacker.
His barrister, Virginia Hayton, told the court, “It is his own fault. If he had not committed this offence, he would not have placed himself in this situation.”
Amen, sister.
Thanks to BBC News
Image via SXC
