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stellauk -> RE: STD tests (3/14/2011 4:49:13 PM)
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I just wanted to come back to add something by way of special emphasis which might make people stop and think.
This was a couple of years ago when I was working with the homeless in a hostel in East London. One of the homeless residents was a woman in her 30's, bipolar, HIV and AIDS.
She used to hang out around the local petrol station selling her body for a few smokes, a bit of cash, a few beers, whatever she could get.
She didn't have any problems as far as I'm aware, as she often could be seen smoking, sitting among people, drinking cheap cider and stuff. She became homeless by just walking out of a psychiatric hospital one day and not going back.
Nobody intervened during the time she was hanging around the petrol stations. She's homeless. Nobody cares. We managed to get some intervention for her when she became repeatedly assaulted sexually by a convicted paedophile who was also homeless, and just walked away one day from his registered address on the Sex Offender's Register. He sexually assaulted other women, and it brought matters to a head.
He was remanded in custody pending trial. It took several months for the case to come to trial. At the start of this incident the hostel management intervened by evicting the woman back onto the streets. Lord knows how many more petrol stations and stuff she worked herself through.
However at the trial she had managed to find a place in a Catholic run night shelter but was in no fit state to stand in the witness box. The prosecution wanted the guy to go down for a long time. But more than this they wanted a conviction and they feared if they put this woman on the stand he would get acquitted. So they withdrew the sexual assault charge on licence and convicted him for absconding from the Sex Offenders Register. He got 12 months and walked free from court.
That saying, he cannot reoffend. They know he's got HIV, he also has a sexual assault charge on licence with a not guilty plea and the next time he lays a finger on anyone unlawfully the charge will come back, and knowing that he's HIV it carries a special 'intent to kill' argument. Basically, next time he goes down, that's it.
But think of the woman here. Think of all the cigarettes she's smoked, the cans of cider she's drank, the money's she's spent, and all the people she's given head to and slept with to get it.
How many of those men are sleeping with their wives, partners, and have forgotten about this woman?
This is just one woman and we're talking here over the space of a few months (that I know of from personal experience).
How many others can there be online? Something worth considering?
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