A MAN has appeared in court charged with deliberately infecting his girlfriend with HIV, the virus  which causes AIDS.

The man was not asked to plead when he briefly appeared before a magistrate at the Western Commonage Courts in Bulawayo.

The prosecution told the court that the couple routinely engaged in sexual intercourse, sometimes without using protection, from November 2008.

The court heard that the man was aware of his HIV-positive status and therefore deliberately exposed his partner to the risk of contracting the virus.

The girlfriend later learned that the man was living with HIV and decided to go for blood tests which came back positive, indicating that she had contracted the virus.

She then lodged a complaint at Luveve Police Station leading to the man’s arrest.

The boyfriend was also referred to Mpilo Hospital for blood tests and the results also proved that he was HIV positive.