(ANSA) – ROME, AUGUST 09 – Still problems for Gareth Thomas.
The former Welsh rugby superstar, formerly also captain of the British & Irish Lions, was brought to court by a former partner who accuses him of transmitting HIV by hiding that he is HIV-positive. For this, as reported by the BBC, he is asking for compensation of 150 thousand pounds (about 180 thousand euros).
Thomas, formerly appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, came out in 2009, revealing he was gay, while ten years later he made it known that he was HIV-positive. In the lawsuit brought by his ex-partner Ian Baum, with whom he was together from 2013 to 2016, Thomas is accused of having transmitted the virus, which he allegedly contracted since 2014, to the then partner, who exhibited documents according to at the beginning of their relationship Baum himself was negative. So to have infected it would have been Thomas who, according to his lawyers, “strongly rejects” the accusations.
Baum claims to have discovered, also at the time of their relationship, that Thomas was taking pills called GSK1.
After a research carried out on the net he discovered that these pills were antivirals for HIV. So the man immediately underwent tests and found that he was also positive. “And this – it is written in the complaint presented – has literally left me devastated”. It is also specified that Baum had asked Thomas for an explanation and that he had replied that he was “very sorry, and had apologized”.
Baum then argues that, despite this, the relationship continued but that “for the rest of the relationship Mr. Thomas used coercive and controlling behavior towards me” in order to prevent his HIV-positive status from being known. And this, it is reported in the complaint, caused Baum “serious physical and psychological injuries”. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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