Tests clear 12 contacts of man with HIV

Glenn Mills. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Twelve people who have been tested for the HIV virus after reporting they had sexual contact with a man charged with intentionally infecting people have all produced negative results.

Name suppression was lifted last week from train driver Glenn Richard Albert Mills, 40, who is facing criminal charges in the Auckland District Court in relation to seven alleged victims, six men and a woman.

Five of the men have since tested positive for the virus.

Since Mills' name was made public, the HIV support group Body Positive has been inundated with calls from people worried they may have contracted the virus.

Chief executive Bruce Kilmister said the group had received 30 calls at the weekend, "from Wellington to Palmerston North, to Auckland and Northland - all over the country".

Mr Kilmister said 12 people were tested on Saturday and yesterday, but 30 had reported sexual contact with Mills, some from as long ago as seven years.

"These people were very surprised, and anxious, obviously, until they have cleared the situation for themselves."

He urged anyone who had had sexual contact with Mills to phone the HIV helpline on 0800-448-5463.

Detective Sergeant Andy King said yesterday he was unable to comment as the case was before the courts.

But police previously said Mills was diagnosed HIV-positive in May 2007 and had led an active sexual life in Auckland and Wellington.

It is alleged that he searched for sex partners through internet and telephone dating services, posing as a 32-year-old.

The Herald understands Mills is registered on the nzdating.com and findsomeone.com dating sites and on the telephone chatline Hot Gossip, describing himself as a "heterosexual seeking women". He is believed to use several aliases.

Health authorities knew up to six months ago of allegations that Mills had infected sexual partners with HIV but did not report it to the police until a few days before the story broke on the gaynz.com website.

Website staff contacted the Auckland Regional Public Health Service on May 8 and the service had a meeting with police the next week.

By the end of that week police had launched a formal inquiry and charges were laid a fortnight later.

Public Health Act confidentiality rules prevent health professionals disclosing that someone is HIV-positive as it is not a notifiable disease.

But a spokeswoman for Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said last week that this could change under proposed amendments to the act.

The maximum penalty for deliberately infecting someone with a disease is 14 years' imprisonment. Mills was remanded in custody to July 1.