Cultural Enrichment Ambassador sentenced to three years jail for infecting partner with HIV

Christopher Muronzi sentenced to at least three years jail for infecting former partner with HIV

Henry Budd
The Daily Telegraph
November 15,2013

A SYDNEY man found guilty of infecting a former lover with HIV will spend at least the next three years behind bars.

Zimbabwean-born Chris Muronzi, 44,  was this morning sentenced in Sydney's District Court to four-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of three years, after he failed to tell a former partner that he was infected with the disease.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began a nine-month relationship with Muronzi in late 2002 but did not discover she was infected until June 2004.

By that time she had already passed the disease on to her new partner.

She only discovered Muronzi carried the disease when she rang him to tell him of her diagnosis.

Muronzi, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and was undergoing treatment, pleaded guilty to maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on the woman.

At a sentencing hearing Judge Penelope Hock said Mr Muronzi's actions had taken a "devastating" emotional and physical toll on the victim.

His actions had "serious consequences, not only for the complainant, but for the community in general," Justice Hock said.

After coming to terms with the impacts of the disease, which she described "as a 10 on the scale", the woman eventually went to police in 2011.

Muronzi will be eligible for parole in September 2016.