Aki Hakkarainen

Aki Matti Hakkarainen (born 1983 in Southern Finland) is a Finnish man who spread HIV by having unprotected sex with many women without disclosing his HIV serostatus.

Hakkarainen, who has lived in Rovaniemi since 2002, became infected with HIV in 1999 during a holiday trip in Thailand. He is father of three children. One of the women he infected is his ex-wife, who tested HIV-positive during pregnancy. Two of the children of Hakkarainen were born to other women. None of the chlidren are HIV infected.

Hakkarainen was already sentenced in 2005 to one year and nine months in prison for a similar crime. In that case, the victim was not infected. Under Finnish law, an HIV-positive person commits a crime when he or she practices unprotected sex.

In August 2007, Hakkarainen was arrested by Rovaniemi police after being reported by a young woman who said she had contracted HIV from Hakkarainen during unprotected sex. Police reports were filed by 18 different women who had had intercourse with Hakkarainen. On October 5, 2007, the police published the name and picture of Hakkarainen in newspapers in an effort to reach every women who had had sexual intercourse with Hakkaraien. After publication, four additional women filed police reports. Four of the women who had sex with Hakkarainen were found to be infected with HIV. The police know of about 30 women who had sex with Hakkarainen.

In court, Hakkarainen was accused of 12 attempted aggravated assaults, five aggravated assaults, and three attempts of aggravated assaults made as a young person. Also there was one accusation of enforcing sex. A total of 21 women are claiming 460 000 euros in compensation from Hakkarainen. Hakkarainen admitted that he was guilty of having unprotected sex with the women but denied trying to infect them with the virus. On April 22, 2008, the Rovaniemi court decided that Hakkarainen purposefully infected five women with HIV.

In August 2008 Hakkarainen was sentenced to imprisonment of ten years. The result of a "non compos mentis" investigation proved him to be fully in charge of his faculties. He was also convicted to pay 45 000–55 000 euros compensations to each of his victims.

External links

* [http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/arkistot/kotimaa/2007/10/567930 News item from the Karjalainen newspaper with the picture of Hakkarainen] (in Finnish)