A HIV positive man has been thrown behind bars for five years for having unprotected sex with a 15-year-old boy he met online.
Brendan Andrew Taggart’s behaviour was slammed as ‘reckless and selfish’ by District Court Judge Kris Handshin during a sentencing hearing in Adelaide.
Taggart, 60, pleaded guilty to communicating with the intention of procuring a child to engage in or submit to sexual activity and unlawful sexual intercourse.
The court heard Taggart met his 15-year-old victim via the social media app Scruff in April 2023 and arranged for an Uber to bring the boy to his house in the east Adelaide suburb of Lynton.
A HIV positive man who had unprotected sex with a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for five years (stock image)
Taggart did not wear a condom while abusing the teenager, claiming that the antiretroviral medication he was taking meant he could not transmit HIV.
‘Despite your confidence that you were unable to transmit the virus … your decision to engage in unprotected sex with a teenager was, nonetheless, highly reckless and selfish and deserves strong condemnation,’ Judge Handshin said as reported by The Advertiser.
‘Although (the victim) did not contract the virus, he was required to take precautionary medication for a number of months, which must have been a harrowing time for a person of his young age.’
Taggart was arrested after the victim’s parents discovered communications between him and the boy.
Taggaer contacted his victim through the messaging app Scruff and sent an Uber to bring the boy to his home in Adelaide’s east (stock image)
The court heard Taggart was deeply remorseful for his offending and did not meet the diagnostic criteria for a pedophilic disorder.
Prior to the offence, Taggart had lost his job in hospital administration and was experiencing issues with alcohol abuse.
In sentencing Taggart to five years, backdated to April 29 this year and with a non-parole period of three years, Judge Handshin children needed to be protected.
The judge said children through their sexual naivety or curiosity could be exploited for the gratification of opportunistic adults.
Clayton Palmer (pictured) was convicted in the Western District Court in 2018 of one count of grievous bodily harm in relation to having sex with a client