When two people engage in sexual behaviors, there is a risk. No matter how well you think you know somebody, however honest you believe someone to be in terms of their sexual history, there is a leap of faith involved.
Period.
Is that level of trust often given too easily? Of course it is.
Does that make a person knowingly walking around with an STI keeping that information from his or her sexual partner a cad? Absolutely.
Does it make him or her a criminal?
Well, that’s the question du jour following reports that 28-year-old David Golding of the U.K. received 14 months in prison for “inflicting grievous bodily harm” after giving his girlfriend genital herpes.
The court heard Golding had denied having the infection when his then girlfriend, 24-year-old Cara Scott, was diagnosed with it soon after their relationship began in 2009. He only admitted it to her shortly before they broke up in 2010. Scott then went to the police.
According to the Daily Mail, Judge Michael Fowler said at sentencing, “‘Because it was in a relationship, it was particularly mean and an offense which amounted to a betrayal — a betrayal in a relationship in which you [Golding] professed love.
“The injury you caused her by this infection is at least or more …