HIV checks urged in North Yorkshire after ‘monster’ jailed

Detectives know that Adam Hall, 43, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, travelled to North Yorkshire to meet men he met on the dating app Grindr.

Hall also met men across the North East, including County Durham and Middlesbrough, as well as West Yorkshire, Manchester and London.

Newcastle’s director of public health, Professor Alice Wiseman, has urged people who have had sex with Hall to access confidential health services in their area.

“The sooner that anyone is diagnosed, the better the treatment is,” she said.

“We want to eliminate HIV in the long term, the way to do that is for those who are infected to receive treatment as soon as possible.

“The earlier you are diagnosed, the sooner you can have anti-retroviral therapy, and if you are consistent with your treatment, you can reduce your viral load so you are no longer infectious to those around you.”

A warning has been issued to other public health directors around the country about Hall’s offending and the potential for there to be more victims whom he deliberately infected.

Hall hid his HIV status from partners, failed to take medication to keep his viral load low, then had unprotected sex with men, sometimes raping them.

He was convicted of five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm – by deliberately infecting younger partners with HIV after meeting them in bars in the Newcastle area or on the dating app Grindr.

Hall’s victims were aged from their late 20s down to just 15, with the schoolboy finding out he had contracted HIV in a phone call from health professionals moments after he stepped off a school bus.

Two of his victims were just 17 and 18.

One of the victims said: “I blame myself for letting the monster in.”

Judge Edward Bindloss deemed Hall “dangerous” before jailing him for life with a minimum term of 23 years and 42 days.

Second person in country to be convicted of deliberately infecting other people with HIV

After a four-month trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Hall became just the second person in the country to be convicted of deliberately infecting other people with HIV.

Hall denied the charges, even claiming some of his victims wanted to be infected with HIV.

He was known on the Newcastle gay and chem sex scene, worked in bars and at a Tyneside sex shop, and had even tried to set up a charity for people with HIV.

He was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and could have kept his viral load low with modern treatments.

But in 2016, medical professionals became concerned he was not adhering to his treatment, making him infectious to others he slept with.

Despite being warned, Hall had unprotected sex with men between 2016 and 2023, in some cases raping them.

Prosecutors were sure Hall intended to spread HIV, although he continued to deny it.