12.10PM: The first young gay man to formally lay a complaint with police against Glen Mills, the man charged with knowingly exposing his young sex partners to HIV and who was found dead in his remand jail cell this morning, says he is relieved that he will not have to face giving evidence in Mills' trial. Mills, the 40 year old commuter train driver dubbed the "HIV Predator" earlier in the year, was facing 28 charges, had been twice denied bail and was facing an application for compulsory taking of a sample of his blood for testing his HIV variant. Seven of the fourteen complainants tested positive for HIV after having sex with Mills. Police are not seeking out anyone else in connection with Mills' death. The first young formal complainant was described as "incredibly brave" after he fronted up to Auckland's Adult Sexual Assault Team in May with details of his sexual relationship with Mills and his subsequent HIV diagnosis. His evidence was the break police needed to ramp up the case into a fully-fledged investigation which revealed many more allegations. He says he felt all along that Mills should have faced justice and "fronted up to what he had done." The young man, who has preferred not to be publicly identified, says news of Mills death is sad but he feels a sense of relief. "The anxiety of knowing that sometime soon I would have to stand up in court and reveal so much to strangers and be cross-examined about intimate aspects of my life has been intense," he says, "...at times it has been overwhelming." He says even in recent weeks he had been feeling "overwhelmingly black thoughts" about his situation but has been receiving lots of support... so many professional people and organisations have been there when I needed them, I truly appreciate their help." He also says he was dreading the possibility of Mills being released on bail. "Meeting him in the street or having him contact me directly or through others would have been terrible." "I think I may get some closure on this now," the young man said this morning just minutes after hearing the news of Mills' death, "I hope so anyway. But this is not the way I would ever have wanted it to happen."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 30th November 2009 - 11:47am