A man who admitted to being HIV positive and having sex with a minor was sentenced to 15 years in prison with 15 additional years of extende...
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| A man who admitted to being HIV positive and having sex with a minor was sentenced to 15 years in prison with 15 additional years of extended supervision. In this photo, a "non-compliant" detainee is escorted by guards after showering inside the U.S. military prison for "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Oct. 27, 2009. Photo: Getty Images/ John Moore |
By Pritha Paul, International Business Times
A man who admitted to being HIV positive and having sex with a minor was sentenced to 15 years in prison with 15 additional years of extended supervision, on Friday.
Eugene S. Gross, 51, from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, connected with a 15-year-old boy on Grindr, the social networking app for homosexual and bi-sexual men in July last year. In the following month, he had unprotected sexual intercourse with the teenager at the latter’s residence multiple times when the parents were not around, USA Today affiliated Journal Sentinel reported.
Gross was arrested by the police after three or four weeks of meeting the young boy. When the victim’s mother called the police after she returned home one day and found her son running upstairs from the basement claiming that a strange man had entered the house and raped him. The 15-year-old boy was babysitting his 2-year-old sister at the time.
The police responded to a presumed burglary in progress and after a thorough search found Gross walking through a backyard near the house.
It was later revealed the boy had invited the 51-year-old to his apartment and the two of them had an ongoing sexual relationship. It is unclear if Gross had revealed about his medical condition to his teenage victim.
After interrogation, Gross told the police he was HIV positive and he was taking medication for his condition. He admitted he did not use a condom while performing sexual acts on the boy.
Gross also confessed he knew the boy was 15 years old despite the fact that in his Grindr profile he listed his age as 18.
A prescription bottle for the drug Odefsey, used to fight the HIV virus, was found in Gross' car by the police.
Gross was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with two counts each of sexual assault of a child under 16, using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, and second-degree recklessly endangering safety. Several other charges, including 10 counts of child pornography, were dropped because the convicted agreed to enter into a deal with the prosecutors.
An emotional father of the victim broke down in court as Gross was being sentenced.
“The man sitting here, he destroyed my life, my kid's life, my family life,” he said, ABC affiliated WISN reported.
Gross was seen repeatedly apologizing to the family of the victim, saying, he was “ashamed, embarrassed and horrified. I regret every bit of every moment.”
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