A 34-year-old HIV-positive Calgary man will be confined indefinitely to a Ponoka mental hospital under a rare public health act isolation order.
Paul Thomson pleaded guilty in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench to sexual assault and violating a court order to disclose his condition to sexual partners.
He originally was charged with 11 counts of sexual assault against a 25-year-old woman, but the charges were reduced to one single count.
He was sentenced to almost four years in jail which translated into time served. Thomson has been in custody since he was charged on July 29, 2009. He qualified under old sentencing rules which allowed two-for-one for time served before sentencing. That changed last summer to a one-for-one system.
However, Thomson will not be allowed back onto the street, Crown prosecutor Robin Joudrey said.
Thomson will be confined in isolation to a 24-hour watch at Centennial Centre for Mental Health in Ponoka. The court will review the order every six months to a year.
Joudrey said thankfully the 25-year-old victim has not developed HIV.