WINNIPEG — A Manitoba woman convicted of sexual assault after giving a former partner HIV without disclosing it, is going to jail for nearly two years.
In 2012, Marjorie Schenkels, 27, admitted to police that she was in denial she had HIV when she spread it to a partner in Gimli.
Schenkels sat in court fighting back tears and holding her fiancés hand on Tuesday morning, as the judge sentenced her to two years less a day in jail and two years of supervised probation.
She wept as she was led away in handcuffs.
The judge felt Schenkels had changed her life for the better and appears to be thriving as a stepmom saying she had a medium risk to reoffend.
“She does accept responsibility for her role,” the judge said. But also stated Schenkels was to blame for the crime.
The prosecutor asked for a five-year sentence and for Schenkels to be put on the sexual offenders registry. The defence asked for a suspended sentence.
This is the first case of its kind in Manitoba, where a woman who spread HIV has been convicted of sexual assault.