Cypriot fisherman Pavlos Georgiou shrugged off the prospect of a jail term after being convicted today of knowingly infecting his British lover Janette Pink with the virus that causes Aids.
''I'm going to die soon. What is going to scare me any more? Even death does not scare me,'' he told reporters on the Mediterranean island after hearing the verdict.
But the court's decision was welcomed by Mrs Pink, a 45-year-old divorcee, who said: ''I am relieved and pleased with the verdict. I am glad that at long last this is all over.''
Mother-of-two Mrs Pink, who was not in Cyprus for the verdict, added: ''I now want to get as well as possible, enjoy my family and get on with my life.''
At the court hearing, Judge Antonis Liatsos praised Mrs Pink's courage in having testified against Georgiou, who was accused of placing her under a death sentence.
The judge said he was impressed ''with the way Mrs Pink stood up to the pressure of questioning about her private life on the stand.
''It is without any hesitation that I accept her testimony as the truth,'' he told the court in Larnaca.
The judge said Georgiou's testimony was full of contradictions. He had tried to present himself as a man who never had affairs, but was someone who always carried condoms with him.
''He was not a credible witness,'' the judge added.
Georgiou's conviction makes him the first person in Cyprus to be convicted of infecting another person with a deadly disease.
The 40-year-old fisherman, who denied the charge, now faces a possible two-year jail sentence and #1500 fine.
Mrs Pink, who has been told she has a maximum of three years to live, decided to press charges after returning home to Basildon, Essex, last summer.
In a gruelling courtroom confrontation in May this year, she publicly relived her relationship with Georgiou, which began when she met him in September 1993 after separating from her husband.
She explained she did not think to use condoms because they had both been in long-standing marriages. But she later learned that Georgiou's wife had died from Aids.
The prosecution alleged that Georgiou knowingly infected Mrs Pink and other women despite being warned by doctors of the risks of unprotected sex.
But Georgiou claimed it was Mrs Pink who refused to use condoms.
Mrs Pink's neighbours in Essex were delighted to hear the verdict. Ms Angie Smith said: ''I am pleased with the result. I just hope this gives her the courage and strength to carry on now.'' Ms Julie Dwyer, 36, said: ''I think he should be put away so that he realises what he has done.''
The test case was brought under an obscure 1957 law intended to prevent the spread of cholera, typhoid, and venereal disease on Cyprus.
The verdict brings the Shirley Valentine-style affair to a bitter end.
Mrs Pink told the court her marriage to her tax accountant husband had collapsed after 20 years and, in a bid for solace, she threw herself into a new life on the romantic island.
She bought an apartment, settled into a job at a hotel, and then at a travel agent's.
Mrs Pink met Georgiou at a bar in September 1993. Their friendship blossomed and by April 1994 they had become intimate.
Meanwhile, Georgiou's English-Cypriot wife Martha was dying of Aids in a London clinic. She died in December 1994.
Asked when leaving court what he thought of Mrs Pink, Georgiou's twin brother Petros grinned and shook his head.
''We all spent some good time together, but I was totally surprised when she brought these allegations against my brother.''
The judge had also rejected the evidence of a defence witness who claimed Mrs Pink had a Cypriot lover for three years before she met Georgiou.
He said of this witness: ''He made a poor impression and his testimony was riddled with contradiction, therefore the court rejected it.''
The judge said he found the facts of the case upheld Mrs Pink's testimony and also upheld prosecution claims that Georgiou lied about his condition and never used a condom when they were having sex.
He believed that Mrs Pink did not have sex with any other person between 1990 and 1996.
Mr Tassos Economou, lawyer for Georgiou, told today's hearing in mitigation: ''In view of his medical condition and the fact he needs treatment and has small children and is father and mother to them, we believe that if the court is thinking about passing a prison sentence, it should be a suspended one, so he can look after his family.''
Mr Petros Georgiou also said outside court that his brother not only had to live with the death of his own wife from Aids, but lived with the daily tragedy of knowing that his own four-year-old son also had the HIV virus.
Dancing with death ...............13
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