Adam Hall travelled the country meeting men for sexual encounters using the Grindr app, and as he faced jail for rape and deliberate transmission of the HIV virus today, it emerged that his youngest victim was just 15 years old
Sexual predator Adam Hall spent seven years on a mission to infect as many sexual partners as possible with HIV.
Hall travelled the country meeting men for sexual encounters using the Grindr app. As he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 23 years for rape and deliberate transmission of the HIV virus, it emerged that his youngest victim was just 15 years old.
Police have now urged other people across the country who have had sex with Hall to get themselves checked for HIV. Detectives know that the 43-year-old from Washington, Tyne and Wear, was active on the gay scene in Newcastle but travelled to see men he met on the dating app Grindr across the North East, including County Durham and Middlesbrough, as well as North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Manchester and London.
Hall refused to appear in court to hear his sentence. Hall, 43, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and rape on March 5. He was brought from HMP Durham but remained in his cell and refused to attend Newcastle Crown Court 1 in person. It was seen as a final insult and an attempt to exert control over his victims.
Four of them courageously asked to read their personal statements in court, detailing the life long impact of the virus. Some had not told their families about their HIV, fell into addiction, lost jobs and struggled in relationships. Hall refused to face them. The law to compel offenders to appear in court was supposed to take effect two days ago on April 21.
But it does not have royal assent, a legal formality. It was established in the name of murdered nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel after her killer refused to attend court for sentencing three years ago.
Hall became just the second person in the UK to be convicted of intentional transmission of HIV. Daryll Rowe, 27, was jailed for life in 2018 after he spread HIV to five men and attempted to infect another five after his diagnosis with the virus in April 2015. Jurors deliberated for almost 43 hours before convicting Hall last month of five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm.
He was diagnosed with HIV in 2010 and took medication to keep his viral load low. But in 2016, medical professionals became concerned that was not adhering to his treatment, making him infectious to sexual partners. Despite being warned, Hall had unprotected sex with men between 2016 and 2023, in some cases raping them.
Hall failed to disclose his HIV status to those men and his victims only found out after being tested themselves. He was convicted of raping four men and deliberately infecting three others.
Kama Melly KC said Hall was “repeatedly told about the risks of what he was doing” if he did not keep to medication, but “repeatedly found young and often vulnerable males for sexual activity.”
Craig Hassall, mitigating for Hall, said the offending did not amount to a rape campaign, and there was no evidence of ‘significant pre-planning’.
In Grindr messages, there was also evidence of interest in aggression from some of his sexual partners, he added.
The huge investigation into his predatory behaviour involved 35,000 hours of police time, seven dedicated detectives, 450 statements, 1600 documents generated, 670 exhibits, and 37 witnesses who gave evidence at Newcastle Crown Court.
Blood samples had to be taken from victims and compared with Hall’s blood to prove the allegation of HIV transmission. As the 43-year-old was jailed for five counts of rape and seven counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent through the intentional transmission of the HIV virus, police appealed for anyone who may have slept with Hall to come forward.
Hall was found guilty of supplying a controlled drug (GHB) and failing to comply with a police investigation after refusing to provide his phone’s password. The offences relate to seven victim-survivors, between 2016 and 2023. Arrogant and unrepentant in police interviews, he denied the offences and shamelessly blamed his victims in court. During the four month trial, the jury was told that if the HIV virus is undetectable in a person’s system, it is untransmittable.
But Hall knew at various points he had transmittable levels of the virus in his system and intentionally had unprotected sex, raping the victim-survivors in the majority of these cases. He becomes only the second person in the UK to be convicted of the intentional transmission of HIV.
Daryll Rowe, then 27, became the first man in Britain to be convicted of intentionally trying to spread the virus when he was convicted in 2018. Rowe spread HIV to five men and attempted to infect another five after he was diagnosed with the virus in April 2015. He was jailed for life at Lewes crown court, with a minimum sentence of 12 years.
Det Chief Inspector Emma Smith, who led the ‘large, complex’ investigation into Hall, paid tribute to the courage and dignity of the victims for bringing Hall to justice and protecting countless potential victims from harm.
It soon became apparent that Hall’s plan was to “infect as many people as he could”, said DCI Smith.
“All of the men were young, aged from 15 to their late 20s,” she said. “Hall consistently failed to comply with his treatment regimen.
“He did not tell them of his status and had unprotected sex with them, raping some of the victims. He was arrested in 2023 for breaching his interim sexual risk order and for one of the HIV transmissions, and has remained in custody ever since.
“He had a history of targeting young vulnerable men, particularly those inexperienced sexually, men who had not had a same sex experience before. A power imbalance was part of the dynamic in these relationships.
“We believe that he deliberately set out to infect others with HIV.”
Northumbria Police is now investigating further allegations against Hall.
DCI Smith added: “We believe there are a number of men who have yet to be identified. He met people online through dating apps. Since you do not have to provide your true identity on those, finding them is really difficult.
“But we believe he had contact with other men. He has travelled across County Durham, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Manchester and London.
“He has shown absolutely no remorse and has never apologised for his behaviour. We interviewed him on a number of occasions, he gave prepared statements and offered no comment therein.
“He was arrogant and dismissive and that continued during the trial. In his live court testimony, he again showed no remorse and suggested that some of the victims wanted him to pass HIV to them which is absolutely not the case.
“He bragged that the police investigation was going nowhere, maintaining that attitude and dismissing it. He was well known in the Newcastle gay scene and there is evidence he was involved in chemsex.
“He was travelling predominantly to meet other men. The evidence of his travel came from the apps. They can benefit many people, but I caution younger individuals who may lack experience meeting people online.
“We want to encourage anyone who thinks they have been victim of a criminal offence to come forward. We would really encourage people to contact Northumbria Police via their website and seek advice from local sexual health services.”
Amy Dixon senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service added: “The convictions were that he set out to deliberately infect, and that was accepted in court. He never gave a reason why.
“There are two offences of GBH with intent and one of reckless GBH and it was clear from the outset that ‘reckless’ did not reflect his criminality.
“We had to examine contact with victims of Adam Hall to show his intent to pass on HIV, his viral load at the time, his lack of cooperation with medical teams, the information he gave to victims in this case, and other sexual partners from Grindr.
“He seemed to target young men who hadn’t been on the scene for very long. It was clear there was a power imbalance and he was so forceful that he was convicted of rape, and he did nothing to eliminate risk after sexual contact.
“It was clear he intended to pass on the virus; that was one of the prosecution’s major issues in building that picture of intent. We had to ask victims about sexual activity, then ask their partners to establish the causation for the GBH with intent by Hall. Only he can answer why he did it.”
Hall was infected with HIV in 2010; he held several jobs, including working for a period at a sex shop in Gateshead, trying to establish a charity for people with HIV and working in bars and pubs.
Medical staff warned him about his high viral load and the risk of unprotected sex with men. But he stopped taking medication, and the charity was a ruse to gain his victims’ trust.
He was arrogant and prepared to lie about his former partners in evidence before the jury, police said.
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