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TORONTO — An aggravated sexual assault conviction will stand for a man who had unprotected sex with two other men without telling them he was HIV-positive.

In a ruling this week, Ontario’s top court upheld the December 2012 jury conviction against Steven Boone, who argued the complainants would have had sex with him anyway.

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Among other things, Boone argued the trial judge should have instructed jurors to acquit him if they found the complainants were reckless or prepared to assume the risk of unprotected sex without knowing the sexual health of their partner.

“It is one thing to be careless or reckless about whether a risk exists — and quite another to assume a known risk,” the Appeal Court said in rejecting the argument.

“Even if the complainants were reckless in their sexual behaviour, whether in the past or at the time of their sexual encounter with the appellant, this has no bearing on the issue whether they would have consented had they known of the appellant’s HIV-positive status.”