Wife defends HIV man

The wife of the man who deliberately infected two women with the HIV virus today made an extraordinary defence of his behaviour.

Mohammed Dica, 37, was warned yesterday he faces a long jail term for giving the virus to his two mistresses by pressurising them to have unprotected sex.

Dica was described in court as "cold and callous" for condemning the two women to a "death sentence" after both were told they may have only seven years to live.

But today Dica's Ugandan-born wife said she was standing by him after his conviction at Inner London Crown Court. She told the Evening Standard: "He is an innocent man, he has been framed."

Mrs Dica, who asked for her first name not to be published for fear of reprisals, added: "It is so unfair that my husband is going to jail when he does not deserve to. He is a good father, a kind man, and now his children will be without him for a very long time.

"These women were not raped, they consented to having sex with him. My husband is now in prison because of them.

"Everything those women said about him in court, that he is kind, a gentleman and charming, is all true - the rest of it is lies.

"He told them from the very beginning he was HIV positive. He's a very honest person."

Mrs Dica, who refuses to say whether she has been infected, said she never questioned her husband's infidelity and maintains he is an innocent man.

Speaking from the family's semi-detached home in Mitcham, she said: "I didn't want to listen in court to those lies. It was bad enough Mohammed had to go to court when he is ill.

"I never asked who gave him the illness, it was probably another woman, probably one of the two women he went with.

"They are the ones in the wrong, not Mohammed. They had their partners, but they were not good enough for them so they had to take mine.

"One of those girls had the audacity to ring me to ask whether I knew Mohammed had HIV. Of course I did, he told me straight away, he is not ashamed of having the disease.

"I had to collect my children from school yesterday. I was not able to break the news to them that they will not see their father for years.

" I don't know if he will be free from jail before the illness gets him. Those women have ruined my life, they have to live with their conscience." Dica, who

charmed his victims by posing as a wealthy lawyer, was found guilty of two counts of " biological grievous bodily harm" in the first conviction of its kind. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Police believe other women could have been infected.

Dica tricked his first victim, a 37-year-old university graduate who worked for the United Nations, by telling her he had undergone a vasectomy.

He deceived his second victim, a 38-year-old mother of two from Surrey, known only as Deborah, with lies about love and starting a family.

Today Mrs Dica refused to reveal why her husband of 18 years had embarked on an apparent campaign of revenge a year after he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1995.

While he roamed clubs and bars in south London looking for women to seduce, she would stay at home looking after their boys, aged 13, nine and six.

Her daily life evolved around her children, housework and tending to her husband, whose condition deteriorated severely two years ago when he was hospitalised with breathing difficulties and lung problems.

Dica fled his native Somalia and lived in Kenya before coming to Britain in 1983 where he was given refugee status with indefinite leave to remain. Last night police were called to stand guard outside his home after gangs of youths threatened to hurl bricks through the windows.