Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos - Appearance at The Appeal Trial of Andre Parenzee

Appearance At The Appeal Trial of Andre Parenzee

In late 2006 and early 2007, Papadopulos-Eleopulos and the other main Perth Group member, Valendar Turner, testified at the appeal for retrial of an HIV-positive man, Andre Chad Parenzee, who had been convicted on three counts of endangering life through having unprotected sex without informing his partners of his HIV status. Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Turner told the Supreme Court of South Australia that Parenzee should be acquitted because the existence of HIV had not been proven; HIV tests were unreliable; and there was no evidence for sexual transmission of HIV. Papadopulos-Eleopulos, when asked by a prosecutor if she would herself have unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person, replied, "Any time." Medical experts decried Papadopulos-Eleopulos' statements, with one expert witness calling them "insane", "outrageous" and "dangerous" for apparently encouraging unsafe sex.

In his ruling in April 2007, Justice John Sulan dismissed the testimony of Papadopulos-Eleopulos and Turner and rejected the application for a retrial. He said that the pair were not qualified to give expert opinions about the existence or nature of HIV and that, "the probative value of the evidence proposed to be called by the applicant is minimal." According to Justice Sulan:

One significant feature of the evidence of the applicant’s witnesses was that neither Papadopulos-Eleopulos nor Dr Turner claimed to have practical experience or qualifications in any of the particular scientific disciplines to which their evidence pertained.