Victim tells how he fell prey to HIV fiend

Photo: Michael Bradley

The victim.

Photo: John Selkirk

Glenn Mills.

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After HIV predator Glenn Mills contracted the lethal virus, he allegedly set out on what would amount to a killing spree – infecting a string of partners.

One victim, a young man who laid the first formal complaint with police, said Mills had told him "we all end up dying anyway," when he challenged him after being diagnosed with the disease.

The 27-year-old Auckland man, who Sunday News agreed not to name, was the trigger for 13 other complainants to go to detectives.

Train driver Mills, 40, had been due at Auckland District Court last Monday for a depositions hearing but instead was found dead in his Auckland Central Remand Prison cell that morning.

Mills faced 28 charges relating to 14 alleged victims, five of whom now have HIV.

Police were also investigating him for allegedly drugging and raping two men.

The 27-year-old told Sunday News he met the "charming, down to earth and nothing sinister" Mills in November 2008, when he started visiting his workplace.

"One night, he left a note telling me I was hot and asked me to give him a call," the man said.

After two months of "just friendship" the man said he tumbled into bed with Mills. It was the only time the pair had sex. The man said he had a heated fight with Mills about whether he would use a condom.

"Glenn was very anti-safe sex, we had a two-hour debate about it. Glenn would say he didn't like wearing condoms because they hurt and took away sensitivity."

The man said after the sexual encounter, he "backed off" Mills because he began demonstrating controlling behaviour.

"Glenn wanted to move in with me, he was constantly texting me, told me I was gorgeous and said he loved me. He wanted me to be his."

The man said even though Mills appeared to desire commitment, he made no secret of recruiting other sexual partners on the internet.

The man said after his sexual encounter with Mills he fell sick and, in January, was shocked to learn he had contracted HIV.

He said he wasn't sure if the virus had been passed to him by Mills or a former boyfriend.

After being told by a acquaintance that Mills had given the virus to another man, he decided to call a meeting with Mills.

"He arrived within an hour and I asked him three or four times whether he had (HIV) and he was adamant he didn't. And for a while there I thought, `Well maybe he doesn't actually know' because he seemed so genuine".

But he said when he asked Mills for an assurance the sex they had was safe, Mills said he had "broken the condom" during intercourse. "I asked him why he hadn't told me sooner. He asked me what the big deal was and said, `Don't worry, we all end up dying anyway'."

Within days, the man learned police were closing in on Mills but needed someone to lay a complaint so they could apply to the District Court for search and interception warrants to begin surveillance.

The man said he was reluctant to give a formal statement to police but that changed when he was given a piece of paper by a senior police officer. On it was evidence Mills was diagnosed with HIV in May 2007.

"I knew he was very sexually active and very devious and the community needed to have this guy stopped so that is why I complained," he said.

The man's life changed instantly. He became depressed, suffered anxiety attacks about the prospect of giving evidence in court and was forced to stop work.

Mills, the man said, was a serial offender, "who had no conscience about intentionally giving people a life sentence".

Mills used phone chat lines and internet dating sites to recruit partners and he was a frequent user of "cruising clubs". There men pay around $20 to roam naked and have casual sex. Mills was a regular at the central Auckland gay spa, Centurian.

It was there he met and had sex with a 23-year-old man who later tested positive for HIV.

Mills' funeral service on Friday in Levin, where his mother Coral lives, took place amid high secrecy with public notices saying where the event would take place.

The funeral director refused to tell people the location or time and referred inquires to Mills' mother.