ROME -- An HIV-positive man has been indicted after contaminating 30 women in the capital by having unprotected sex, despite being aware of his virus, judicial sources said Tuesday.

 Valentino Talluto, aged 32 and HIV-positive, is accused of having given 30 women AIDS despite knowing he had the infection. He has been indicted as decided by the Judge for Preliminary Hearings Massimo Battistini, who accepted the request from the public prosecutor Francesco Scavo.

 The trial will take place March 2, in the Court of Assizes. Talluto will have to respond to charges of a malicious epidemic and very serious harm caused.

 The cases attested to Talluto are 57 and also involve cases of indirect infection (a young child and three partners of the infected women who had been with him previously), as well as women who managed to avoid being transmitted the virus despite having slept with him while he knew he had AIDS.

 The judge rejected a request for an accelerated procedure influenced by an evaluation carried out on his personality.

 It was in April 2006 that Talluto found out that he was HIV-positive, and was arrested Nov. 24, 2015 -- throughout this period, he was knowingly having unprotected sex and transmitting the virus to his sexual partners.

 The young baby, son of a foreign lady who had been with Talluto, was indirectly infected by his mother and diagnosed with the AIDS virus (as well as encephalitis) at the age of eight months.

 Verifications have allowed the number to be raised to 57 episodes, but the investigators are certain that other people were also infected, directly or indirectly, but that they have so far avoided speaking up about it in court.

 Talluto has always defended himself by saying that he was not aware of the risks he could cause due to his virus.

 The majority of the women infected were contacted over internet.

 nkd