Trial without End: A Shocking Story of Women and AIDS

Jane Heath is a psychology instructor at Ryerson Polytechnical
University.

This is an engrossing account of the events surrounding the Ontario
trial of Charles Ssenyonga, who knowingly transmitted the AIDS virus to
women. The narrative combines the qualities of a psycho-medical
thriller, a courtroom drama, and a human-interest story. While the
identities of his victims are protected, their stories are clearly and
compassionately told. The personality of Ssenyonga is compellingly
presented, with all its baffling and ultimately enigmatic
contradictions.

The medico-legal detective process by which Ssenyonga was eventually
brought to trial is detailed, along with the advances in biochemical
understanding of the AIDS virus that made this possible. The
difficulties of governmental agencies, in particular the public-health
system, in dealing with offences such as Ssenyonga’s are described in
all their frustrating complexity. Finally, all these threads are woven
together in the account given of Ssenyonga’s trial—a trial unique
both for the nature of the offence and for the plight of victims and the
accused, who were all in the throes of a shared disease.

June Callwood has written a gripping and horrifying story. Her book
serves as a warning to all women of the dangers inherent in
“unprotected” sex in the days of AIDS. Trial Without End deserves a
wide audience.