AS ONE of the No Angels girl group, she was a teen idol. Yesterday Nadja Benaissa struggled in a German court to explain why she had unprotected sex with three men without telling them she was HIV-positive.
In a Darmstadt courtroom, she faced one of the men, who is now infected with the virus.
“It was a big mistake,” said Ms Benaissa, sitting behind reinforced glass and avoiding eye contact with her former partner. “Perhaps this is a chance to deal with everything. I’m so very sorry.”
The 28-year-old singer faces charges of grievous bodily harm if the court establishes a link between her and the man’s infection, though she may receive a lighter sentence as the alleged infection occurred when she was a teenager.
In a statement, Ms Benaissa told of her life before joining No Angels in 2000, Germany’s first casting show band.
At 14 she was addicted to crack cocaine and living rough, at 16 she was pregnant and stopped taking drugs, only to find out during a regular pregnancy blood test that she was HIV-positive.
“I don’t know how I was infected, all my worries were for my unborn daughter, who is not infected,” she said. She was arrested in April 2009 before going onstage for a concert and details of her case, including her HIV status, were leaked to the German media while she was on remand.
Her former partner found out about Ms Benaissa’s infection in 2007 and went immediately to his doctor for a test. When it came back positive he “disappeared from life for a year”.
He said his earnings had halved and he still hadn’t come to terms with the diagnosis.
Visibly furious, the 34 year-old blurted out: “You’ve brought so much pain to this world.”