ROME, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Rome prosecutors have requested a life sentence for an HIV-positive man who knowingly infected 30 women through unprotected sex, local media reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors also asked he should be placed in daytime solitary confinement for two years.
Rome native Valentino Talluto, 32, is charged with malicious epidemic and aggravated bodily harm for knowingly infecting the women with the virus from when he discovered he was HIV positive in April 2006 through Nov. 23, 2015, the day prior to his arrest, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Intentionally causing an epidemic by spreading a pathogen is punishable with life in prison in the Italian criminal code.
Talluto has reportedly plead ignorance of the risks of HIV infection. The man, who met most of his alleged victims online, is also charged with the secondary infection of an eight-month-old baby, who was born with brain damage "caused by the HIV-positive state contracted from the mother during birth", according to prosecution papers cited by ANSA.
Investigators have discovered a total of 57 incidents of unprotected sex, but believe Talluto may have directly or indirectly infected more people who have not turned to authorities, according to ANSA.
