What does the alter have to do with it?

Mark Steyn correctly observes that this story has something for everyone. From The Australian:

HIV man 'tricked sex slave'

A MAN charged with deliberately spreading HIV allegedly tricked his lover - who had registered himself with the local council as a dog - into having unsafe sex on the basis he could not transmit the disease.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday that Michael Neal, 48, accepted a dog tag from his lover as a "sign of commitment" in their master-slave relationship.

Mr Neal, who is said to have set up a webcam to broadcast his sexual activities live on the internet, allegedly "deliberately contracted" HIV by having sex on the altar of a Catholic Church with two men he knew were HIV-positive.

The divorced father of three is charged with setting out to spread the virus.

Mr Neal faces 121 charges, including intentionally spreading HIV, attempting to cause serious injury, rape and possessing child pornography.

A man who claims he contracted HIV from Mr Neal gave evidence yesterday at Mr Neal's committal hearing and told the court he registered himself as a dog with Port Phillip Council in Melbourne.

"I registered myself as a dog ... as a sign of commitment to my master, Michael," the man said in a witness statement tendered to the court.

The witness - who said he was usually such a stickler that he was known as "Mister Safe Sex" - said that he came under pressure to have unprotected sex with Mr Neal.

The court heard that Mr Neal had said his viral load levels - an indication of how active the virus is in the body - were so low that he could not transmit HIV. Mr Neal's view echoed that of his Victorian Aids Council doctor, Nicholas Medland, who was in correspondence with the Victorian Department of Human Services and telling officials that if Mr Neal's viral load levels could be kept low he would be "uninfectious".

The witness yesterday told the court he was in love with Mr Neal.

"I was pretty much besotted by him and under his spell, which made me very gullible and stupid," the man's statement said.

"If he had told me black was white I would have believed him."

The man said that after he contracted HIV, Mr Neal immediately "dumped" him, but attempted to retain emotional control over him.

"Michael basically said to me that he would always be my master and that if he wanted me he could have me any time," the court heard.

"He also said part of him would be in me forever.

"I think he was referring to the HIV he had given me."

The court heard the man, whose identity is protected by suppression orders, was one of about six men that Mr Neal dominated.

Mr Neal would call the men his 'bois" or his "dogs in the kennel", the court heard.

The witness said Mr Neal kept photographs of his sexual activity on his computer and set up a webcam to broadcast his conquests live online.

"It was like Michael was recording a history of his sexual conquests," the witness said.

The committal hearing continues today.

It just doesn't get better than that.