Exclusive: HIV-assault convict confronted behind bars by Crime Watch Daily
05/18/2016 1:06 pm PDT
An exclusive story that will strike fear in the heart of anyone who is dating: You're about to meet a woman who says her online Romeo may well have handed her a death sentence, knowingly passing on HIV. And she's not alone.
Philippe Padieu was an insatiable modern-day Casanova who could boast of countless sexual conquests.
"He would meet women and they would fall in love with him pretty quickly," said Collin County Assistant Prosecutor Curtis Howard.
Among them was Diane Reeve.
"It was a little bit of love at first sight," said Reeve.
But she would learn to her horror it was almost a love to die for, in a landmark case that gives new meaning to the charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
"Which was his HIV-infected semen," said Howard.
Now in a jaw-dropping prison interview with Crime Watch Daily, Philippe Padieu actually alleges it was Diane Reeve who gave him the dreaded disease.
And the unrepentant Lothario unleashes still more venom at Reeve and five other women he was found guilty of recklessly infecting during unprotected sex.
"I wish they burn in hell, especially Diane," Padieu said.
A love-struck Diane Reeve thought she had found an exciting Mr. Right.
"It was a great time for me," said Reeve. "I liked to travel. I needed someone to travel with. He lived to travel too, and we went to lots of places. We were on the road all the time."
But then when Padieu asked her to help find him some travel documents, Reeve stumbled upon something else: The proverbial "little black book."
Diane Reeve started calling the numbers and discovered to her horror that Padieu had been living a secret other life of rampant infidelity.
One of the women she spoke to actually thought she had an exclusive serious relationship with Padieu, just like Reeve.
Reeve forgave Padieu. They even discussed moving in together.
Reeve would accidentally learn Padieu had never stopped cheating on her when he told her he was too ill to go to her daughter's wedding.
"We did have a screaming match and I knew it was over. He knew it was over," said Reeve. "That was it."
But Padieu had left Reeve with a surprise parting gift.
After more than four years together, Diane Reeve has finally said au revoir to her cheating French boyfriend Philippe Padieu. But the serial Casanova has left Reeve with something she will never be able to get rid of.
One of the women that Reeve had spoken to after finding Padieu's little black book has just discovered she has HIV.
Reeve is so terrified she may have also contracted the disease that she immediately goes to her doctor to get tested.
"Two days later she called and said 'I'm sorry, it's positive,' and my knees hit the floor and I remember very, very little about those next 24 hours because everything just imploded in my head," said Reeve.
Reeve says she and the other infected woman had each asked Padieu if he had HIV or any other sexually transmitted diseases before they even had sex with him.
"He told both of us that he was negative," said Reeve.
They suspect that Padieu not only gave them HIV, but that he also did it knowing full well he was infected.
"I said I think we should go to the police," said Reeve.
But a detective tells Reeve and her friend they need more evidence.
"Could be coincidence, have no way of proving it was him, could be somebody else altogether, but if you find three victims or four victims or five victims then the prosecutor might take a look at it," said Reeve.
It takes Reeve and her fellow victim six months to do it, but they track down four other women who had contracted HIV after having sex with Padieu, and he is charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
"This was a very unusual case," said Collin County Assistant Prosecutor Curtis Howard. "One of the things that we would have to prove was that the defendant knowingly used a deadly weapon. That being a transmission of a deadly disease."
Curtis Howard, assistant prosecutor in the case, says the first thing his team did was subpoena Padieu's medical records.
"Doctors' records indicated he had gone in for HIV testing and that he was determined to be positive," said Howard.
While continuing to have sex with Diane Reeve and other women.
"He seemed to be very healthy and there didn't seem to be any outward signs of HIV," said Howard. "He was able to hide it very well."
And through the use of what is known as bio-genetic analysis, a forensics medical expert nailed down the other challenge of the case.
"He was able to determine the direction of transmission," said Howard. "What that means is he was able to determine that it came from Philippe Padieu and was transmitted to the different ladies."
At a sensational and emotionally charged trial, four more women joined Reeve and the other five victims to allege that Padieu also had also given them HIV. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Padieu has now been behind bars for seven years. He remains astoundingly unrepentant as he insists in our exclusive prison interview that he is not only innocent, but that Diane Reeve is the guilty one.
Asked where he thinks he contracted HIV from, Padieu replies: "From Diane. She's more advanced."
Padieu bases his accusation on the claim that he was diagnosed with having only stage one of the potentially deadly virus, while Reeve was diagnosed with stage three.
"It's virtually impossible for a person with stage one to infect a person and give them stage three," said Padieu.
Assistant Prosecutor Curtis Howard says Padieu is wrong.
"HIV affects people in different ways and the way that some bodies respond to it is not indicative of the way in which they became infected with the disease," said Howard.
Padieu also scoffs at the bio-genetic analysis used at his trial to show he was the source of the HIV that infected Reeve and the other women who testified against him. He calls it "junk science."
"It doesn't prove that I'm the one that infected them. There's no way you can tell," said Padieu. "It's fraud. It's fraud that doesn't meet any standard, scientific standard, forensic standard, state or federal."
Padieu further claims that despite what Diane Reeve says, they didn't have an exclusive relationship, and that she also had other sexual partners while they were together.
"We were never mutually exclusive," said Padieu. "Diane was bisexual. She admitted being bisexual. She saw other men and other women through our relationship."
Padieu also alleges they even went to swingers clubs around the world together.
"I went with her to three in Jamaica," said Padieu.
Reeve denies his claims she was bisexual and went to swingers clubs with him. She finds Padieu's accusation that she was the source of the HIV literally laughable.
"He probably didn't tell you about the woman that we found in 1997 that had been with him that came forward from Michigan and said 'No, I was with him in 1997, and I was diagnosed later on. He didn't care enough to protect me or any of the other women.' He cared about himself."
I asked Padieu to explain how other women he had sex with before he even met Diane Reeve also contracted HIV.
"I feel sorry for them, for all of us, but I also feel they are guilty as sin," said Padieu.
Do you admit you had unprotected sex with all of these women?
"Yes," said Padieu. "But that doesn't mean that I infected them. It just means at the time they were having a lot of partners. One of them admitted to having 10 to 15 partners."
Do you, sitting here today, take any ownership in any of this at all?
"Well, of course I was promiscuous and I didn't use all the right protection, and I wish this hadn't happened to some of these women," said Padieu. "I wish we had better common sense and knew more about HIV.
"But what these women did, they ended my life," said Padieu. "So I wish they burn in hell, and Diane especially. In a dark place in hell because they lied, they denied, they committed fraud, perjury."
But Reeve says it's Padieu who lied and denied, and she feels the full magnitude of his heartless crime is yet to be known.
"I know for a fact there are more women that are out there," said Reeve.
Do you think those women are maybe ashamed to come forward?
"I think that it's a very, very personal decision to come out with that kind of statement," said Reeve.
And Prosecutor Curtis Howard pays tribute to Diane Reeve for having the courage to step forward and get some kind of justice for herself and Padieu's other victims.
Reeve says she now has her HIV under control and is living a normal life. She's also written a new book called Standing Strong: An Unlikely Sisterhood and the Court Case that Made History, detailing her case with the hope it will help other women protect themselves from what happened to her.