The Shirley Valentine devastated by Aids takes revenge on her fisherman lover

Ian Burrell

Only eight months ago, Janette Pink weighed barely five stone and could talk only in a whisper. Her skin had turned brown from the effects of Aids and doctors gave her 20 months to live.

But today, summoning her strength she will have her day in a Cypriot court, giving evidence against the man she believes deliberately infected her with the deadly virus. It is this fight for justice which has strengthened her will to survive. Once too weak to stand, she has put on two stone and taken up swimming to build her strength.

At the weekend she travelled more than 2,000 miles from her home in Basildon, Essex, back into the searing summer heat of the Mediterranean holiday isle where she had set out on the dream of a new life only four years ago.

Mirroring the script of the film Shirley Valentine she uprooted from Britain after divorcing from a long marriage and then quickly fell in love.

Tomorrow, for the first time in nine months, she will set eyes on her former lover, Pavlos Georgiou, the man on trial for giving her Aids.

Mrs Pink, 45, is the chief prosecution witness. "I want to go back to Cyprus to see his face in the dock," she said. "I wonder whether he will be able to look me in the eye."

She will allege that Mr Georgiou, 39, a fisherman, gave her HIV through unprotected sex during an 18-month relationship which began with a chance meeting in a local bar, two months after she left England.

Last night Mrs Pink was with friends and relatives in Agia Napa, the resort on the south-eastern tip of the island where she first met Mr Georgiou. Her former lover looked tired and angry last night at the prospect of appearing in court. Lying in front of the television in the new apartment he has had built alongside the family-run London Archway pub in Agia Napa where the couple met, he declined to talk about the case. "I don't care about her, " he shouted in Greek, "Get out of my house before I punch you."

This morning the former lovers will separately make the 25-mile journey down the coast in the humidity of 27C temperature to the modern white court building in Larnaca, which is preparing for the case, the like of which has not been heard in Cyprus before.

Local feeling is running high. "People are very angry with the Cypriot guy," said one local man. "He's a killer just the same as if he was using a gun. He has destroyed that woman and he should be hung."

If Mr Georgiou is convicted he is likely to come against prejudice and isolation in prison because of his HIV status. "This is not like England. Here we don't like people who have Aids," said another local.

The case has only been brought at all because of a tireless campaign by Mrs Pink and her family. The prosecution is based on an ancient island law aimed at limiting the spread of diseases like cholera and typhoid and carries a maximum sentence of only two years in jail and a pounds 1,500 fine. But Mrs Pink and her supporters believe the outcome of the case could have vital implications for the future, setting an international precedent which could be used against those who fail to warn their sexual partners that they have HIV.

In 1992, Kenneth Clarke, then Home Secretary, ruled out a criminal offence of knowingly transmitting HIV, and the only recourse in Britain is a manslaughter or murder charge, along with proof that the death of the victim was intended.

Mrs Pink, the former wife of a City accountant had travelled to Cyprus in 1993 with a pounds 26,000 lump sum from her ex-husband and a gift of pounds 25,000 from her mother Sheila, to help pay for a new home.

She bought an apartment in Paralimni, a resort popular with British expatriates with a lively party circuit which she quickly joined. For seven months, she saw Mr Georgiou occasionally, as a friend, until in April 1994 she realised she had fallen in love. He had, she says, confided to her that his wife was dying from leukaemia. In fact, Martha Georgiou was dying from Aids and the youngest of the couple's four children also had the virus. But unaware of her lover's HIV status, Mrs Pink agreed to unprotected sex.

Mrs Pink was said by friends to be "mesmerised" by her new lover who took her on trips to the snow-covered Cyprus mountains. Later she was happy to part with thousands of pounds from her divorce settlement to help him build a new boat.

But at Christmas, the truth began to unfold. Martha Georgiou died from Aids in a London hospital. As word spread in Cyprus, Mrs Pink's friends persuaded her to go for an Aids test. Even when she discovered she was HIV-positive, she could not overcome her infatuation. Believing that Mr Georgiou was the only person who could now care for her, she moved into his home, and then in January last year became accidentally pregnant. Scared that the baby would be HIV-positive, she opted for a termination.

Within months, Mrs Pink had developed full-blown Aids and her health rapidly deteriorated. The physical side of her relationship with Mr Georgiou came to an end. She last saw him at the harbour as she returned to Britain last August, desperately ill and close to death.

Even now she needs 30 drugs a day, morphine and frequent blood transfusions. Her partial recovery has been spurred, she says, by the realisation that her former lover could still be passing the virus to others.

According to Mr Georgiou, Mrs Pink was aware all along of his HIV status and is now pursuing a vendetta. He said Mrs Pink had made a "big mistake" in seeking the prosecution. "Her motive is revenge. She was just jealous," he said.