Will & Gloria once again delve into the British newspaper archives and attempt to unpick the real stories, of real people behind the sensational and attention-grabbing headlines of the 80s and 90s AIDS pandemic. Featured in this episode is prisoner Del Sinclair, by his own admission had a string on convictions behind him. In 1985 he was featured in a national newspaper declaring he intended to ‘go straight’ and even publish a book on Prison food with a working title ‘The Good? Prison Food Guide’. However, 4 weeks later back on remand he routinely tested HIV positive and faced threats of violence from other inmates.

Other articles covered are those of a highly regarded Home Office pathologist refusing to carry out a post-mortem on a young man for merely “suspecting” the young man had AIDS. Another national newspaper ‘outs’ another man as being gay and being the 38th person in the UK to die of AIDS. Then in 1987 two gay men from Soho, London said to be “friends” were also denied a post-mortem when they died 3 weeks apart.

All articles and relevant documents from this episode are available on the:

XTRA Tea Blog - Del Sinclair

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Music / Instrumental by Aries Beats 'A Sin' + WEBSITE

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS.

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers