A gay man who admitted infecting his male partner with the HIV virus failed to show up at court, where he was expected to be handed a lengthy jail term.

Mark James, 47, of Park Road, Burgess Hill, is the first gay man to be prosecuted for the offence and was facing a long sentence yesterday.

A warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear at Isleworth Crown Court in west London.

Judge Jonathan Lowen promised to sentence him in his absence if he was not apprehended soon.

James had pleaded guilty to causing his former partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, grievous bodily harm during the summer of 2004.

At a hearing on April 3 this year, Judge Lowen told him he was facing "a substantial custodial sentence".

Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, told that hearing the 47-year-old businessman, who was living with his 38-year-old partner in Brentford, Middlesex, at the time, did not tell him he had been diagnosed with the virus.

Mr Gadsden said the younger man's infection could only have come from James because of the time factor and the nature of the virus.

The officer in charge of the case, Detective Con Elliot Toms, said the crime came to light after the victim complained of domestic violence.

He said the victim had been ill during the seroconversion or primary infection phase of HIV and was now "on a cocktail of drugs" he will have to take for the rest of his life.

He said: "The defendant has behaved in a callous, reckless and misleading way. Had the complainant known earlier of the possibility of infection, he could have been treated to lessen its effects.

"But it has been a protracted and traumatic process for the victim, whose health has been adversely affected by the pending legal proceedings."

Yesterday at the sentencing hearing, Mr Gadsden was expected to open the case against James in some detail.

Defence counsel Robert Ellison said that James had failed to contact his solicitor despite several messages being left for him.

If arrested, he will be held in custody.