A MAN thought to have died in the Asian tsunami has appeared before magistrates charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a former partner by infecting her with the HIV virus.
The charge against James Cawley refers to a period between January 1994 and January 1996 when he lived in Accrington.
He was not interviewed by police until December 2003 and eventually failed to answer police bail in May 2004.
Police inquiries led them to believe he had died in the Boxing Day tragedy which hit South East Asia in January of that year.
But Blackburn magistrates were told that Cawley, 39, was arrested at Manchester Airport last Thursday when he flew in from Thailand.
He married a Taiwanese woman in August 2003 and they currently live together in Crewe where she works as a cleaner.
Peter King, defending, applied for bail for his client and put forward a £5,000 surety offered by the defendant's mother Margaret Cawley, of Hodder Street, Accrington.
The magistrates directed the case should be heard at Preston Crown Court and Cawley was remanded in custody until 2 February.
