HIV POSITIVE MAN RAPES 17 YEAR OLD GIRL

From WREG News Channel 3 in Memphis, TN:
Omari.Fleming@wreg.com

(Memphis, TN 8/19/2008) Kenya Pipkins is outraged. "That babies life is destroyed and it could have been avoided. That's just wrong."

While she may be outraged, she's not at all surprised Timothy Payne is now charged with raping a 17-year-old girl, while knowing he was infected with HIV.

"It just makes me sick to my stomach." In late June, right before Memphis City pools re-opened and about a month before the suspected rape, Pipkins says the 37-year-old man made her a very indecent proposal.

"He said he could give her a job making ten dollars an hour answering phones but she needed to go home and get some little shorts or a swimming suit to work in."

Pipkins says her daughter never took the pool attendant up on his offer. Instead she told her mom what happened. Pipkin says when she took her concerns to managers at the Westwood Community Center, nothing was done.

"It breaks my heart to hear that they didn't take us more seriously, that they waited until something bad happens to do something."

Police believe Payne has had consensual sex with several other underage females. A quick background check shows eight convictions between 19-92 and 2003. They include a misdemeanor assault which was reduced from rape. He also violated a protection order. In the complaint, Payne's ex-girlfriend says he slashed her car tires and bashed the car with a crowbar. One more reason Kenya Pipkins is calling for better background checks

"We need to be able to trust our children are not working around predators."

Payne was a temporary employee who was fired August 1st. There were no background checks for temporary employees until last year. Payne was hired in 2006. We're still working to find out when he contracted HIV.