Everyone has their own way of coping with stressful situations. For one powerful city attorney in the London, he dealt with his HIV diagnosis by throwing wild PNP parties and looking at kiddy porn.
44-year-old Tim Varchmin is a former senior lawyer at Barclays in Canary Wharf. He’s currently on trial after being busted for having a whole bunch of meth, a crack pipe, and hundreds of x-rated images and videos featuring minors on his phone and computer.
Related: Former boybander in court for reportedly selling chemsex drugs
Varchmin insists none of the contraband was his, claiming it all belonged to various men he invited over to his place for chem-sex parties shortly after both he and his boyfriend tested positive for a drug-resistant strain of HIV.
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This week, Varchmin testified that he felt horribly “betrayed” after his boyfriend passed the virus onto him after cheating on him with his ex-boyfriend.
“It turned out he cheated on me with his ex-boyfriend who he was living with in a flat share in east London,” he said. “It was devastating.”
When asked by his attorney if his HIV diagnosis may have impacted his lifestyle, Varchmin replied, “It is a life-changing event. It’s something you have to come to terms with. That bonded us together but at the time we were fighting over it. We developed a more aggressive sexual life.”
This included hosting chem sex parties, having unprotected sex with strangers, and doing lots of GHB, meth, and other drugs because it “makes you horny.”
Related: Just how many guys say they’ve engaged in ‘chemsex’?
“People who take methadrone are looking for more guys on Grindr and invite them in,” Varchmin testified. “At peak times we had five or six. It was a bit of a revolving door.”
A recent survey by Squirt.org found that 30% of respondents said they had engaged in PNP, and 39% said they would consider it. The survey also found that 51% of men didn’t use any sort of protection when having sex.
Varchmin said that his £2 million flat basically became a sex den, with guys coming over all the time, doing drugs, hooking up, listening to music, and, apparently, looking at kiddy porn.
Police uncovered over 45,000 images and more than 100 movies on Varchmin’s phone and computer.
Varchmin has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of possessing indecent images of children and possessing 830 milligrams of crystal meth.
The trail continues.
ChrisK
It actually makes sense. Many will turn to destructive activities when confronted with news like that. Plus, Meth is known to make certain taboos alluring. It’s all part of a cycle.
Heywood Jablowme
Really? It seems like a weird reaction to me. The HIV+ guys I know all went through a depression phase when they were first diagnosed, but they didn’t suddenly plunge into drug addiction.
(Also the kiddie porn angle here is the lamest “excuse” anyone who claims to be a lawyer ever came up with! If someone has no interest in child porn, it doesn’t suddenly crop up out of nowhere when they become diagnosed with HIV.)
A lot of b.s. here but maybe these are the only excuses he could think of. He really needs a better attorney than himself though.
Paco
All the HIV+ guys I know and knew stopped partying and hooking up. They became hyper vigilant with their health.
Thud Hardbutt
I have to call you out on that one Chris. I myself didn’t feel the need to turn to “destructive activities” at my diagnosis, neither have many of the other HIV+ guys I’ve met. You turn your energies to dealing with the health implications of living with the virus or the rest of your life.
ChrisK
I’ll just address this in a group message. Not everyone will go full on destructive. Most do get their shit together but I’d seen the exact opposite too so his story makes sense.
I think I was referring more to the PNP and his pedo lust. Maybe it was there but normal brain function kept it at bay. Either way meth definitely played a role.
PinkoOfTheGange
It happened in the second wave, more time then I care to think about. Sometime people get nihilistic in the face of death. They have a drug resistant strain. These guys have the life expectancy of someone that seroconverted in 1985.
Remember bug chasers?
Sam6969
I agree with Chris. People do not react the same in reaction to discovering they have HIV. For some of them, it is like a rush forward (in the wrong direction), out of pique. Of course, drugs won’t help in the process.
Heywood Jablowme
“Chemsex” is the most annoying Brit expression there is. Ugh.
Anyway, what’s with the needle photo? Are any of the drugs mentioned taken with a needle? (I don’t think they are, but maybe I’m blessedly naïve about such things.)
“People who take methadrone….” Methadrone? Is that a cross between methamphetamine and methadone? Or is it delivered by a drone?
Creamsicle
It’s not entirely innacurate to use a needle picture. Some people have turned to injecting meth, particularly before having unprotected sex. I don’t know why. I don’t mind needles if I need to get blood drawn or a shot at the doctor’s office, but it’s definitely not mynidea of fun and if at any point I found myself about to inject anything into my blood stream recreationally I’d start questioning my life choices.
Heywood Jablowme
@Creamsicle: OK, I was blissfully unaware that meth can be injected.
Yeah – personally I’m a needle-phobe and I can’t even look at it at the doctor’s office!
Kangol
Methadrone is another UK name for/version of “mephedrone.”
Rocinante
Articles that throw a bunch of acronyms without spelling them out piss me off. I am obviously not up on the latest terms, had to look up PNP. It sounds like a normal gay orgy. Agree with comment about chemsex, a lot of sex in this world involve chemicals, so that’s like saying bed sex vs. non bed sex. Whether it’s alcohol or whatever, they are chemicals.
ChrisK
PNP=party and play or meth with sex. Chem sex comes from the UK and it mostly covers meth, ecstasy, and GHB.
QJ201
Answers to burning questions: Mephedrone = Bathsalts in US, known as MeowMeow because it is synthetic version of the psychoactive ingredient in the Khat plant from Africa (where natives smoke it like pot).
And I have know many a man who went on a party rampage after an HIV diagnosis. Some wound up going so far out there that they needed rehab.
PNP has it’s own tolerance… more men, kinkier sex, wilder scenes.
tnguy222
What a terrible life to be caught up in. I mean, it is great at the time, until the drugs stop working, but if you are lucky enough to get out that it is clear that it was just hell on earth.
I feel for a fellow attorney, I understand the stress. Money plus stress plus no knowledge of the destruction which that type of fun brings is a recipe for apocalyptic collapse.
PinkoOfTheGange
I don’t believe them about how the kiddie porn got on their devices.
talktalktalk
agreed. These are pathetic excuses
stevetalbert
Maybe he could be pen pals with mike dozer. He has a lot of time on his hands now.
ChrisK
These guys were just fantasizing. Mike got himself the real thing though.
DistingueTraces
“drug-resistant strain”?
Sorry if this is a hopelessly naive question, but how prevalent is this?
Heywood Jablowme
“Drug-resistant strain” of HIV is a somewhat misleading term that the attorney seems to have misunderstood – along with a lot of his other misunderstandings! – and it could have been explained better in the news report.
At this point there are so many different HIV medications that if an individual case is resistant to one or two of the most common meds, there are always others to try. To answer your question I think it’s uncommon but happens occasionally. The doctor can tell from the genotype test which med(s) to begin treatment with.
(If I’m oversimplifying I’m sure someone here will correct me! But there are still things like that to worry about, since gonorrhea for instance has drug-resistant strains and there are comparatively FEW medications to treat that one. In the long run it’s possible that may become a big problem.)
talktalktalk
pathetic excuses. Jail him
Lvng1Tor
The drugs came first then the diagnosis and then the dip way down into the abyss. All of that I can understand because of the addiction…not say it’s OK, justify or explain away…just understand. Addiction and depression work differently for everyone. BUT…child pornography! HELL NO, you do not become a pedophile because of drugs or HIV. F! HIM!!!
He BGB
there is a drug resistant strain already so strong that someone gets it from the start and can’t take ANYTHING? I heard in the 90s this might happen but stopped keeping up with the news about HIV. I thought HIV was no longer a death sentence. That would be horrifying if true. No wonder they went on a drug binge although involving other people sexually is not right, if they used unsafe sex.
Heywood Jablowme
Not true, I think — see my comment above. He misunderstood what the term meant.
Geeker
Some people are literally too stupid to live.
huckchuck
If it’s a drug resistant strain of HIV, it sounds like he was NOT undetectable. Also, one has to wonder if PREP would protect against it? Anyways, it sounds like he very likely infected others with HIV, which is a terrible shame.
I can understand someone going down a destructive path after the diagnosis–people all cope differently, and some do it better than others. Unfortunate, nonetheless. It sounds like he led a pretty good life up until then–it takes a lot of hard work to become a “senior lawyer” at Barclays (and be able to afford a 2 million flat in London).
Bob LaBlah
Not to go too far off topic here but were you to go on pornhub, xhamster, x-tube or any of the free porn sites and google slamming, PNP..etc you would not believe what you are going to see. People simply have no shame anymore as to what they will put up on these sites for all to see. You can actually see people slamming and then have cream pie filled sex afterwards and not giving one damn who sees it. Oh, and by the way, don’t be surprised at your shock as to how hot many of those guys are and how young they are too. Its a different world out here than when I came along back in the late……..well, lets just leave it at “then when I came along”.
pudman56
Wow! I had no idea so many gay men were so clueless about what’s in this article. Maybe that’s because I’m 61 and was a full out drug user since I was a mid teenager through my early 50’s, but there wasn’t an acronym or abbreviation or anything about the sex or the drugs that I didn’t understand. Hmm, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t know, but regardless of any negative effects it had on my life, I still don’t regret the drug and the life experiences that I had.
Oh, and I never freaked out when I tested. Maybe living in Chicago had something to do with that but in my life experience, I honestly don’t recall guys I knew who were not poz. And the ones that were negative, well, I won’t publicly disparage them. It just wasn’t hard to understand why they never sero-converted.
Heywood Jablowme
“Hmm, is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
um… I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it’s a bad thing.
“I still don’t regret the drug and the life experiences that I had.”
So why did you stop?
GC1985
He will deserve what prison sentence he gets. Horrible person.