Guilty, hairdresser who gave f ive lovers HIV in ‘revenge’ bid
‘His campaign was successful’
A HAIRDRESSER is facing life behind bars after he deliberately i nfected a string of lovers with HIV.
Daryll Rowe, 27, launched a ‘warped campaign’ to pass on the potentially lethal virus to as many men as possible.
Over three months he infected five men and put others at risk.
In a landmark case he was found guilty of five counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and five of attempting to do so.
It is the first time anyone has been convicted of intentionally infecting people with HIV in England or Wales.
Yesterday, Rowe stood impassively as a jury of seven women and five men delivered their verdict after 18 hours of deliberation.
The court was told he faces a life sentence and a possible extended sentence for ‘dangerousness’.
Lewes Crown Court in Sussex heard Rowe, an unemployed hairdresser, was diagnosed with HIV in April 2015.
But rather than starting a course of anti-retroviral drugs, which combat the virus symptoms and reduces contagiousness, he turned down treatment.
He moved from Musselburgh, East Lothian, to Brighton – known as the gay capital of Britain.
There he embarked on a ‘sinister campaign’ to infect as many gay men with the virus as possible. Using the gay dating app, Grindr, he would contact men and then meet them for casual sex.
Claiming he preferred unprotected sex, he would refuse to wear a condom and if the man practised safe sex and insisted he wear one, he would ‘sabotage’ it.
During his trial Caroline Carberry, QC, prosecuting, asked him: ‘It’s really easy to rip a condom, isn’t it? You just pull on the end and it comes off.’
Afterwards Rowe would send a series of abusive messages taunting the men over how he had given them HIV.
In a text message to one victim he said: ‘Maybe you have the fever...I have HIV LOL. Whoops!’ The jury heard he told another alleged victim, ‘I ripped the condom. Burn. I got you’, and in another he admitted, ‘I’m riddled by the way’.
He was only apprehended after two men developed symptoms of HIV and contacted police.
Rowe was arrested and bailed to an address in Berwick but went on the run during which time he continued to have unprotected sex with men. A manhunt was l aunched and he was f i nally arrested.
During his six-week trial, the court heard Rowe, who grew up with a foster family in Berwick, came out as gay when he was 15. After leaving school he went to college near Edinburgh to study hairdressing.
After qualifying, he spent around 18 months in Australia. On his return, by his own admittance he had a lot of casual sex, usually unprotected.
The court heard he was diagnosed with HIV at the age of 25 in April 2015. However Rowe turned down anti-retroviral drugs.
Miss Carberry said he then set out with the express purpose of spreading the virus to as many men as possible.
She said the HIV virus has many strains but all the infected men had one extremely similar to the strain from which Rowe suffered.
Miss Carberry said: ‘Daryll Rowe embarked on a cynical and deliberate campaign to infect other men with HIV, having high-risk sexual intercourse knowing he was highly infectious.
‘Unfortunately for many of the men he met his campaign was successful. He deceived those men into believing he was HIV negative, reassuring those he was intimate with.’