HIV carrier gets life for deliberate campaign to infect gay men
THE first person convicted in the UK of deliberately infecting men with HIV has been sentenced to life in prison.
Hairdresser Daryll Rowe, 27, had requested a more lenient punishment at his Brighton Crown Court trial, having claimed that the disease was no longer terminal.
The court was told how he contracted the virus in 2015, then concealed his illness and slept with eight men in Brighton and two in Northumbria, before taunting them in texts.
Victims told how they had considered suicide and Rowe’s first target, who was diagnosed with HIV in January 2016, said: “Daryll has destroyed my life. I would rather he had murdered me than left me to live my life like this.”
Another, whose parents died of Aids when he was a child, said he “did everything” to prevent himself catching the virus.
During a six-week trial Rowe’s lawyers had asked Judge Christine Henson to pass a sentence that would not add to the “social stigma” of HIV but inform the public that the virus is not what it was in the Nineties.
However, the judge disagreed and made history yesterday by sentencing Rowe to life with a minimum term of 12 years after hearing how he embarked on a cynical and deliberate campaign to infect men with the disease, refusing treatment and ignoring doctors’ advice.
Rowe insisted on having unprotected sex with men, claiming he was “clean”, the court was told. When they refused, he covertly tampered with condoms by either tearing them or cutting off the end, tricking victims into thinking they were having safe sex.
In the following days, Rowe would send a series of shocking text messages to victims such as: “Maybe you have the fever.. .i have HIV. Whoops”, “I’m riddled” and “I ripped the condom. I got you”.
Rowe showed no emotion as statements from nine of his 10 victims were heard detailing the “devastating consequences” of his actions.
“A part of me died that day when I was diagnosed,” said one victim. “The old me is no longer. The new me is constantly sad, thinking about how my life changed.”
Felicity Gerry QC, defending, argued: “This is not a terminal illness. Those who live with HIV have good and high life expectancies. There really is a need for therapy and not incarceration.”
Rowe, from Brighton, was convicted of five counts of causing grievous bodily harm and five of attempted GBH.
Judge Henson told him: “The messages you sent make it crystal clear you knew exactly what you were doing.
“As well as the physical offences, it is clear [that] for the victims the psychological effects are immense.
“They describe living with a life sentence as a result of your cruel and senseless acts. Many of those men were young men in their 20s at the time they had the misfortune to meet you.
“I cannot see how and when you will no longer be a danger to gay men.”