A hairdresser who deliberately tried to infect 10 men with HIV has been jailed for 12 years. Daryll Rowe became the first man in the country to be found guilty of intentionally setting out to spread the virus.
Branded ‘grotesque’ and a ‘sociopath’ by his victims, the 27-year-old was convicted in October of 10 charges – five of grievous bodily harm with intent and five of attempting to do so.
After being diagnosed in April 2015, Rowe met several men on gay dating app Grindr.
He had sex with eight of them in Brighton, East Sussex, between October that year and February 2016, before fleeing to the north east, where he targeted two more men.
Branded ‘grotesque’ and a ‘sociopath’ by his victims, the 27-year-old was convicted in October of 10 charges – five of grievous bodily harm with intent and five of attempting to do so.
When he was diagnosed with HIV in April 2015, he claimed he coped well with the news and did not feel anger towards whoever had infected him.
After reading articles about the practice online, he tried urine therapy in a bid to rid himself of the illness.
He claimed to be looking for like-minded people on Grindr who shared his interests of Marvel comics, Pokemon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, avoiding men who were heavy drinkers or ‘on the scene’ regularly at gay clubs.
And yet he sent a string of ‘horrible’ and ‘cruel’ text messages to several of his victims when they questioned his HIV status.
He explained this by saying he struggled to keep his emotions in check and did not torment them intentionally.
He even accused his victims of lying when they told police and jury he had said he was free of the virus before they had sex.
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