Daryll Rowe pleads guilty to four more charges of deliberately infecting men with HIV
Daryll Rowe, who was convicted of deliberately infecting five men with HIV. (Facebook)
A man who was given a life sentence last month in England for deliberately infecting five men with HIV has pleaded guilty to four more charges in a separate trial in Scotland.
Daryll Rowe, a 27-year-old hairdresser, admitted having sex with four men knowing he was HIV-positive.
One of the men contracted the virus.
Rowe was sentenced to eight years in prison and placed on the sex offenders register for life at Edinburgh’s High Court.
In April, Rowe was jailed for life for attempting to infect 10 men, of which five went on to become HIV positive.
The court in Brighton heard how Rowe had been diagnosed with HIV at a sexual health clinic in April 2015 while he was living in Edinburgh.
Prosecution Caroline Carberry QC told Lewes Crown Court: “He was warned he could be prosecuted for passing [HIV] on or even putting someone at risk of contracting HIV from him.”
Doctors said he was “coping well” with the diagnosis but they had become concerned when he refused antiretroviral drugs, which reduce the risk of transmitting the virus.
Daryll Rowe targeted men in England and Scotland
“He told his doctors he was not going to engage in any unprotected sex again, but failed to attend further appointments in Edinburgh and by this time he had moved to Brighton,” Carberry said.
The court heard how Rowe then had unprotected sex with his partners – many of whom he met on Grindr – and how he had intentionally damaged condoms of men who refused.
During the trial in Lewes, the court was told Rowe had sent mocking text messages to his partners telling them he was HIV-positive.
He told one victim, who was later diagnosed as HIV positive: “Maybe you have the fever… I have HIV LOL.”
In a phone call to one partner, who had insisted they use a condom, Rowe said: “I ripped the condom. You’re so stupid. You didn’t even know.”
Rowe also targeted men in Scotland during this time and failed to tell them he was HIV positive.
In a taped police interview, one victim said: “He asked for sex and I gave him oral sex. He asked for more and I said no, and he started to get angry.
“I was saying: ‘I don’t really want to do it. It’s horrible to do it in a car in the middle of nowhere.’ I was getting angry.
“It was horrible really – I just felt like I had to do it.”
