Daryll Rowe, Who Deliberately Infected Men With HIV, Jailed For Further Eight Years

First man guilty of intentionally setting out to spread the virus.
Daryll Rowe has been jailed for a further eight years.
Daryll Rowe has been jailed for a further eight years.
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Daryll Rowe, the hairdresser who set out to deliberately infect victims with HIV, has been jailed for a further eight years.

Rowe, 27, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh, Scotland, to four incidents where he intentionally had unprotected sex with partners, while fully aware that he was HIV positive.

Last month, he was jailed for life for trying to infect 10 men in England.

Rowe became the first man in the country to be found guilty of intentionally setting out to spread the virus.

Brighton Crown Court heard in April how Rowe had told victims, whom he often met through dating app Grindr, that he was HIV free.

That court heard how Rowe deliberately tampered with condoms during sexual encounters with some of his victims.

The judge in Brighton referred to his crimes as a “determined hateful campaign of sly violence”.

“You are the first individual to be sentenced for Section 18 offences in the context of infecting others with HIV,” she said

“With the full knowledge of the risk you posed to others and the legal implications of engaging in risky sexual practices, you embarked on a deliberate campaign to infect other men with the HIV virus.

“Unfortunately for five of the men you met your campaign was successful.”

The judge added: “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.”

Rowe, said to have been motivated by “anger”, was initially arrested after a public appeal in Brighton.

He was arrested by Sussex Police once more and bailed again, before going on the run.

He fled to the north east where two further victims were targeted before he was detained a final time.

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