UK Hairdresser Accused Of Purposely Infecting His Gay Partners With HIV

Bryan Michalek | October 6, 2017
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A hairdresser from the United Kingdom is being accused of purposely infecting his sexual partners with HIV after meeting them using the dating app Grindr. 

Daryll Rowe, 26, originally from Edinburgh, is being charged with infecting four men with the virus and attempting to infect a further six men between October 2015 and December 2016, according to The Guardian

Accusers claim that Rowe would insist on unprotected sex while claiming to be free of HIV. Other accusations claimed that Rowe would tamper with condoms before using them. Authorities say he would later send explicit text messages making fun of his partners for letting him pass on the virus. 

The hairdresser is currently denying charges. 

Caroline Carberry QC, the prosecutor handling the case, described Rowe's actions as "a cynical and deliberate campaign to infect other men with HIV" It is a fact that Rowe is a carrier of HIV and was diagnosed in April of 2015, after a sexual health clinic contacted him to notify him that a former partner had the virus.

Doctors claimed that Rowe refused antiretroviral drugs that slow the virus's development as well as making it less contagious.

"He was warned he could be prosecuted for passing [HIV] on or even putting someone at risk of contracting HIV from him," Carberry said during her argument, adding, "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."

Rowe was apprehended by Sussex Police in February of 2016 after two men he had relations with tested positive for HIV. The case is due to continue for the next six weeks according to the IBTimes. The judge presiding over the case granted all of Rowe's alleged victims' lifelong anonymity and allowed for them to give evidence out of Rowe's sight. 

According to Avert.org, more than 36 million people around the world are living with HIV, and 30 percent don't know they've been infected. In Central Europe and North America alone, there were 2.1 million people living with HIV as of 2016. 

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