Brighton hairdresser 'infected Grindr dates with HIV'

Daryll Rowe met his partners on the gay dating app Grindr, the jury was told

A hairdresser deliberately tried to infect his lovers with HIV after meeting them on the gay dating app Grindr, a court has heard.

Daryll Rowe, 26, is accused of telling his partners he did not have the virus and insisting they had unprotected sex or then tampering with condoms.

Lewes Crown Court heard he sent one partner a message saying: "I have HIV LOL. Oops!"

Mr Rowe, from Brighton, denies infecting four men with the virus.

He also denies attempting to infect a further six men in the Brighton area between October 2015 and December 2016.

The court heard Mr Rowe was diagnosed with HIV while he was still living in Edinburgh in April 2015 after a sexual health clinic told him a former partner had been infected.

'Cynical and deliberate'

Doctors said he was "coping well" with the diagnosis, prosecutor Caroline Carberry QC told the jury.

She said he was warned he could be prosecuted for passing on HIV or even putting someone at risk of contracting HIV from him.

"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," Ms Carberry added.

The court heard Mr Rowe had gone on Grindr where he messaged a number of men that he would later go on to infect or attempt to affect with HIV.

One of his partners had tested negative for HIV on the morning he met Mr Rowe, but was diagnosed HIV positive two months later, having not had sex with anyone else in the meantime.

Another 25-year-old man had only had one partner before Mr Rowe and considered him to be his boyfriend, the court was told.

'Condoms cut'

When Mr Rowe was arrested he denied being HIV positive but officers obtained his medical records before interviewing him a second time.

The court heard he arranged to move to Berwick, but skipped bail and moved to the north-east of England where he adopted the name Gary Cole.

He lived first with a man near Carlisle before disappearing and moving in with a man in Wallsend in North Tyneside, jurors were told.

Mr Rowe is accused of infecting both with HIV by having unprotected sex after promising he was free of the virus.

The court heard when his possessions were handed into police, officers found a box of three condoms which had been opened and the end of the condoms cut off before being placed back in the wrappers.

Ms Carberry said: "He engaged in deliberately risky sexual conduct knowing he was highly infectious and failing to take medication that would make him less infectious, lying to every single one of these 10 men about his HIV status, sabotaging condoms and sending text messages making it clear he knew exactly what he was doing."

The trial continues.