LONDON — probably one of the most bizarre stories we’ve written this year, a Scottish-British hairdresser has found himself charged with 5 confirmed counts of intentionally infecting men he met online with HIV (he also tried to infect at least five more). According to authorities, Daryl Rowe has “been intentionally infecting men he would meet off of Grindr with HIV for at least two years”.
On 15 November, his heinous crimes caught up with him as he became the first person to be charged with intentional HIV transmission in British history.
Police say that Rowe would knowingly infect others with HIV he met online “either by force; knowingly and secretly removing the condom, or flat out tearing it during sex”. When his victims would initially refuse bareback sex, he, would “bully or flat out intimidate them to force and manipulate them into having sex with him unprotected” according to court documents made available online this afternoon.
Police in London reportedly back their investigation at least a year ago, when, the first victim came forward with a mission to send a message to Rowe that he “hadn’t won”. Per court documents, Rowe, had pretty much the same schpeel with all of his victims (not including the five he unsuccessfully tried to infect).
“He would send them abusive and harassing text messages after they had sex” one prosecutor noted in the indictment. In case it couldn’t of been worse, he, “would also send the messages like (I have HIV. LOL) and then proceed to tell them “they had been got”). The indictment even went as far as to brand Rowe a “comfortable liar” . Also per documents, at least one American, was among his victims.