A British hairdresser has been found guilty of deliberately infecting five men with HIV and attempting to infect a further five.
Daryll Rowe was convicted on Wednesday (local time) of five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent and five counts of attempting to do so in Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex.
He is alleged to have claimed he was HIV-free and demanded unprotected sex with partners he met on Grindr, a social networking app for gay and bisexual men.
Rowe is also reported to have tampered with condoms or removed them during sex without consent and then boasted to his victims via phone or txt that they were infected.
One message read, "I have HIV LOL. Oops!"
In a phone call to another partner, who had insisted he use a condom, Rowe allegedly said, "I ripped the condom. You're so stupid. You didn't even know."
He denied deliberately infecting the men, but the jury of seven women and five men returned a guilty verdict after 18 hours of deliberating.
Rowe claimed he thought he had cured himself of HIV after taking a variety of non-traditional medication, including 'urine therapy', and that he "doesn't recall" making any abusive calls or txts.
The identity of all victims is being suppressed.
Newshub.
