A hairdresser who has allegedly infected about 10 of his lovers with HIV called one victim a ‘gay drama queen’ and told him to enjoy being ‘riddled with disease,’ a court heard.
26 year-old Daryll Rowe, from Edinburgh, is accused of sleeping with the man unprotected after they made contact on the gay dating app Grindr.
The pair met in a flat in Brighton, East Sussex, and the victim asked Rowe if he was HIV negative and he confirmed that he was clean and the pair had sex using a condom, Lewes Crown Court heard.
But after the liaison the victim saw the condom on the bathroom floor and noticed it was
torn in half.
He told the court he thought it might have been intentionally damaged and he became worried.
The victim later sent a series of texts to Rowe asking him to confirm he was HIV negative and also demanded to know whether the Scottish-born hairdresser had ejaculated inside him.
Rowe reacted aggressively on text and branded the victim a ‘gay drama queen’, the jury were told.
In a video interview the victim said: ‘He said he did finish and I should enjoy having his riddled c** inside of me and enjoy being riddled with disease. I said: ”Are you kidding? Cos it’s really not funny” and he replied saying: ”You’re just a drama queen, you’re just another gay drama queen.”
Rowe is charged with causing GBH to five men by infecting them with HIV and attempting GBH for trying to infect a further five men with the virus.
The hairdresser, who is originally from Edinburgh but was living in Brighton at the time, denies all the charges which relate to incidents between October 2015 and December 2016.
Earlier the court heard that Rowe had sex with at least 10 men he met on Grindr after being diagnosed as HIV positive.
In each case Rowe either refused to wear a condom or ‘sabotaged’ the contraception before having sex.
Afterwards he would send ‘abusive’ and ‘mocking’ texts to the alleged victims claiming he had HIV.
Rowe sent a text message to one victim saying: ‘Maybe you have the fever coz I came inside you and I have HIV LOL. Whoops!’
The jury heard he told another alleged victim: ‘I ripped the condom. Burn. I got you.’
In a video interview the eighth alleged victim said he noticed the damage to the condom when he went to the bathroom.
He said: ‘I noticed that it had completely broken, the whole top of it was off. It was basically halved.
‘I don’t know if it would have been ripped with him pulling it off after or if it had been during or before. The way it had been broken looked quite intentional. Because I had seen it broken I was kind of freaking out a bit.’
He said he was so worried he messaged Rowe but received a series of abusive texts in return.
The court heard in a series of exchanges Rowe told him: ‘And yes, I’m riddled by the way.’
When the alleged victim told him to ‘stop being a d****’ Rowe said: ‘Wow you’re really paranoid, ha. I’m not into guys that are that paranoid.
‘Dude you’re such a drama queen. Take a chill pill. You’re being a dramatic, paranoid fool who is being wound up.’
After receiving the abusive texts from Rowe the alleged victim visited a sexual health clinic.
He was prescribed PEP treatment – which can prevent HIV infecting a person after it has entered the body.
The victim was treated for herpes type 2 virus and was given precautionary antibiotics for gonorrhoea and chlamydia.
He said: ‘I was very much bed-ridden. I was worried about whether the tablets would work. It was something I didn’t really know how to cope with.’
In March 2016, after receiving medical treatment, the victim found out he had not contracted the HIV virus.
Why?