Hairdresser in HIV case denies stash of sabotaged condoms

Daryll Rowe today insisted he did not ‘sabotage condoms’ to infect lovers with HIV. He is on trial for 

A gay hairdresser accused of deliberately infecting a string of lovers with HIV has denied having a ‘stash of sabotaged condoms’.

Daryll Rowe is on trial accused of infecting four men from the Brighton area with the virus and attempting to give it to a further six.

He was confronted by a prosecuting QC when he took to the witness stand today and accused of carrying out ‘warped little campaign’.

Caroline Carberry, for the Crown, held up a torn condom which she said had been ‘sabotaged’ by Rowe.

Wearing protective gloves, she said: ‘It has been removed and the teat has been cut off and then the condom has been reinserted back in the packet. This is your doing. All those condoms that were found in your belongings.’

Rowe said: ‘The condoms aren’t mine.’

Miss Carberry said: ‘You must have been laughing about all the stupid men you would infect by using them.’

She added: ‘You have your own stash of sabotaged condoms to use with men that are insistent on using protection, condoms you have purposefully damaged in order to try and infect men.’

Rowe replied: ‘No’

The trial at Lewes Crown Court has heard claims Rowe either refused to wear a condom or ‘sabotaged’ it before having sex with his victims.

Afterwards he would send ‘abusive’ and ‘mocking’ texts to somee alleged victims, telling them he had HIV, the jury was told.

Rowe has insisted he did not think he had HIV at the time, after using alternative therapies

Rowe has insisted he did not think he had HIV at the time, after using alternative therapies

Rowe has insisted he did not think he had HIV at the time, after using alternative therapies 

The prosecutor asked him today: ‘Did you want as many people to have what you had, to suffer like you?’

Fighting back tears, the 27-year-old, originally from Edinburgh, said: ‘No. I was diagnosed but I didn’t think I had HIV anymore.’

The jury has heard the hairdresser told Lewes Crown Court he thought he had managed to cure himself of HIV through a range of alternative therapies – including drinking his own urine.

Miss Carberry accused Rowe of refusing to use condoms or purposefully damaging them as a way of orchestrating a ‘warped little campaign’ to infect as many men as possible.

She said that when one alleged victim refused to have unprotected sex with Rowe the hairdresser deliberately ripped the condom the other man had insisted he wear.

Miss Carberry said: ‘It’s really easy to rip a condom, isn’t it. You just pull on the end and it comes off.

‘This man practised safe sex and the only way you could trick this grown man into having unprotected sex was to damage the condom. You tricked him into thinking an intact condom was being used.’

Rowe replied: ‘I was having unprotected sex, yes, but there was no sinister pattern to it.’

He denies 10 charges – five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent and five counts of attempting to do so. The trial continues.

 

Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk