Daryll Rowe, 27, (pictured last week) insisted alternative therapies were better to treat the virus rather than prescribed anti-retroviral drugs so downed urine every day
A hairdresser accused of deliberately infecting a string of lovers with HIV thought he had cured himself by drinking his own urine throughout the day, a court heard today.
Daryll Rowe, 27, insisted alternative therapies were better to treat the virus and read online that taking prescribed anti-retroviral treatment would stop his urine killing it.
Rowe didn’t like taking prescription drugs and was into health living and after being diagnosed with HIV read online about natural therapies that can help cure the virus, including drinking urine.
Today he told Lewes Crown Court: ‘I thought I’d cured myself. I felt a lot better than I did before.’
He also told the jury he also used coconut nut oil, apple cider vinegar and olive leaf extract to treat genital warts and herpes.
The 27-year-old, originally from Edinburgh, allegedly had sex with at least 10 men he met on the gay dating app Grindr after being diagnosed as HIV positive.
He is on trial charged with deliberately infecting five men with HIV and attempting to infect a further five men with the virus. He denies the charges.
Rowe told the court he had unprotected sex while in Brighton because he thought he had cured himself of the virus.
Breaking down in tears, Rowe told the court he had unprotected sex while in Brighton because he thought he had cured himself.
Fighting back tears he said he thought he had cured himself through natural therapies and denied purposefully trying to infect gay men he met on Grindr.
Asked by Felicity Gerry QC, defending, whether he had intended to infect any of the alleged victims with HIV, he said: ‘Never. Never. I never had it in my mind before, during or after the sex we had that I wanted to pass on HIV.’
He said when he was living in Scotland he had suffered painful, swollen glands but they had gone down and he felt much healthier.
Rowe told the court he was fostered as a child and came out as gay when he was 15 years old.
He told the court he became vegetarian when he was 18 and became interested in health eating and when he was diagnosed with HIV in April 2015 he decided not to take anti-retroviral treatment.
He told the court: ‘Before I was diagnosed I was doing the urine therapy and had read up on the cure. When I got the diagnosis I thought I was going to cure myself.’
He said the websites he was looking at had a section on how to cure to HIV with urine therapy.
Rowe, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2015, is charged with infecting five men with HIV and attempting to infect a further five with the virus
The hairdresser said it told you that taking anti-retrovirals could cause damage to your body because you were repeatedly taking medication and heard urine therapy was very beneficial to health.
Felicity Gerry QC asked him why urine therapy was beneficial to the health of someone who is HIV positive.
Rowe said: ‘The main part is to drink your urine in the morning before anything else and it’s supposed to have the most anti-bodies in and that sort of stuff. When I found out I was positive I went quite heavily into it.
He said that after he moved from Edinburgh to Brighton he would drink his own urine throughout the day. Rowe said he looked into other natural anti-viral drugs and also took oregano oiI and olive leaf extract.
He told the court he believed in star signs and was a strong Libran which indicated he was balanced and into relationships.
On his Grindr profile he described himself as a ‘vegan hippie’ and believed in ‘love, light and positivity.’
Asked by Miss Gerry QC whether he had intended to infect alleged victims with HIV, Rowe said: ‘No.’
He said he preferred unprotected sex with partners but he denied deliberately tearing a condom.
Rowe told the court none of the alleged victims asked if he was HIV negative or clean before they had sex.
Earlier in the trial the jury was told Rowe had been diagnosed with HIV while he was still living in Edinburgh in April 2015 after a sexual health clinic contacted him to tell him a former partner was infected.
Doctors found he was ‘coping well’ with his diagnosis but were concerned when he refused vaccination for common illnesses HIV positive patients are susceptible to, such as pneumonia.
They were also worried when he refused anti-retroviral drugs to slow the development of the virus and make him less contagious, jurors heard.
The court heard that the five men Rowe is accused of infecting with HIV all had very similar strains to the one Rowe was infected with, making it highly likely that he was the source of the virus.
The trial, which is due to last six weeks, continues.
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