A British hairdresser was sentenced to life in prison for deliberately infecting 5 men with the virus that cause AIDS. Daryll Rowe was sentenced Wednesday in Brighton, England for attempting to infect as many as 10 men with the HIV virus.
Rowe reportedly taunted the men with text messages that said, “I have HIV. Oops”.
The 27-year-old hairdresser met men on the Grindr dating app that is geared towards gay and bisexual men. After having sex with the men, he texted them, saying, “Maybe you have the fever. I came inside you and I have HIV LOL. Oops!”.
Sussex police said Rowe infected five men with the virus and he tampered with the condoms of another five men. Police say he persuaded the men to have raw sex with him by telling them he was HIV-negative.
Sussex police announced Rowe’s life sentence in a tweet on Wednesday. “We applaud the courage of victims who helped convict Daryll Rowe who set out on a deliberate campaign to infect men with HIV in #Brighton. He has now been jailed for life.”
Ironically, if Rowe lived in the U.S. state of California, he would’ve received a slap on the wrist and very little prison time, if any.
In October 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new bill into law that reduced the punishment for deliberately and knowingly exposing someone to HIV. The California law reduces the offense from a felony punishable by 3 to 8 years in prison to a misdemeanor that carries a 6-month prison term.
The California law also reduces donating HIV-infected blood from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Openly gay Democrat Scott Wiener, who authored the legislation, says the law is intended to reduce the stigma of HIV/AIDS.
