Daryll Rowe’s victim won’t receive compensation after heckling Tory politician in 2012
Rowe was the first ever person to be found guilty of Intentionally planning to spread HIV
By Steve Brown
One of Daryll Rowe’s victims has been denied compensation because he took part in an anti-austerity protest.
The Edinburgh hairdresser was jailed for a minimum of 12 years last month for infecting five men with HIV and attempting to infect five others.
Rowe pleaded guilty to having sex with four other men and infecting one of them with the virus.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Last month, he became the first man in the country to be found guilty of intentionally planning to spread the virus and was convicted of five counts of causing GBH and five attempted GBH.
However one of his victims – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was convicted after heckling a Conservative politician in 2012 meaning he was ineligible for any payout according to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
The man – referred to as Matthew – was entitled to about £22,000 in compensation because of the injuries.
However, the CICA says that people with recent or “unspent” criminal convictions cannot qualify for compensation payments.
Matthew was the first of the victims to go to the police, according to the BBC, and the former UK Justice Secretary, Lord Falconer, has pleaded with the CICA to rethink the decision.
He said on BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “It’s such an injustice. What happened to Matthew was that in 2012 he attended a meeting of a politician and did a one-man protest against austerity shouting things like, ‘no ifs, no buts, no public service cuts’.
“He was disruptive but not violent. He was sentenced for a criminal offence to 100 hours community service.
“Yet because of the conviction in 2012 for his one-man anti-austerity protest, he’s being denied any compensation under the Criminal Injuries Compensation scheme.
“That is too cruel and it’s wrong.”