‘He seemed to be the one more committed’ – One of Daryll Rowe’s victims opens up about his relationship with the serial attacker
The hairdresser was the first person to be convicted of deliberately spreading the HIV virus
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
One of Daryll Rowe’s victims has said he seemed like a ‘genuine person’.
Rowe became the first person to ever in the UK to be convicted of deliberately spreading the HIV virus after he was found guilty of infecting five men and trying to infect five more. He was jailed for life.
Now, one of his victims – a 28-year-old student, who dated Rowe for two months – has revealed that the former hairdresser seemed more “committed” to their relationship at the time, the Daily Record reported.
The victim said: “I’ll never, ever be able to understand or comprehend why Daryll did this to people and it has shattered my trust in people.
“I’ve never been able to get my head around it and I don’t think I ever will.
“The crazy thing when I look back is that he seemed such a genuine person. He seemed to be the one more committed.
“I liked him, but he seemed more into the relationship and the more affectionate and jealous.
“He’d often say I didn’t show him enough affection, so his feelings for me seemed very real, and I was certainly of the opinion that we were exclusively seeing each other.
“Despite this there was obviously nothing real at all, as all the time he was with me to infect me.”
After splitting up, the victim was contacted by a sexual health clinic asking him to have a HIV test, which came back positive.
“I couldn’t believe that he would have done it to me deliberately. I thought at the time it must have been an accident on me, as I felt our relationship had been real,” the student added.
“Finding out he had been arrested and then charged with this stuff was just completely mind-blowing.
“I was being told I had HIV, but not only did I have that to content with mentally, but also how it had happened and why.
“I just felt like my life had been ruined, and that nobody would want to know me. There is still a huge stigma to HIV and I thought that no men would want to come near me, I felt like I had been left with a poison inside me.”
The victim – who has lifelong anonymity – received a £22,000 payout from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority after losing his job, flat and place at university after falling into depression after finding out the news.