'Burn - I got you': Hairdresser Daryll Rowe 'taunted Grindr lover after infecting him with HIV'

A hairdresser deliberately infected lovers he met on a gay dating app with HIV, telling one of them "I got you", a court has heard.

Daryll Rowe, 26, denies infecting four men from the Brighton area with the virus and attempting to give it to a further six between October 2015 and December 2016.

In the second week of his trial, jurors were told he bombarded his second victim with texts and calls after the pair had sex.

He allegedly said during one call: "I ripped the condom. Burn. I got you."

The alleged victim, born in the US, told Lewes Crown Court he and the defendant had met on the gay dating app Grindr in November 2015 and began exchanging explicit images soon after.

He said when the pair met in person, Rowe had wanted to have unprotected sex, telling him: "Come on, come on, I'm fine, you know you want it."

But the man said he refused and insisted he wear a condom.

After the sexual encounter, jurors heard the alleged victim blocked Rowe on messaging platforms following a stream of aggressive texts.

He repeatedly called the alleged victim and in one conversation was said to have laughed as he told him he had ripped the condom, the court heard.

"That's a really crazy thing to say to somebody and then I just got worried, so I wanted to listen to what he had to say and that was it," the alleged victim told the court. "It was just panic. Worry."

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tested positive for HIV just months later.

The court had previously heard that Rowe had sent other abusive messages to his victims, including one that allegedly read: "Maybe you have the fever cos I came inside you and I have HIV, LOL. Whoops!"

Rowe, originally from Edinburgh, is being tried for four counts of causing grievous bodily harm and six counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

Eight of the alleged offences were said to have taken place while he was working in the Brighton area.

He is accused of trying to infect two more men in the north east of England while he was under investigation by Sussex Police.

The court had heard Rowe was diagnosed with HIV in April 2015 after a sexual health clinic contacted him to say a former partner had been infected.

Doctors believed he was "coping well" with the diagnosis but became concerned when he refused medicine that would make him less contagious. They explained he would be breaking the law if he engaged in unprotected sex and he gave them assurances that he would not.

The trial, which is expected to last a further five weeks, continues.