A man who was deliberately infected with HIV has bravely waived his right to anonymity to share his story.
Lenny, an American man living in Brighton, discovered he was HIV positive in February 2016 after Daryll Rowe secretly ripped the condom they were using.
Dubbed the ‘HIV hairdresser’ Rowe, from Edinburgh, became the first person to be convicted in the UK for deliberately infecting others with the virus and was jailed for life in April 2018.
He is said to have embarked on a ‘revenge’ campaign on the gay community after he was diagnosed with HIV himself, and met his victims on gay dating app Grindr.
Lenny is one of five men who tell their stories in new BBC documentary The Man Who Used HIV As a Weapon.
He told how Rowe was ‘adamant’ about having unprotected sex after the pair met online, and didn’t tell him about the sabotaged condom until several weeks after they had slept together.
