A hairdresser has been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 12 years after deliberately trying to infect ten men with HIV.

Daryll Rowe, 27, from Edinburgh, was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on Wednesday.

He is the first man in the UK to be found guilty of intentionally spreading the virus.

Branded "grotesque" and a "sociopath" by his victims, Rowe was convicted in October of ten charges, five of grievous bodily harm with intent and five of attempting to do so.

After being diagnosed in April 2015 in his home city of Edinburgh, Rowe met men on gay dating app Grindr and had sex with eight of them in Brighton, East Sussex, between October that year and February 2016.

He later fled to the north east where he went on the run from police, targeting two more men.

Judge Christine Henson QC, sentencing, referred to Rowe's crimes as a "determined hateful campaign of sly violence".

"You are the first individual to be sentenced for Section 18 offences in the context of infecting others with HIV," she said.

"With the full knowledge of the risk you posed to others and the legal implications of engaging in risky sexual practices, you embarked on a deliberate campaign to infect other men with the HIV virus.

"Unfortunately for five of the men you met your campaign was successful."

The judge added: "They describe living with a life sentence as a result of your cruel and senseless acts.

"Many of those men were young men in their 20s at the time they had the misfortune to meet you."