Just over two years ago, a public health warning was issued to people in Brighton and Hove, saying a man had deliberately been infecting people with HIV.

The council's public health director warned about a man in his twenties with a Scottish accent and urged any man who had sex with him to get themselves tested.

Shortly afterwards, it became clear who he was referring to. Daryll Rowe, a hairdresser from Edinburgh, was named on social media.

Rowe had been diagnosed with HIV in April 2015.

His doctors grew concerned when he refused anti-retroviral treatment or vaccinations for common illnesses.

Shortly after his diagnosis, he launched a deliberate campaign to infect other men with the virus.

Rowe would meet men on the dating app Grindr and initially said he did not have HIV.

When they did not agree to have unprotected sex, he would sabotage condoms.

After having sex, he would sometimes taunt his victims by telling them he had been HIV positive all along.

In one case he sent a text message to a man saying "I have HIV. Lol", while he told another victim he was "riddled" with HIV.

By the time the health warning had been issued about Rowe, he was already on bail for similar offences in Scotland.

Between June and September 2015, he had unprotected sex with at least four men at an address in Edinburgh.

After moving to Brighton, Rowe went on to have sex with eight men in the area.

He was arrested again later in February 2016, but his offending did not stop there.

In a police interview he lied about being HIV positive and he was given bail under the condition he did not live in Brighton.

He lived in a tent near Edinburgh for a period, before travelling to the north of England.

He moved to Berwick-upon-Tweed and went on to have unprotected sex with two men.

During this time he used a pseudonym so they would not find out his identity from the national appeal.

At one point police tracked him down to a flat he was sharing with a man in Wallsend, Newcastle, but he jumped out a window and fled.

He was arrested once again and remanded in custody on Christmas Day in 2017 after a nationwide manhunt.

In total six people are confirmed to have contracted HIV after having sex with Rowe, five in England and one in Scotland.

During the English court case, one victim described the impact of Rowe's actions.

He said: "This virus took away my parents, my biological father and mother died of AIDS when I was only a kid. This disease is something I never took lightly.

"I did everything to prevent the virus from ever catching me. I educated myself on safe sex and always used a condom but on November 13, 2015, Daryll Rowe decided to take that right away from me.

"A part of me died that day when I was diagnosed. The old me is no longer. The new me is constantly sad, thinking about how my life changed.

"I have been devastated by Rowe's actions but I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Following the life sentence which was detective inspector Andy Wolstenholme of Sussex Police praised Rowe's victims for testifying against him in the trial.

He said: "Daryll Rowe was consistent in lying to his victims about having HIV, he was persistent and aggressive in wanting unprotected sex in order to infect people, and when he didn't get what he wanted, he deliberately damaged condoms to achieve his aim.

"The victims have demonstrated real strength of character in speaking out about this, and because of this strength and the hard work of the detectives, staff and partners working on the case, a dangerous man, who betrayed the trust of many men, is now in prison."