PLAYING up to the camera, Feston Konzani is enjoying a night on the town surrounded by girls as he dances in a Teesside nightclub.

But by the time this photograph was taken, the 28-year-old had already infected his three victims, referred to in court as Miss W, X and Y, with HIV.

The asylum-seeker was pictured clubbing for a music magazine in September last year, three years after he was diagnosed.

Yet behind the happy-go-lucky images, he masked a deadly secret that would have devastating repercussions for the women who loved him.

The photographer recalled: "He was a real Jack-the-lad. It was as if he did not have a care in the world.

"I took photos of him the year before and he was partying harder than ever and chatting up the girls in the club."

There are many sides to Feston Konzani.

There is the asylum-seeker who fled his homeland fearing for his life for a fresh start in Britain; there is the creative intellect who performed music and read poetry to his girlfriends; there is the community figure who took part in workshops and performed at festivals; there is the religious Konzani who had a deep faith and read the bible; and there is the asylum-seeker who had a lot to offer British society.

Then there was the man who recklessly endangered the lives of women; a drunk who was unkempt and unloving; a partygoer who picked up underage girls in the street; a lover who promised the world but who failed to deliver; a man who claimed he should be the next Bin Laden; a boyfriend who kept a 15-year-old captive; a liar who blamed others for his problems; and a man who callously slept with his partners knowing he could pass on a deadly disease.

One of his victims, Miss W, said: "I think Feston lies to himself.

"I do not think he thinks of himself as having HIV. I think he thinks he is some almighty source.

"He is very funny and bubbly, but he is also very strange at the same time."

Konzani arrived in England seeking asylum after he said he was persecuted in Malawi because he was gay.

A male diplomat who had a relationship with Konzani in his homeland said he was bright and intellectual, a person who wanted to better himself.

Government official Chris-topher Henderson gave Konzani the opportunity to leave behind his life in a hut, where work was scarce and villagers lived off the land.

He would spend three hours working in fields before an eight-mile walk to school every day, and he was desperate for a better life.

Yet Konzani repaid his lover by lying and blaming his former boyfriend for giving him HIV.

In an interview with The Northern Echo in August 2002, two years after he discovered he had the virus, he told a reporter his friend had passed on the virus to him. But Mr Henderson is HIV negative and could not have done so.

Konzani also said he was told to tell immigration officials that he was gay and said that he did not know what it meant because in African culture there was "no such thing".

Yet the diplomat told on oath that the pair had both enjoyed a secret homosexual relationship for a long time.

Mr Henderson was not the only person to be blamed for giving him the HIV virus.

In November 2000, when he was given his test results alongside his Italian girlfriend, referred to in court as Miss G, he accused her of giving him the disease.

Dr Brendan McCarron recalled: "He was quite angry. He said the Italian had given him the HIV virus. He expressed some anger against women in general. He blamed women for a lot of his problems."

Konzani was someone who told lies. He told some of his victims he had had negative HIV tests; he lied about his age and where he came from to another; he told one lover HIV was uncommon in Mal-awi; another that he was a priest; and he told his Italian girlfriend he would marry her and bring up their child together.

Konzani did not have one-night stands with his victims, he had relationships, and said he had feelings for his lovers and, in turn, they developed affection for him.

To learn that the deeply religious asylum-seeker who they loved repaid them by passing on an illness that will shorten their lives was hard to come to terms with.

In poems, Konzani wrote how he wanted "love, peace and unity" and said in another "I wanna speak nothing but the truth".

Yet if he had only told his girlfriends the truth, they would be healthy women getting on with their lives today, instead of living under the shadow of HIV.