A teenage girl was kept captive by an African musician who infected her with the HIV virus after repeatedly having unprotected sex with her while she was just 15, a court heard today.

The girl, now aged 18, said that 28-year-old Feston Konzani chatted her up after meeting her in a Middlesbrough street and that within weeks she had moved in with him.

The girl, who was referred to as Miss Y at Teesside Crown Court, said that Konzani took her virginity and had sex with her on a daily basis for up to a month during which time he kept her locked inside the house they shared.

She told the court she was only able to speak with her friends through a window and that she eventually escaped by climbing through a kitchen window while he was out.

Speaking through a live video link to the courtroom she told the jury how she was happy with Konzani until he started to change just weeks into their relationship.

She told the court: ''I had never had sex with anyone before that. ''It was OK at first but then he started locking me in and wouldn't let me out.

''My friends came round but I had to talk to them through the window.

''We had sex every night and he was gentle at first but I did not like it after a while because it was hurting.

''I just wanted to go home to my mum and I climbed out of the kitchen window and never went back to his house.

''I saw him a couple of times after that in the street but every time I saw him I ran.''

The girl discovered she was HIV positive after taking a pregnancy test during a subsequent relationship, despite that partner proving negative.

She added: ''I just fell to the ground and started crying. I wanted to die.''

The court has heard how Konzani, from Malawi, came to Britain in 1998 with the help of a British diplomat with whom he had an illegal gay relationship in his native Africa.

High Commission political attache Christopher Henderson, who was on a posting to Malawi in 1994 when he had a homosexual affair with the then-18-year-old, paid Konzani's air fare so he could come to England and continue their affair.

Konzani later moved to Middlesbrough where it is alleged the four women were infected.

Konzani has denied four charges of causing GBH to four women, referred to in court as Miss V, Miss Y, Miss X and Miss W over a period between November 2000 and August 2003.

Trial judge Peter Fox QC made an order under the Contempt of Court Act to protect the identity of the four women.