AN African asylum seeker living in the North-East yesterday became the second person in England and Wales to be prosecuted for allegedly infecting women with HIV.

Musician Feston Konzani, of Middlesbrough, is accused of giving the deadly virus to four women, including a 15-year-old girl, from the town.

The 28-year-old, originally from Malawi, denied having HIV when he was confronted by some of the victims, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

He has been charged under section 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

Mohammed Dica, of south London, was the first person in 137 years to be convicted for sexually transmitting a disease after he was found guilty in October of infecting two lovers with HIV.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of Mr Dica, who was sentenced to eight years for causing grievous bodily harm, and gave him the right to a retrial.

Opening the case against Mr Konzani, barrister Ian Skelt said the asylum seeker had unprotected sex despite being diagnosed with the virus, which leads to Aids, in November 2000.

Mr Skelt said: "He was told the effects the virus would have on him and he was told the effects the virus could have on others.

"However, since that date, and since having been told of the risks he has posed, he has gone on to have protected and unprotected sex with a number of women resulting, the prosecution say, in infecting them with the virus.

"At no time did he tell them he was suffering from HIV, and when he was asked by some of the women, he denied it."

Mr Konzani, of Albany Street, Middlesbrough, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm on four women, aged from 15 to 37, between November 2000 and August last year. The victims cannot be named for legal reasons but are known as Miss V, Miss Y, Miss X and Miss W.

The court heard he came to England from Africa in 1998, seeking asylum because he was homosexual and was being persecuted in his home country.

The prosecution said that in 1995 he began a sexual relationship with a diplomat, Christopher Henderson, who was working for the British High Commission in Malawi, and the pair discussed HIV, the effects and the risks involved.

A year after moving to Britain, in 1999, the asylum seeker began dating Miss V.

Mr Skelt said: "The defendant was having relationships with other women as well. He discussed the virus with that lady and was perfectly well aware of what it was, but he never told her he was infected."

In February 2000, he began a relationship with an Italian lady, Miss G. The pair used condoms, but Mr Konzani told the woman he had a negative HIV test. Eight months later, when the relationship had ended, the woman, who is not a complainant in the case, discovered she was pregnant and had the disease.

It was then, the prosecution said, Konzani visited a hospital in Middlesbrough and discovered he, too, was HIV positive.

It is alleged he then started a relationship, in summer 2001, with Miss Y, a 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough, but they split up a few weeks later.

"She started seeing someone else and later discovered she was pregnant," said Mr Skelt.

"She had the usual medical tests and discovered she had contracted HIV."

In summer 2002, he began seeing a student, Miss X, but the affair ended a few months later, and she also found out she was pregnant and had the virus.

The court was told the final offence related to Miss W, whom he began dating in January last year. He had denied to her that he had any sexually transmitted diseases, but in August she was diagnosed with HIV.

Mr Skelt alleged the defendant and the women had exactly the same strain of the virus.

He went on to say that following Mr Konzani's arrest by Cleveland Police he had admitted he was told he was HIV positive in November 2000.

The trial against Mr Konzani, which is expected to last two weeks, continues today.