Asylum Seeker ’Infected Four Women with HIV Virus’

Paul Watson, PA News, Scotsman.com, May 5

A 28-year-old African asylum seeker infected four women with the potentially lethal HIV virus after having sex with them despite knowing he was a carrier himself, a court heard today.

Musician Feston Konzani is said to have started a number of long-term relationships with the four women despite knowing he carried the virus.

The women range in age from 15 to 37 and include an African woman and three English women.

The musician, who claimed to have had a homosexual relationship with a British diplomat working in his native Malawi before arriving in England in 1998, has denied four charges of causing GBH.

Konzani today appeared at Teesside Crown Court where he entered pleas of not guilty in relation to four victims, referred to in court as Miss V, Miss Y, Miss X and Miss W over a period between November 2000 and August 2003.

Konzani was diagnosed with the condition after one girlfriend, an Italian woman, who became pregnant by him discovered she had it and made him have the tests.

Ian Skelt, prosecuting, told the jury, that Konzani then continued to have unprotected sex with other women despite knowing of his condition and on some occasions even lied about not having it.

He told the court: “He was told by doctors that he was infected with the HIV virus, the one that leads to Aids.

“He was told of the effects that would have on him and, importantly, he was told of the effects it could have on others and told of the risk he posed to others.

“However, he went on to have protected and unprotected sex with a number of women resulting in him infecting them with the virus he carries.

“At no time did he tell them he was suffering from HIV virus and on some occasions when he was asked by some of them he denied it.

“He comes from southern Africa, Malawi, and when he was in Africa he struck up a relationship with a man called Mr Henderson who worked for the British government in Malawi.

“Henderson is homosexual and around 1995 he struck up a relationship with this defendant and that progressed to the two of them having a homosexual relationship.

“Henderson returned to the UK in 1996 and kept in touch with this defendant.

“In 1998 this defendant arrived in this country where he claimed asylum on the grounds he was homosexual and was being persecuted in his own country.

“On arrival he kept in touch with Mr Henderson until the year 2000. Mr Henderson had a number of tests for HIV and is negative.”

The jury of eight men and four women were told that Konzani went on to have relationships with a number of women including a 15-year-old girl in Middlesbrough and an African student who was studying at the town’s university.

Both were eventually diagnosed as having the HIV virus.

Mr Skelt added: “This defendant was told in November 2000 that he was infected and told the he could infect others through unprotected sex.

“He went on to do exactly that.

“He never told any of these women he was infected and on occasions when the matter was raised he denied it.”

Konzani was living at Albany Street in Middlesbrough when he was arrested last year.

The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow with Christopher Henderson, the British diplomat who worked at the High Commission in Malawi who Konzani claims to have had a homosexual affair with, expected to be the first witness.

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