HIV man challenging convictions

Konzani infected three women with HIV

An asylum seeker who infected three women with HIV by having unprotected sex despite knowing he had the virus is challenging his convictions.

Feston Konzani, 28, was jailed for 10 years at Teesside Crown Court in May.

His QC, Timothy Roberts, submitted that the convictions were "unsafe" because of "two legal errors", at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday.

If his appeal against conviction fails, Konzani is expected to seek a reduction in his sentence.

Konzani was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm by infecting the women through sexual intercourse.

Jury directions

Mr Roberts said the trial judge "did not ask the jury to consider whether the appellant had a guilty mind or not".

He said Konzani was "deprived of the opportunity of having the jury consider his mental culpability for his actions because the trial judge did not leave that issue to them".

Mr Roberts also said the convictions were unsafe because the legal directions given by the trial judge on the issue of consent - whether the complainants consented to a risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease - were "unduly restrictive".

He said the directions given to the jury concerning consent "were so restrictive as to leave them little option but to convict".

He submitted it was a "serious misdirection of law to direct the jury that a complainant could not, as a matter of law, consent to the contraction of a sexually transmitted disease unless that complainant specifically contemplated the risk of becoming infected with the particular diseases which was, in fact, transmitted."

Konzani is due to be deported to Malawi once he finishes his sentence.