A REFUGEE who knew that he was HIV positive but had unprotected sex with two teenagers was sent to prison indefinitely yesterday.

Gabriel Vengesai, 45, raped a 17-year-old girl so violently that she was left with internal injuries and the knowledge that she might have contracted the disease.

At the time of the attack in October, the Zimbabwean was on bail for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl without using a condom. She gave birth to his child.

Sentencing the former pub landlord, Judge Tom Longbotham said at Winchester Crown Court that Vengesai was such a risk to women that it was necessary to jail him under public protection legislation.

The judge imposed a minimum term of 6? years and said that Vengesai would be deported if he were ever released.

The court had been told that Vengesai arrived in Britain ten years ago and was allowed to stay after he said that he was homosexual and would be persecuted if he returned to Zimbabwe.

Judge Longbotham told Vengesai: ?You are HIV positive and at all relevant times you knew you were HIV positive.?

Vengesai was found guilty in April of rape and engaging in sexual activity with the 14-year-old. Neither the girl nor her child contracted HIV.

Vengesai met the 17-year-old girl at an arcade in Aldershot, took her and a friend back to his flat and raped her before she escaped, the jury was told. She found out only at the end of the trial that she has not been infected with HIV.

The judge read out an extract from a pre-sentence report on Vengesai that concluded that he believed, as a male, that he was entitled to sex.

Judge Longbotham said: ?In my judgment, your continuing presence is detrimental to this country and this court recommends your deportation at the end of your sentence.?