ROME -- Judges have decided not to release a man arrested on charges of having deliberately infected 24 women with HIV, after he refused to repent in court, officials said.

 The 30-year-old, known only as Valentino T., was arrested last December on charges of deliberately spreading the HIV infection through refusal to wear a condom during sexual intercourse with up to 40 different people in the period between 2006 and 2009. The women who came forward were aged between 20 and 30 years old.

 He now faces charges of "grievous and incurable bodily harm," and will not be released on bail due to fear that he would commit further crimes via "new encounters intended to produce further transmissions of the HIV virus." Judges confirmed that even after he had been arrested and interrogated he continued to contact other women in an attempt to meet them.

 One of his victims told the judges that they had met "through a chat site called 'Wechat'," and that he had tried for several weeks to have sex with her, evidence that has been used to prove the evil intentions of the accused.

 Valentino T. was aware of having the virus since 2006, but did not inform those he had sex with about it. Investigations have shown that many of his former partners came forward to him after learning about their infection, asking for explanations. He was "reprimanded" by medical authorities from the Spallanzani hospital, who specialize in HIV treatment, after falsely claiming to only recently have learnt of his HIV-positivity.

 Judges concluded that "the accused intentionally continued in the same harmful conduct, not stopping even after receiving a first warning from judicial authorities and from Lazio health officials who work with the disease."    

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