PARIS (AFP) - A French court on Thursday sentenced a 40-year-old man described by prosecutors as a "charmer" and "seducer" to 12 years behind bars for knowingly transmitting HIV.

Christophe Morat was found guilty of infecting one woman and exposing five others to the risk of contamination - despite having already been jailed for six years in 2005 for the same crime.

Prosecutor Martine Assonion described Morat as a "seducer" with a "double personality".

She relayed in court the details of his series of sexual conquests when he left prison. "Morat was on the hunt," she said.

Arms folded, with a shaky voice and with occasional bursts of emotion, Morat asked forgiveness of the women he had exposed to the virus, which can lead to Aids.

"I didn't lie. I told the truth, that's all," he said, although he said he regretted "not deciding myself to use a condom".

"At no moment did I make out as if I were not infectious," he said.

The 43-year-old woman he infected told the court she had fallen under Morat's "influence".

She had suspicions he was cheating on her so searched for him on the Internet, discovering his previous conviction.

But he convinced her to stay with him and resume sexual relations, first protected, then unprotected.

Even after she became infected, she stayed living with him.

His defence lawyer, Barbara Camoin, argued that "betrayal, infidelity, are part of human nature but they are not a criminal offence".