A 34-year-old Rwandan man pleaded guilty today to murdering 14 women whose bodies were found in a hole he had dug in the kitchen of his home.

Dennis Kazungu is however only charged with ten offences, including murder, rape, forgery, impersonation and desecration of a dead body.

At the Kigali court where he was arraigned today, he answered “yes” when the judge asked him if the charges against him were true.

“The ones I killed gave me AIDS,” he claimed, citing the fact that most of his victims were prostitutes.

Kazungu was arrested earlier this month after police found a dozen bodies, mostly women, in a pit he had dug in the house he was renting on the outskirts of Kigali, where he lived alone.

A prosecutor told the court that although only 12 bodies were found, Kazungu confessed to killing a total of 14 people and dismembering the bodies of two. He would meet women in bars and take them to his house, where he would tie them up, strip them and steal their personal belongings.

He then forced his victims to reveal their mobile phone passwords and made withdrawals from their accounts before killing them.

The prosecutor said some of the potential victims managed to escape and informed the police.

Dennis Kazungu was initially arrested in July on suspicion of theft and rape, but was released on bail because there was insufficient evidence, police say.

After his second arrest in early September, a police source told AFP that he claimed he “learned” how to kill by watching serial killer movies.

Local media reported that Kazungu held various jobs from time to time, including that of an English teacher.