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 Police arrested 32-year-old suspect Sopa Pirom on Sunday. They say he often wore police style khaki trousers, leading victims to believe his claim to be a member of the police.

He is accused of attacking schoolgirls in Amanat Charoen and Khon Kaen and police reported yesterday two more victims had stepped forward. Parents brought the victims, one 18 years old and the other 27, to lodge their complaints at Muang Amnat Charoen police station.

One parent who asked not to be named, said her daughter had been rescued while Sopa was trying to assault her - an enormous relief to the family, especially after they learned he had HIV.

Amnat Charoen health chief Sa-ard Veeracharoen said raping and intentionally infecting others with the virus was usually an act of revenge. He said some men with HIV were often repressed and raped women to compensate for their loss in normal sexual activity, to entertain themselves, or to demonstrate their sexual superiority over the victims.

Amnat Charoen officials said a case like this of a police impersonator raping schoolgirls greatly affected public morale and confidence in law enforcement. Police, school administrators and directors have been instructed to provide security at students' dorms, the scene of many of the suspect's crimes.

Sopa reportedly admitted having threatened people with a war weapon many times in Khon Kaen, but that was a long time ago and police had not caught him. He said he rode a motorcycle late at might looking for victims to rob at knife point and rape.

In his latest alleged crime, which led to his arrest, he stopped two students, a boy and a girl, in front of Amnat Charoen 2 School while they were riding a motorcycle home. Claiming to be a police officer who noticed the motorbike had violated a traffic law, he forced the duo to wake up their teacher to confirm they were students and then sent the boy to find documents to prove his ownership over the bike.

He then allegedly took the girl to an abandoned hut 3-4 kilometres away from the school and raped her three times before fleeing.

Sopa, a former convict who served five years in jail for having war weapons in his possession, told police he had attacked nearly 50 victims as he wished to spread the virus to others.