THE first victim of a serial rapist has revealed how he was released to attack three more women - because prosecutors refused to act.

The latest “no crime rape” scandal in North Yorkshire comes after the two neighbouring forces of Cleveland and Northumbria reopened 68 rape cases.

The North Yorkshire case involved a 23-year-old barmaid cornered in a doorway by violent sex attacker Mark Thompson five years ago.

He tried to pull her trousers down but her muffled cries were heard by nightclub bouncers. The martial arts expert, from York, was arrested on suspicion of attempted rape and taken into custody.

The victim told her story to police in the early hours and gave video evidence next day while her clothes were taken away for testing.

But less than a fortnight later a police woman called to say the case had been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

She said: “It was if I was the one who had done something wrong. It was scary that someone capable of doing these things had been so easily let free.

“The police woman said it was due to lack of evidence and because the statements from the night and following day did not match up exactly.”

Five years later, Thompson was arrested again – this time for kidnapping a 21-year-old student in York and raping her three times. Two more women then came forward.

One woke to find him standing over her undoing his trousers hours before grabbing the student and bundling her into his van. The other was a woman Thompson tried to rape earlier in the summer. Only then did CPS decide to reopen the 2009 case.

The woman, now 29, who lives in York, said: “I couldn’t believe it had taken five years and three more victims before they took me seriously.”

At Teesside Crown Court in May, her evidence helped convict Thompson, now 37, of nine sex offences including three of rape, one of attempted rape and one of kidnap. Thompson, of Fulford, York, had denied all charges.

He was handed a life sentence by a judge who branded him "one of the most dangerous offenders I have ever had to deal with”.

A CPS spokesperson said last night: “When Mark Thompson was charged in 2013 and 2014 with rape and other sexual offences, we re-considered our previous decision in relation to the 2009 sexual assault allegation.

“The re-consideration of the 2009 decision was undertaken by a specialist lawyer working in a dedicated Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, which had since been established in the CPS Yorkshire and Humberside Area.

“Looking again at the evidence, we determined that the original decision should be overturned and there was sufficient evidence to charge Mark Thompson with the 2009 offence.

“Rape and sexual assault remains a priority for the CPS and we have recently convened a national rape scrutiny panel to consider the national response to rape and ensure our efforts to improve this continue.”