The first victim of a serial rapist has revealed how her attacker was set free to attack three more women - because prosecutors did not believe her.

The 23-year-old woman was cornered in a shop doorway in York by multiple and violent sex attacker Mark Thompson five years ago but her case was dropped.

She spoke out after it emerged 68 rape cases involving Cleveland and Northumbria Police had been wrongly closed after police concluded no crime had been committed.

She said it was scandalous that many sex attackers were left able to strike again.

Thompson, a stranger, tried to pull his victim’s trousers down while holding a hand over her mouth near Coney Street but was stopped when two nightclub bouncers heard the victim's muffled pleas for help.

Martial arts expert Thompson, married to Adriana Ford-Thompson, a University of York research and teaching fellow, was arrested on suspicion of attempted rape and taken into custody.

The victim, who cannot be named, told her story to police in the early hours and gave video evidence the next day. All her clothes were taken away for testing.

But less than a fortnight later a policewoman knocked on her door to say the case had been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

She said: “It did not take them very long to decide they didn’t believe me.

“It was a strange feeling. It was if I was the one who had done something wrong. I was so disappointed.

“I was also concerned because he lived not far from me. 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 off the street in York and raping her three times. Two more women then came forward.

One had woken up in her bed to find Thompson standing over undoing his trousers just hours before he grabbed the student and bundled her into his white van.

The other was a woman Thompson tried to rape earlier in the summer who had pulled a knife on him. Only then did CPS decide to reopen the 2009 case.

The woman, now 29, who is from Malton but lives in York, said: “First of all I was in utter shock when they rang up. Then when I was told he had attacked all these other women I was infuriated.

“I couldn’t believe it had taken five years and three more victims before they took me seriously.”

Asked what she thought about the number of rape complaints that never reach court, she continued: “I just think it is stupid.

“I did not really want to drag it all up again. In the past five years I had given up all hope of justice. But it still preyed on my mind and I wanted to help put him away.”

At Teesside Crown Court in May, her evidence helped convict Thompson, of Hospital Fields Road in Fulford.

The 37-year-old had denied nine charges, including three of rape, one of attempted rape and one of kidnap.

A judge branded him "one of the most dangerous offenders I have ever had to deal with”.

His first victim added: “I came out of the witness box feeling very angry. It was not until I was told he had got life that I actually felt happy. He deserves to rot for the rest of his life.”

A CPS spokesperson said on Monday: “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."

She said rape and sexual assault remained a CPS priority and it had set up a national scrutiny panel to consider the national response to rape and ensure our efforts to improve this continue.”

The 2009 victim added: "If they had taken my complaint more seriously five years ago these girls would not have had to go through things as bad or much worse than I did. That’s what makes me really angry.”

She has been advised to seek compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority but said: “No amount of money can make up for the amount of hurt he has caused people,” she said.