THE LYING ARMY SEX BEAST This is no hero... he’ s a monster who was left free to rape me after claiming he carried out sex attacks in his SLEEP

A WOMAN raped by a soldier who claimed he launched the attack as he slept has told of her horror after learning other women also suffered at his hands.

Brutal Joseph Short – a platoon sergeant in the Rifles regiment – had avoided justice for five years, claiming he suffered from so-called sexsomnia and had no memory of assaulting his victims.

A report from Britain’s leading sleep disorder expert persuaded prosecutors to drop a rape case against him in 2011.

Short, 30, was even feted as a hero by the Army, which failed to dismiss him despite knowing of allegations against him.

Now, after he was finally jailed at Birmingham Crown Court, the victim said Short was “a monster” who should never have been free to attack again and again.

She told the Sunday Mirror: “This is a victory for justice and for all the women whose lives he ruined while remaining free to rape again and again.

“There were endless failings which meant he slipped through the net. But this case is proof that if you fight for justice you can win.

DANGEROUS

“I had exceptional support from the police in West Mercia and want to thank them for that.

“I think he was so arrogant he thought he was going to get away with it again. But by the end, it was clear to everyone he wasn’t some guy with a sleep disorder.

“He was just a monster who liked raping women.

“He is in the right place now. He isn’t a hero, he’s a dangerous man.”

She said she felt solidarity with other victims, adding: “My heart goes out to them because they were denied justice.

“We all reported him and I hope they see that some of the time he’s serving is for what he did to them.”

Short was given 15 years for twice raping the woman in Hoddesdon, Herts, in 2014 and for a serious sexual assault on another woman in Shrewsbury last year – while on bail.

He tried to claim the attacks were down to sexsomnia, a condition that leads sufferers to engage in sexual activity while asleep.

The same defence saved him from prosecution in Scotland in March 2011 after a woman suffered serious injuries.

Short did stand trial in November 2011 in Hull on two counts of rape against another woman, but a jury believed his claim that she consented to sex. When justice finally caught up with him last month, two victims were asked whether he might have been sleeping during their ordeals.

Short even made the preposterous claim he was still asleep when he pursued one woman on a bicycle after she fled his home.

His defence fell apart when the expert whose report cleared him in 2011 declared the soldier had ignored all the advice he had given him to avoid harming women.

Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Oxford University, was initially instructed over an allegation in Midlothian.

He concluded then that Short had sexsomnia and could have been asleep throughout the episode which left a woman with bruises from head to toe and a vicious bite-mark on her breast. Scottish prosecutors at the Crown Office dropped the case. At last month’s Birmingham trial the defence raised the sleep disorder in cross-examination.

The judge referred to a new report in which Prof Espie confirmed his earlier diagnosis of sexsomnia, but had now concluded Short was dangerous.

Short – at one point considered to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after an explosion in Afghanistan – then tried to plead insanity. But expert witnesses dispelled that claim as well.

The Hoddesdon rape victim said she was devastated that Short had struck again after raping her.

She said: “I couldn’t help wondering if I had gone forward sooner that he might already have been in jail.”

The victim told how she feared she was about to die as Short raped and strangled her.

When she confronted him in the morning, he claimed he had a sleep disorder, had failed to take medication and begged for help.

But after a second episode of strangulation, which he later asked if she’d enjoyed, she realised he was a danger and reported him.

He was given bail and was at large long enough to target one other woman – the Shrewsbury

My heart goes out to other victims who were denied justice... he is dangerous RAPE VICTIM ON OUTRAGE AT SOLDIER WHO FOOLED EXPERTS