A JUDGE blasted cops and magistrates yesterday after a serial rapist was repeatedly freed on bail to attack again.

Sex monster Carl Hartley, 26, was arrested by cops a staggering six times for separate attacks on four lone women but was set free each time.

He was eventually charged with four counts of rape in 2017 but was bailed a seventh time by magistrates - attacking his fifth victim three days later.

Cops yesterday described dad-of-two Hartley as "one of the most dangerous sexual predators" they had ever encountered as he was jailed for life.

But fuming judge Christopher Batty slammed the decision not to lock Hartley up sooner.

The judge raged: "I cannot for the life of me understand what on earth anyone was thinking of at any stage.

"How he was not charged is beyond me. How he was not remanded in custody is beyond me.

"I have no idea why the police didn’t charge him at any stage for any of the offences.

"He kept being arrested for raping women and yet he still goes out to commit the last offence on a woman in her own home."

Hartley first struck in February 2014 after he followed a drunk woman out of a pub in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, after she rowed with her boyfriend.

He raped her but fled after being disturbed by the landlord.

DNA evidence linked him to the crime and he was arrested but Hartley claimed it was consensual and was released on bail for the first time.

He targeted his second victim in May 2014 after waiting for her outside a nightclub in the town having been warned off moments earlier.

Hartley grabbed her and dragged her down an alley behind Wakefield Prison where the attack was captured on CCTV.

It showed the crying 20-year-old woman trying to fight him off before she is bundled to the ground and raped.

Prison security guards dialled 999 but Hartley was gone by the time cops arrived.

He was traced and arrested but despite the CCTV footage and questioning was released on bail for a second time.

He was re-arrested in November 2014 and questioned again about the attacks before being released on bail once more.

In June 2015 another woman accused him of rape. He was arrested and bailed for a fourth time.

In July 2016, a fourth woman complained to police he had raped her. Hartley was arrested but again bailed after questioning.

In 2017, two cops realised Hartley was a serial sex attacker and charged him with four counts of rape but granted him bailed for a sixth time.

He went on to breach his bail conditions and was hauled before magistrates in June last year - who bailed him for a seventh time.

Days later on July 1, tree surgeon Hartley sexually assaulted a young woman in her own home in Leeds, West Yorkshire, as she held her three-year-old daughter.

Prosecutor Phillip Standfast said Hartley, left his business card behind.

He was arrested on July 5 and claimed it was consensual.

Only then was he locked up on remand.

Judge Batty told Hartley: "I find it incredible you were bailed again and three days later you were in the house trying to get her to have sex with you and you sexually assaulted her in front of her child.

"You are a sexual predator and a highly dangerous man."

Leeds Crown Court was told all his victims have been left mentally scarred by their ordeals.

Hartley pleaded guilty to the two 2014 rapes and the indecent assault of the mum in Leeds. The other two rape attacks were ordered to lie on file.

Geraldine Kelly, mitigating, said: "He is ashamed of what he has done and it has been difficult for him to come to terms with it."

Hartley, of Leeds, must serve a minimum of six years before he can even be considered for parole.

Judge Batty added: "I have said a great deal of negative things, and rightly so in my view."