A FORMER army corporal who served with rapist Tony Lane says his old regiment is disgusted by his crimes - and want to dissociate themselves from him.

Lane, 56, was jailed for 13 years on Friday after being found guilty of 12 sex and violence crimes against women and young girls. Some of the offences dated back to the 1970s.

Newport crown court was told that Lane, a former lance-corporal in the South Wales Borderers, had an "exemplary" military record.

Lane, a former organiser of Newport's Gaer Neighbourhood Watch group, ran watch patrols on the estate with military precision - picking up a Home Office award for cutting crime there.

But Ian Williams, 58, of Penygarn Road, Pontypool, pictured, served with Lane in the South Wales Borderers during the 1960s, and remembers him as someone who wasn't liked, and who didn't fit in.

Mr Williams said: "My discharge book also says that my service was 'exemplary' - that just means you weren't charged with anything.

"It's the next paragraph that says more about you, the officers' write-ups that tell what you were like as a man.

"We had some fine men and some excellent leaders in the South Wales Borderers.

"We had a great record and I wasn't prepared to let it be dirtied by Lane. We lost some colleagues in Aden, and for their sake as much as anyone's I had to speak up about Lane.

"The whole regiment's reputation was endangered."

Mr Williams, who was with Lane in Botswana, Aden, Hong Kong and Kent over a period of five years, said: "I was a corporal and he was a lance-corporal, but I put someone else in as second in command. I felt Lane couldn't be trusted."

Mr Williams also claims that Lane was so unhappy in the army that he attempted to commit suicide in Hong Kong Harbour in 1964.

He said: "I was coming out of the China Fleet Club one night with a few officers and Lane ran past us towards the water, shouting that he was going to do himself in.

"Another corporal, 'Slim' Allaway, tackled him before he could reach the edge."

Mr Williams, who served for ten years, leaving the army as a colour sergeant in 1973, continued: "I was surprised at the depth of his offences. But he controlled women in a way that he couldn't men."

Lane, of Elan Court, Bettws, was found guilty of two rapes, one attempted rape, the abduction of a 15-year-old girl, causing or encouraging the prostitution of another 15-year-old girl, committing indecency with a child, four indecent assaults and two occasioning actual bodily harm.

He was cleared of three charges of rape, one charge of procuring a woman to have sex with himself and others, one indecent assault, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and witness intimidation. He denied all the charges.