SOLDIER Marc Huband helped himself to sex aids and women's underwear while colleagues were serving on the front line.

Salisbury Crown Court head how the 26-year-old from Garraglwyd Park, Holyhead, started feeding his bizarre fetish while based at Perham Down barracks, near Tidworth. Between September 2002 and December 2003, the disgraced father-of-one entered a number of service married quarters through ground-floor windows, while husbands were serving abroad.

Once inside, he headed straight for the master bedroom, rummaging through drawers and cupboards before making off with an assortment of women's clothing, shoes, wedding photos and camcorders.

He targeted random homes, not knowing any of his victims.

When police raided his home, they recovered his stash of about 200 items, hidden in a boxroom inside his house.

Tim Dracus, defending, said: "There has been a particularly dramatic effect on the victims of these crimes.

"To say that he has lost everything would be an understatement and he is utterly ashamed in relation to his conduct."

Mr Dracus said his client had suffered "deep depression" after returning from a stint in Kosovo.

His marriage was in trouble and he had started drinking as a result.

The court heard how Huband had pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary at a previous hearing and had since been thrown out of the army and had split up with his wife.

Summing up the case, Judge Keith Cutler read out a traumatic account by one of the victims, who said she felt as if Huband had "tried to rape me of my life and soul".

Asked to take eight other offences into consideration, the judge sentenced the soldier to three years in prison. He said: "You knew the effect that this was having on these people, you knew that many of these ladies had menfolk away working in the army and were also increasingly vulnerable.

"These people became more and more vulnerable as time went on.

"It seems to me that there is no alternative to a custodial sentence."