The crack police chief who caught the Night Stalker in just 17 DAYS... after 12 years of blunders



Grant handed life with minimum of 27 years behind bars for reign of terror



Brave victims relive ordeals in front of packed court as Grant is sentenced

Grant told court ex-wife had planted his DNA at crime scenes

'Number of police officers to face misconduct hearings'

Victims were often blind, deaf or had dementia

A leading murder detective stopped 'Night Stalker' Delroy Grant in just 17 days - after a 17-year hunt for the man who carried out sex attacks on 500 elderly people.

After an appalling catalogue of police blunders, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was drafted in to catch the rapist - who was jailed for life today after eluding officers for years.

Police had relied on DNA evidence but DCI Sutton set up a giant undercover operation in 2009 and swiftly caught his man.

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Predator: A still image of Delroy Grant approaching an ATM in Honor Oak Park. The pervert would break into homes of the elderly and subject them to sick sexual assaults

Grant, who was told he will spend a minimum of 27 years behind bars as he was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in south London today, should have been stopped in his tracks 12 years ago, when police were given his car registration number. There were two further positive identifications in 2001 and 2003.

But ‘basic policing errors’ allowed the Jamaican-born predator to continue raping and assaulting vulnerable pensioners after stalking them and breaking into their homes at night – often cutting their telephone lines and electricity cables.

Crack detective: DCI Colin Sutton who was called in to lead the investigation after years of police blunders

Passing sentence, Judge Peter Rook told Grant he remained a 'very dangerous man capable of committing heinous crimes and causing incalculable harm' and warned him he could die in jail.



The judge said: 'You targeted elderly victims living alone. Your actions blighted the remaining precious years of their lives. Their homes, where many of them had lived for years, should have been their safest refuge where they could have expected to live their lives undisturbed and at peace.



'You chose to invade their homes when they were in their beds at night.



'It's hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand and the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds.'

The judge noted that in all but one case Grant targeted elderly people living alone, suggesting that his attacks involved 'considerable planning'.



He told him: 'Your offending spans a period of 17 years. Five London boroughs were affected by your offending.



'During that period your activities must have terrified a whole community, as your counsel accepted.



'Thousands of people in south London have been living in fear that they might be your next victim.'



Detectives believe the 53-year-old’s tally of victims could even be as high as 1,000. Many of the elderly men and women on whom he preyed have either died or are too traumatised, ashamed or confused to come forward.

But DCI Sutton - who led a British investigation into the disappearance of Madeline McCann and was involved in the Millie Dowler case - caught Grant within days.

After discovering 100 out of 600 possible break-ins the 'Night Stalker' had been linked to were in the same street in Croydon, south London, a giant undercover 'rat trap' operation involving 70 officers was set up.

One of the force's three helicopters was also employed to hover at high altitude overhead, using powerful infra-red cameras to see in the dark.



On their first night of observation, the 'Night Stalker' struck three times, twice just to the north of their net and once to the south east, one street away.



'It's hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand and the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds' Judge Peter Rook, passing sentence

The timing of each burglary meant the suspect must have used a vehicle and travelled down Orchard Avenue.



There was hardly any traffic on the road and investigators identified one vehicle as the one probably used by the Grant.



A CCTV camera from a local business caught a shadowy outline identified by a specialist as a post-2005 model silver-grey Vauxhall Zafira.

Two weeks later, after the suspect had lied low, the car was spotted again and the man that had eluded blundering officers for years was arrested.

The top officer, who is now retired, said yesterday: 'People say he was a charmer, a nice guy, a regular bloke.



'There was a lot of surprise when he was arrested. People just wouldn't have thought that Delroy Grant was the Night Stalker.'

Speaking to the Mirror, DCI Sutton added: 'I was very proud of the team that we caught him after 17 days but unfortunately we'd been trying for 17 years.'

Yesterday Grant was warned he faced a sentence which could see him die in prison.

A judge warned him the jail term would be ‘very long indeed’ after a jury convicted him of 29 specimen charges by a 10-2 majority.

They rejected the ‘ludicrous’ assertion that his ex-wife planted his DNA at the crime scenes to ‘frame’ him for a wave of attacks which terrorised old people in south London, Kent and Surrey from the early 1990s.

One of the victims – a grey-haired woman he indecently assaulted in her home – stared at him through opera glasses from the back of Woolwich Crown Court as the verdicts were delivered.



Depraved: Sick Delroy Grant broke into the homes of elderly people and subjected them to terrifying and vile sexual assaults in a 17-year reign of terror across south London



Grant – who refuses to admit his crimes or offer any explanation – simply shook his head. In a corner of the court, a policewoman sobbed into her hand.

Manhunt: This police appeal picture shows an officer riding a motorcycle virtually identical to the one used by Delroy Grant

The massive manhunt dedicated to finding the Night Stalker was riddled with a series of errors, oversights and ‘simple misunderstandings’ which critically undermined it, a formal inquiry concluded yesterday.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said the mistakes and confusion ‘had horrific consequences’. Some of the bungles proved to be catastrophic.

In May 1999 an elderly woman was burgled in Bromley, Kent. A Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator told police she had seen a black man putting on gloves and walking towards the house. She gave details of his car, including the registration number.

Detectives ran a trace on it which showed it was registered to Delroy Easton Grant’s wife Jennifer at their home nearby. When the name ‘Delroy Grant’ was fed to police computer databases, it identified six people of that name.

One Delroy Grant, in London, showed a burglary conviction. For a moment, it looked as if the hunt could be over. But a DNA sample taken from this man, which eliminated him from the inquiry, somehow became assigned to Delroy Easton Grant’s profile.

Mask of respectability: Delroy Grant, back row centre, on his wedding day to second wife Jennifer Evil secrets: Official wedding photo of Grant with second wife Jennifer

Kit: A blue cagoule and black woolly hat were found by police when they searched Grant's Vauxhall Zafira

Apology: Commander Martin Foy said sorry after the conclusion of the case

Although a detective did visit Delroy and Jennifer Grant’s home to check on his movements on the night of the burglary, Delroy was out – and no follow-up action was taken.



Had his DNA been taken that day, he would have been identified instantly as the Night Stalker rapist.

In 2001, a BBC Crimewatch appeal prompted a call saying an e-fit picture resembled Delroy Grant.



Investigations were carried out – but Delroy Easton Grant was wrongly eliminated by the 1999 DNA blunder.

In 2003, an elderly woman attacked by Grant scratched him in the struggle and got some of his DNA under her fingernails.

She told police her attacker looked like one of the minicab drivers at a local firm she used. In fact Grant did work for that firm – but he was never interviewed.

He was not caught until November 2009 after his car was captured on CCTV near a crime scene in Croydon.

Commander Simon Foy, head of the Metropolitan Police homicide and serious crime command, issued an apology to victims and their families for the ‘missed opportunity’ to catch him, and for ‘the trauma suffered by all those victims and our failure to bring Grant to justice earlier’.

He added: ‘Grant is a rapist who preyed upon the most vulnerable section of society. He has never given any explanation for his offending and we may never know why he did it.’

Brave victims relive their ordeals before packed court as sex fiend is jailed



Victims came face to face with the depraved sex fiend today for the first time since their attacks to relive their terrifying ordeals.



The court heard moving statements today from Grant's victims and their families about the impact his sick crimes had on them.

One 85-year-old woman, referred to as Miss J for legal reasons, bravely entered the witness box to give evidence about how she continues to suffer from her ordeal nearly nine years ago.

She was 77 when Grant burgled and indecently assaulted her at her bungalow in Shirley, Croydon, in October 2002.

Pervert: A crowbar which Grant had used to enter a house was found in the boot of the Zafira in which he was driving when he was caught

In a statement from 2003 she said: 'I have found that time is not a great healer. I don't think it's got any easier over the last year.

'I certainly haven't got back my peace of mind. Nobody can guarantee it won't happen again.'

She added: 'It's something I shall never forget completely. It still feels so recent.'

The judge asked if her experiences at Grant's hands still affected her today.

Miss J replied: 'If I go out I like to be home before dark. I do a lot of locking and bolting, and taking precautions... It changed my life.'

She was watched from the dock by Grant, who sat impassively throughout most of the hearing but occasionally shook his head.

The judge paid tribute to Miss J's 'courageous' testimony.

He also quoted from the son of another of the sexual predator's victims, who said: 'It has ruined the winter years of my mother's life, and she has to live with this for the rest of her life.'

'He could go from charm to monster in a second', says ex-wife

The ex-wife of Night Stalker Delroy Grant said: 'He could be charm itself and turn into a monster in a second.'

Janet Watson branded him 'dangerous' and scheming and declared: 'I hope he suffers every day in prison.'



Janet Watson told The Sun she was beaten by Grant following their marriage, declaring 'being with him was a living hell'.

Charm itself: An artist's impression of Grant's ex wife Janet Watson giving evidence in court as he looks on from the dock

The 53-year-old also laid bare her views of Grant's defence claim that she 'fitted him up' by storing his semen for decades and distributing it at different burglaries.

She said: 'He is an evil man. I was never going to let him win.

'There must be something very wrong with him to think he'd get away with saying I did all that just to spite him.'

Referring to the trial at Woolwich Crown Court, she said: 'I could see people laughing in the public gallery.

'When I left court, I thought, 'He's going to get what he deserves'.'

Grant and Ms Watson tied the knot in 1975. The couple had two sons together, Delroy Junior, 35, and Michael, 32.

Ms Watson said he attacked her in front of the children and beat her when she was pregnant.

She said Michael had to undergo an operation following his birth due to the trauma induced by Grant's physical attacks. Ms Watson also spoke of his infidelity as Grant cheated on her with other women.

Terror of the soft voice at the foot of the bed

By Paul Harris

He always looked for those little tell-tale clues. Perhaps the lights went out early in the evening, or the curtains stayed drawn during the day.

TIMELINE 1992: Grant carries out first of more than 500 rapes, sexual assaults and burglaries against the elderly. May 1999: After huge manhunt, his BMW is linked to a burglary in Bromley but police go to address of another Delroy Grant who is clearly innocent. 2001: After Crimewatch features e-fit of the Night Stalker, he is named by a caller as Delroy Grant but inquires fail to trace him 2003: Elderly woman indecently assaulted by Grant recognise him as a mini-cab driver working at a firm in Crystal Palace. Police fail to follow up on the information. 2009: After countless further burglaries and sex attacks, Grant is captured in Croydon.

Even an overgrown garden or a handrail by the door could alert Delroy Grant to the possibility that an old person lived there alone.

But he always made sure. In the early hours, he would concoct some excuse to leave his disabled wife at home, then take to the streets. If the neighbours saw him leave they would assume he was going minicabbing again.

Why should they be suspicious? He was ‘a perfectly pleasant guy’ – always polite and helpful; a familiar figure at the Royal British Legion club, where he indulged in nothing more exciting than a game of dominoes.

But behind this facade lurked the most vile serial rapist.

Grant, an illegitimate child immigrant from Jamaica, was obsessed by violent sex with old people and for nearly two decades he preyed on hundreds of elderly women – and some men – in a wide area of South London.

An accomplished burglar, he usually broke in by dismantling a downstairs window. He cut telephone wires, unscrewed lightbulbs and noted the position of any panic alarms.

Slumbering victims would awake to see his outline standing at the foot of the bed, wearing a balaclava, shining a torch in their eyes and holding a crowbar. He was 6ft and had a powerful physique from years of bodybuilding and boxing. He knew exactly what he wanted.

Grant made a point of speaking softly to his victims, almost in a whisper at times. It lent a paralysing menace to his voice.



A still image from CCTV in Shirley on October 29, 2009, from which Grant's Vauxhall Zafira was identified

Car: A still image of Grant's Vauxhall Zafira taken shortly after his arrest in the early hours of November 15, 2009

After they had handed over what little money and possessions they had, they must have thought he would leave them in peace. Yet the subsequent humiliation, anger and terror would overshadow the last years of their lives.



THE CHARGES

Counts 1 and 2 - Burglary (money, a watch and jewellery) and rape at a home in Shirley between October 10 and 13 1992.

Counts 3, 4 and 5 - Burglary, indecent assault and attempted rape at a home in Warlingham between September 3 and 6 1998.

Count 6 - Burglary (money and jewellery) between June 18 and 21 1999 at property in Beckenham.

Count 7 - Attempted burglary between June 30 and August 1 1999 at a home in Orpington.

Counts 8 and 9 - Burglary (money) and indecent assault at a home in Coulsdon between July 2 and 5 1999.

Counts 10 and 11 - Burglary (money) and indecent assault at a home in Addiscombe between July 10 and 13 1999.

Counts 12 and 13 - Burglary (money and a pension book) and rape at a home in Addiscombe between July 27 and 30 1999.

Count 14 and 15 - Burglary and indecent assault at home in Croydon between August 2 and 5 1999.

Counts 16, 17 and 18 - Burglary, indecent assault and rape at a property in Orpington between August 4 and 7 1999.

Counts 19 and 20 - Burglary and indecent assault at home in Shirley between October 11 and 14 2002.

Count 21 - Burglary of money and jewellery from property in West Dulwich between March 6 and 9 2003.

Count 22 - Burglary of money from a property in Bromley between September 6 and 9 2004.

Count 23 - Burglary of money from a property in Bromley between May 24 and 26 2009.

Count 24 - Burglary at a property in South Croydon between June 4 and 6 2009.

Counts 25 and 26 - Burglary of bank card and sex assault at a property in Thornton Heath, between August 11 and 14 2009.

Count 27 - Burglary of bank card from a property in Forest Hill, between October 16 and 19 2009.

Count 28 - Burglary of handbag and contents from a property in Croydon, between October 27 and 30 2009.

Count 29 - Attempted burglary of property in Croydon, between November 14 and 17 2009.



These were people from a generation which survived the war, endured great hardship and lived by a code of decency that Delroy Grant clearly didn’t understand. One was a Battle of Britain pilot with proud and distinguished service.

When he and Grant coincided half a century later, he was forced to carry out a deeply degrading act in fear of his life. Another was a charming, white-haired widow in her 80s, a much loved figure among her broad, extended family. She was raped, twice. The nightmares stayed with her until the day she died a few years later.

Quite what triggered Grant’s sexual attraction to old people, or gerontophilia, is unclear. Children abused by the elderly can harbour latent tendencies towards the condition. But experts say gerontophiles are genuinely attracted to very old people in the same way that a young man might be attracted to a young woman.

Often, however, such feelings are deliberately suppressed, remaining only as fantasies. In Grant’s case, there were no such boundaries.

Back in his native Kingston, Jamaica, it seems likely that the juvenile Grant would have fallen into a life of crime anyway.

He was born illegitimately in 1957 to domestic servant Vida Forsythe and raised by his grandmother in a lawless area known as Mongoose Town.

In 1961, his father Oswald George Grant came to Britain in search of a better life. Working on the railways, he saved enough for the deposit on a modest house in East Dulwich, and in 1972 he and his wife Ruby sent for his 15-year-old son to join them. Neighbours described them as a ‘very respectable’ church-going couple.

Things looked promising at first when Delroy started at a secondary school and began to shine at cricket. But he failed to settle and two years later he ran away for good. His weeping father, now 85, recalled: ‘There were presents for him under the Christmas tree. I went to the police but they said, “He’s 17. We can’t do anything”.

‘Now? It might be better if they just shoot him. I’ll send him a Bible. There’s nothing he can do now except to pray.’ Out of his parents’ control, Grant drifted between jobs and embarked on a series of short-lived relationships with women.

After a seven-week courtship in 1975, when he was working as a motor mechanic, he married Janet Watson. They had two sons but divorced after three years.

Janet, now 53, said: ‘He was very charming and sophisticated. I thought I’d found my soulmate. Then the violence started. Within weeks he showed his real character. He flew at me over our house being a mess.

‘There was no warning – it just came. Everything didn’t just have to be tidy – it had to be set straight, laid out and spotless.

‘He wasn’t sexually violent but if things weren’t clean he’d fly into a rage. He was obsessive about it.’ Janet, who works as a carer for the elderly, said she often caught him with other women and he became angry when she confronted him about it. ‘He always had this idea he could get away with it because he was too clever. But he wasn’t clever at all.’

Grant attached himself to a succession of women after his separation from Janet. The relationships produced at least eight children in total. He also had four stepchildren.

He worked as a painter and decorator, jobbing carpenter and part time minicab driver. Twenty years ago he and new wife Jennifer moved to a terrace house in a respectable part of Brockley, South London. They got on well with the neighbours. There were summer barbecues for the street, one of which boasted Grant’s boxing hero Chris Eubank as a guest – David Eubank, a relative, lived two doors away.

How the Night Stalker targeted the elderly in South London



Grant’s rape and robbery excursions seem to have started soon after they moved in, and before Jennifer was struck down by multiple sclerosis. The illness condemned her to increasing pain, constant care, and eventually to life in a wheelchair.



Grant did little to help but continued to claim a carer’s allowance while living with her. With terrible irony, her Vauxhall Safira car – subsidised by the taxpayer under a government mobility scheme designed for the old or infirm – became his reconnaissance and getaway car. He loaded it with tools, gloves and dark clothes before setting off on his rounds.



Blamed: Delroy Grant blamed his ex-wife Janet Watson, pictured here at court, for planting his DNA at crime scenes

Single-handedly, he cast a blanket of terror over the whole of south-east London.



As the Night Stalker claimed victim after victim, everyday life changed. Old people slept during the day so they could stay alert at night.

Some were too frightened to go out in case they were followed. Police issued a series of personal safety guidelines which would have been just as appropriate for a country under invasion as for suburbs with a maniac on the prowl. ‘If you see anyone in your back garden dial 999 immediately,’ one of the bullet points said.

Meanwhile, Grant increased the intensity of his pre-attack research, using public records such as electoral rolls to find addresses and dates of birth of potential victims.

He also became interested in becoming a Jehovah’s Witness – and could have used this as a cover to earmark homes to burgle while going from door to door at weekends.

He was meticulous in his planning – and, apart from leaving unavoidable traces of DNA, scrupulous about covering his tracks. As the Daily Mail reveals today, a catastrophic series of police blunders and missed opportunities spanning two decades meant he needn’t have tried so hard.

Since his arrest, Grant has arrogantly refused to confess his guilt. When his fingerprints were taken he told police: ‘There’s no point in doing that – you know I always wore gloves.’

Detectives are convinced there were many more victims over the years who have not come forward, either through embarrassment, fear – or because dementia prevents them from recalling what happened. Some didn’t live long enough to see justice.

Others were so ashamed, they took the secret of the Night Stalker to the grave.

Traumatised, degraded... but still too brave to suffer in silence

They were old, frail, and terrorised by the unspeakable acts of depravity to which their attacker subjected them.

But the courageous determination of Delroy Grant’s elderly victims to see justice was crucial in putting him behind bars.

Their descriptions of what happened helped police and prosecutors to build a vital picture of Grant and his serial attacks.

The home Delroy Grant shared with his wheelchair-bound wife in Brockley, south east London

And although many were too traumatised or embarrassed to give evidence in person at his trial, their written testimony had a dramatic impact on the jury in the task of deciding Grant’s guilt. Just a few words from the account of a 93-year-old woman, for example, are enough to convey the terror he inflicted after breaking into her home in Orpington, Kent, in August 1999.

She suffered potentially fatal injuries when Grant raped her twice. ‘I heard a sound in the hallway and the next thing I knew there was a hooded man at the foot of my bed,’ she said.

‘He put his hands around my neck and said, “Don’t scream and you won’t be hurt.” That man did awful things to me. I still have terrible mental and psychological scars to show for it.’ Or this account from a brave octogenarian who was so heavily overpowered she could only scold her attacker: ‘I couldn’t see the person’s face because he was wearing a mask,’ she said.

‘The person said, “Where’s your money?” He put his hand over my mouth. I thought I was going to suffocate.

‘I was panic stricken. He took his hand away and I said, “I think you’re thoroughly mean. I’m 81 you know, and the shock could do anything.” He took hold of either side of my jaw and held it tightly so I couldn’t cry out. He was pretty vicious.’

Then, an elderly woman attacked in her Surrey bungalow: ‘I shouted, “Stop, leave me alone”. I was trying to push him away from me. He held both sides of my face and started to kiss my cheeks. He then began to squeeze my face. I shouted, “Stop it, please, you’re hurting me.”

‘He then pressed his lips to my lips. He was trying to put his tongue into my mouth. He squeezed so hard he dislodged my false teeth.’

And another plucky 88-year-old from Surrey, whose outrage appeared to startle Grant as he prepared to attack her. ‘I was shaken, petrified and dumbstruck,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I kept looking at his eyes, wondering what he was going to do next. I seem to remember saying, “What do you want? How did you get in? It’s a good job your mother can’t see you now.” I wonder if that made him stop.’

Rapist: Grant is suspected of a total of 203 offences but privately detectives believe the number is far greater

Another victim, also 88, told police: ‘I cannot emphasise enough my feelings of embarrassment and humiliation during the attack and subsequently. I feared for my life and believed I was going to be murdered.’

Tragically, seven of the 18 victims named in the charges have since died. Police believe it likely that their horrific experiences shortened their lives.

Commander Simon Foy, who led the investigation which finally ended Grant’s reign of terror, said many had ‘suffered horribly because of the way he treated and abused them’. But he praised the ‘courage and dignity’ of the victims who were able to come forward, adding: ‘They all have gone through a terrifying ordeal.