Delroy Grant, a 53-year-old former minicab driver known as the "night stalker", has been convicted of a string of sexual offences against elderly people after police admitted that missed opportunities allowed him to evade capture for more than a decade.
Grant was responsible for at least 146 crimes, including 23 sexual offences, after police failed to arrest him in 1999. Detectives have linked 203 attacks to him between 1992 and 2009 across south London, with victims as old as 89. He typically broke into homes at night, cut phone lines and removed lightbulbs before assaulting his victims, many of whom were too terrified or ashamed to report the attacks.
A jury at Woolwich crown court reached a majority verdict of 10 to two on all 29 counts against Grant, convicting him of three rapes, one attempted rape, six indecent assaults, one sexual assault, 16 burglaries and two attempted burglaries. Judge Peter Rook QC told Grant that his sentence would be indeterminate.
Commander Simon Foy, head of the Metropolitan police's homicide and serious crime command, called Grant "a perverted, callous and violent individual" and apologised for the force's failures, which included going to the wrong address in 1999, failing to speak to Grant when his car was reported near a crime scene, and disregarding a Crimewatch lead because of a DNA elimination notice. He said police were "deeply sorry" for the harm suffered by victims.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission criticised the "basic policing errors" and "simple misunderstandings" that undermined the investigation. Grant was finally arrested in November 2009 after being spotted running from a house he had attempted to burgle. Victim impact statements are expected to be read in court on Friday before sentencing.
