Night Stalker faces jail sentence

Mar 25 2011

Night Stalker Delroy Grant - one of Britain's most depraved sex attackers - is set to be jailed.

The former minicab driver, 53, was warned he faces up to life behind bars for preying on elderly pensioners in a 17-year campaign of perverted terror.

Victims are expected to give evidence at Woolwich Crown Court before Judge Peter Rook QC gives his sentencing.

As a jury found him guilty on Thursday of 29 counts of preying on 18 elderly people, Grant was told his jail term will be "very long indeed".

Police were forced to apologise as it was revealed officers botched a chance to stop him in 1999. Hundreds of elderly victims are feared to have been preyed on after "basic errors" at Scotland Yard.

Detectives fear Grant attacked more than 500 elderly people during some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" ever investigated by the force.

Commander Simon Foy, head of the Metropolitan Police's homicide and serious crime command, said Grant's conviction lifted a shadow of fear from thousands of pensioners living in south London.

But he apologised for the paperwork blunder which led to the DNA of another suspect scuppering attempts to snare the sex beast.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which assessed the force's investigation, found a crime report from a borough burglary team included information about two different Delroy Grants which led to confusion and the wrong man's DNA being compared.

Grant, of Brockley Mews, Honor Oak, eluded capture for years as the tally of victims linked to Operation Minstead soared to 203. The sex beast's luck finally ran out when police swooped on his car in the early hours of November 15 2009.