Delroy Grant denied 29 charges including rape and sexual assault A man has been found guilty of a series of sex attacks on elderly people in south London.
Dubbed the Night Stalker, Delroy Grant, 53, carried out a series of rapes and sex assaults on 18 victims over 17 years.Police have apologised for missed chances to stop Grant.
They said he was responsible for some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" in the history of Scotland Yard.
Commander Simon Foy, head of the Metropolitan Police's homicide and serious crime command, said: "We are deeply sorry for the trauma suffered by all those victims and our failure to bring Grant to justice earlier."
Paperwork blunder The police chief branded Grant a "perverted, callous and violent individual" who attacked some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Grant, of Honor Oak, south London, denied 29 charges, including burglary, rape and sexual assault, between 1992 and 2009, at Woolwich Crown Court.
The court heard the vulnerable victims were targeted in their homes at night.
The attacks took place in Warlingham, Shirley, Beckenham, Bromley, Addiscombe, Orpington and West Dulwich.
Incidents investigated as part of Operation Minstead Continue reading the main story
Officers had been hunting the Night Stalker, under the codename Operation Minstead, since 1998 when two rapes were linked to the same attacker.
Police missed a key chance to stop Grant in 1999 because of a paperwork blunder, it can now be revealed.He was mistakenly ruled out of a police inquiry when the DNA of another suspect with the similar name was confused with his.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation found that confusion by the Met over a suspect and a poor response to a burglary led to them failing to arrest the serial sex attacker sooner.
IPCC Commissioner for London Deborah Glass said: "It is clear that a simple misunderstanding had horrific consequences.
"Police missed the opportunity because confusion led to the wrong man's DNA being compared."
Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Andrew Hadik said: "The bravery of Grant's victims, who had to relive their ordeal while giving statements to the police and assisting with the investigation, was pivotal in bringing him to justice.
Grant attacked his victims in their homes at night The jury convicted him of claiming at least 18 victims but it is feared the total may be more than 500.
Grant was found guilty of raping an 89-year-old woman after breaking into her home in 1992.
He also carried out the brutal sex attack of an 81-year-old woman in Warlingham in 1998.
The convictions bring to a close a massive manhunt that cost tens of millions of pounds and involved hundreds of officers.
Mr Foy added: "He was also feared by many people living in the same communities and it is not too dramatic to say when he was caught, thousands of people in the South East were able to switch out their lights and go to sleep without the dreadful thought they would be preyed upon by Grant."
'Humiliating' assaults Masked sexual predator Grant preyed on frail men and women in south London and violated them in their homes, sometimes for several hours.
Many of his victims were blind, deaf or had conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
A crowbar was found in the boot of Delroy Grant's Zafira which he had used to enter a house The hallmark of many of his offences was to cut telephone lines, remove light bulbs, then grab his victims with a gloved hand.
Grant woke terrified pensioners by shining a torch in their eyes before talking to them.
He then subjected his vulnerable victims to degrading and humiliating sexual assaults for a gratification described in court as impossible to understand.
The case was described at Woolwich Crown Court as one "which keeps us all awake at night".
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said the series of attacks "really is the stuff of nightmares".
Among a string of "almost laughable" explanations at Woolwich was his claim that his ex-wife stored his semen in 1977, then waited 15 years to frame him for the crimes.
The man went to great lengths to avoid capture as a nationwide manhunt to catch the Night Stalker rapist gathered pace, the court heard.
But a massive surveillance operation led to officers catching Grant red-handed as he drove home from a burglary in November 2009.
More than 70 undercover officers, supported by hidden cameras and a helicopter, staked out several streets in Shirley, near Croydon, in an ambitious operation after Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson called for a "step change" in the hunt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12803014
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