British jury convicts rapist on 29 counts
Source: Agencies |
March 25, 2011, Friday
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A LONDON jury yesterday convicted one of Britain's most notorious serial rapists, who preyed on the elderly for nearly two decades and may have assaulted scores of victims.
The jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Delroy Grant - dubbed the "Night Stalker" - guilty of 29 counts of attacks on 18 elderly men and women between 1992 and 2009.
Police say the number of Grant's victims is thought to be substantially more than that. Officers have looked into 203 offenses as part of the investigation.
Judge Peter Rook called the offenses "of the utmost gravity" and said Grant could be handed a life sentence today.
Grant stood motionless in the dock with his head bowed as the foreman of the jury delivered the verdicts. An elderly victim and several relatives looked on and smiled from the public gallery.
Police called Grant's offenses some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" Scotland Yard has ever investigated and the prosecution in the case called the attacks "the stuff of nightmares."
The attacker broke into homes, cut phone lines and crept into the bedrooms of his elderly victims during ordeals that lasted for hours. The victims were mostly elderly women; many were blind, deaf or had conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
The 53-year-old Grant, a former cab driver and home-care aide to his second wife, was arrested in 2009 following one of Britain's longest running manhunts, codenamed Operation Minstead in 1998.
After a series of interviews with victims in southeast London over the years, a pattern began emerging.
The telephone lines of the victims' homes were often disabled, and fuse boxes tampered with. Some described a person in a mask, waking them up by shining a flashlight in their faces.
More than 2,000 DNA samples were collected as part of the investigation.
Branding Grant a "perverted, callous and violent individual," the head of the Metropolitan Police's homicide and serious crime unit said his arrest and conviction allowed thousands of people in London to "go to sleep without the dreadful thought they would be preyed upon."
Andrew Hadik, a senior lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service, said the motive for Grant's crimes might never be known, because he had "steadfastly refused to admit any responsibility or to show any remorse."
The jury at Woolwich Crown Court found Delroy Grant - dubbed the "Night Stalker" - guilty of 29 counts of attacks on 18 elderly men and women between 1992 and 2009.
Police say the number of Grant's victims is thought to be substantially more than that. Officers have looked into 203 offenses as part of the investigation.
Judge Peter Rook called the offenses "of the utmost gravity" and said Grant could be handed a life sentence today.
Grant stood motionless in the dock with his head bowed as the foreman of the jury delivered the verdicts. An elderly victim and several relatives looked on and smiled from the public gallery.
Police called Grant's offenses some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" Scotland Yard has ever investigated and the prosecution in the case called the attacks "the stuff of nightmares."
The attacker broke into homes, cut phone lines and crept into the bedrooms of his elderly victims during ordeals that lasted for hours. The victims were mostly elderly women; many were blind, deaf or had conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
The 53-year-old Grant, a former cab driver and home-care aide to his second wife, was arrested in 2009 following one of Britain's longest running manhunts, codenamed Operation Minstead in 1998.
After a series of interviews with victims in southeast London over the years, a pattern began emerging.
The telephone lines of the victims' homes were often disabled, and fuse boxes tampered with. Some described a person in a mask, waking them up by shining a flashlight in their faces.
More than 2,000 DNA samples were collected as part of the investigation.
Branding Grant a "perverted, callous and violent individual," the head of the Metropolitan Police's homicide and serious crime unit said his arrest and conviction allowed thousands of people in London to "go to sleep without the dreadful thought they would be preyed upon."
Andrew Hadik, a senior lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service, said the motive for Grant's crimes might never be known, because he had "steadfastly refused to admit any responsibility or to show any remorse."
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