2009 Arrest
Having been appointed Senior Investigating Officer in October 2009, DCI Colin Sutton, the officer who led the investigation into the serial killer Levi Bellfield, organised and set up a proactive operation mounted to try to observe the suspect in the act of committing an offence. On 15 November 2009 it was reported a 52-year-old man had been arrested in connection with over 100 sexual offences in the South London area. Detectives described the arrest as "significant".
On 16 November 2009, it was reported Delroy Grant of Brockley Mews, Brockley, South East London, had been arrested and charged with twenty-two offences, and appeared at Greenwich Magistrates Court. He was remanded in custody to re-appear at the court on 19 November.
On 19 November 2009, Delroy Grant appeared at Greenwich Magistrates Court, where he was ordered to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday 26 November. Prosecutors said that further charges are likely. He was remanded in custody.
On 26 November 2009, Delroy Grant Appeared at Woolwich Crown Court. Grant has been remanded in custody and is next due to appear at the Old Bailey for a plea and case management hearing on 8 February 2010.
On 8 February 2010, he was remanded in custody and is next due to appear at Inner London Crown Court on 30 April 2010.
On 21 June 2010, Delroy Grant, 52, of Brockley Mews, Honor Oak, south-east London, pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey. Mr Justice Bean said the trial would take place on 1 March 2011, at Woolwich Crown Court; it might take up to six weeks.
The charges were as follows:
1. Rape - on 12/10/92 at Shirley, on an 89-year-old woman
2. Rape - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey, on an 81-year-old woman
3. Rape - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe, on an 82-year-old woman
4. Rape - on 5/8/99 at Orpington, on an 88-year-old woman
5. Indecent assault - on 20/6/99 at Beckenham of a 71-year-old woman
6. Indecent assault - on 12/7/99 at Addiscombe of an 82-year-old woman
7. Indecent assault - on 4/8/99 at Shirley on an 88-year-old woman
8. Indecent assault - on 13/10/02 at Shirley on a 77-year-old woman
9. Burglary (no violence) - on 25/5/09 at Shortlands, Bromley
10. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 12/10/92 at Shirley
11. Burglary with intent to rape - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey
12. Indecent assault - on 5/9/98 at Warlingham, Surrey, of an 81-year-old woman
13. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 12/7/99 at Addiscombe
14. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe
15. Indecent assault - on 28/7/99 at Addiscombe, of an 82-year-old woman
16. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 4/8/99 at Shirley.
17. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 5/8/99 at Orpington
18. Rape - on 5/8/99 at Orpington, on an 88-year-old woman
19. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 13/10/02 at Shirley
20. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 7/3/03 at West Dulwich
21. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 7/9/04 at Bromley
22. Burglary (theft/attempted theft with violence) - on 20/6/99 at Beckenham
According to newspaper reports the suspect was seen by cash machine CCTV cameras using his victims' credit and debit cards, but appeared useless as his face was always covered by a mask. One eagle-eyed police officer was reported to have spotted in some of the footage the reflection of a bus in a shop window. The bus was tracked down and was found to be fitted with cameras. Police trawled through the CCTV footage recorded by the bus. On the recording a Vauxhall Zafira was spotted near the cash machine and vehicle records pinpointed all models in the South London area. However, this is a gross distortion of the truth; in fact the officers taking part in the observations had identified a Zafira as a suspected vehicle some two weeks previously, and thus were particularly alert to such a car being in the area of their operation.
Then on Sunday evening (15 November) a Zafira was spotted parked in the Shirley area of Croydon, which was already being staked out by 70 police officers following recent break-ins believe to have been carried out by the Night Stalker.
Delroy Grant was arrested as he approached his car having just attempted to enter a nearby pensioner's house.
On 24 March 2011 Grant was found guilty of all offences charged. He was sentenced to concurrent life sentences with a recommendation that he should serve 27 years before being eligible to apply for parole
Read more about this topic: Delroy Easton Grant
Famous quotes containing the word arrest:
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)