The Night Stalker Is Still Serving Four Life Sentences

For nearly two decades, a serial rapist and burglar terrorised elderly communities in the South East of England. Delroy Grant, who came to be known as the ‘night stalker’, is thought to be connected to at least 200 attacks on pensioners between 1992 and 2008. Grant would target elderly women living alone, often cutting off their electricity and phone lines before sexually assaulting and robbing them.

In what became one of the “most complex rape cases the Metropolitan Police has undertaken”, Grant managed to continue his crimes for quite sometime before the police managed to catch him – with the help of Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton. Sutton’s involvement in the case is the focal point of the second series of ITV’s Manhunt – Martin Clunes plays the lead detective, while Jude Akuwudike plays the criminal in question. But, where is Delroy Grant now?

Grant was convicted in March 2011, and was found guilty of 29 charges of burglary, indecent assault, and rape. He was sentenced to four life sentences by Judge Peter Rook, and will serve a minimum of 27 years in prison. Grant will be able to apply for parole after 25 years and eight months in jail, BBC News reports.

He’s currently incarcerated at HMP Belmarsh in Thamesmead, a Category A male prison where some of the country’s most notorious criminals serve out their sentences. Inmates include Lee Rigby’s killer Michael Adebolajo, MP Jo Cox’s killer Thomas Mair, child killer Ian Huntley, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Met Police set up a dedicated police force in 1998, codenamed Operation Minstead, to catch Delroy Grant. They almost caught him a year later, but an admin error allowed the serial rapist to evade capture. As iNews reports, a witness took the license plate of a car parked near one of the burglaries. The police searched the plate and found it belonged to Grant, but went after the wrong person – another Grant in their system.

Kit Malthouse, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, later apologised for the mishandling of the case. He said that “significant changes” to techniques within in the force had been made as a result of the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation that took place, per BBC News.

Grant could only evade capture for so long, though. Following the addition of DCI Sutton to the team, who changed their investigative strategy, Grant was finally in their sights. After being caught on camera in August 2009 at an ATM machine in South London, police focused on the area, and eventually arrested Grant during another burglary in November that year.

Manhunt: The Night Stalker airs on ITV from Monday 20 to Thursday 24 September, at 9 p.m.