Metropolitan police blunders meant rapist was free to attack 146 more elderly victims
Scotland Yard has admitted one of the biggest errors in its history after it accepted that blunders by officers led to 146 elderly people becoming victims of a "perverted, callous and violent" serial sex attacker and burglar.
Delroy Grant was convicted of a 17-year reign of terror that saw him attack at least 203 elderly people in their own homes. Police accept that 146 of these attacks happened after he should have been arrested but errors branded by an independent investigation as "basic", coupled with "simple misunderstandings", left him free. Police admit that in 1999 they had a golden chance to catch Grant but blundered and not only failed to detain him, but ruled him out as a suspect.
Grant was finally convicted on Thursday of 29 offences, a fraction of the crimes police suspect he committed. He was convicted of three rapes, one attempted rape, six indecent assaults, one sexual assault, 16 burglaries and two attempted burglaries after a three-week trial.
Officially police believe he was responsible for a total of 203 crimes across south London, but his total offences could be double that, a senior officer said, amounting to 400-500 crimes. None of his targets were younger than 68 years old, while the eldest victim was aged 93.
Police say Grant started offending in 1991, carrying out his first sexual assault one year later, and his crimes stretched though to 2009.
Seven of the elderly victims who found the courage to go to the police have died of natural causes before seeing their rapist brought to justice. Others were so traumatised that their final years would be lived haunted by fear that he would come after them again.
Police linked the offences by 1998, and one senior source said Grant returned not just to the same areas to strike again, but to the same street, and even targeted the same victims.
Grant, 53, was dubbed the "night stalker" because he invariably struck at night, having watched his victims, sometimes for hours. He would cut the phone lines and electricity to their houses, then enter, shining a torch in their faces. Sometimes he carried out a ferocious assault; sometimes he heeded pleas for mercy.
Police realised their blunder after Grant was finally arrested in 2009 and referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
On 28 May 1999, Grant carried out a burglary during which a member of the public spotted a car that seemed suspicious and noted down the number plate. On hearing that a nearby house had been burgled, the person then contacted the police and passed on the car registration.
Police did investigate. They managed to become confused and link the number plate to a Delroy Grant living in east London, who was completely the wrong age. DNA from the man in east London was checked against DNA recovered from the crime scenes. It did not match. But worse was to follow. By August 1999, the name of Delroy Grant was marked down not just as having being investigated, but as being eliminated from inquiries. Grant carried out at least three rapes after May 1999.
An IPCC investigation found that three officers were responsible, and cited "a number of basic actions that were not undertaken". The officers have since received advice.
After the convictions, one of Grant's elderly victims said she would have her first peaceful night's sleep in years.
"Thank you so much for telling me," the 83-year-old said. "I can go back to sleeping at night and being awake in the daytime."
As Grant's victims and their families took whatever solace they could from his conviction, it was left to the current leadership of Scotland Yard to apologise and vow to fix the sins of the past.
Commander Simon Foy, head of the homicide and serious crime command, said: "In 1999 there was an opportunity to have identified and apprehended Grant ? it is appropriate ? to apologise now for this missed opportunity that led to his continued offending for so long afterwards. We are deeply sorry for the harm suffered by all those other victims and for our failure to bring Grant to justice earlier."
Three internal reviews failed to identify the blunder. Police conducted serious case reviews in 1999, 2003 and 2009.
Deborah Glass, IPCC commissioner for London, said confusion over a suspect and a poor response to a burglary led to the failure to arrest Grant. "It is clear that a simple misunderstanding had horrific consequences," said Glass.
Judge Peter Rook QC told Grant his convictions were "of the utmost gravity".
He said: "You should appreciate the sentence you receive will be what is called an indeterminate sentence."
Grant seemed to be living a model life. He was a Jehovah's Witness who cared for his former wife, and a cricket lover. Once arrested, he tried to blame his son, Delroy Jr, then accused his first wife, Janet Watson, 53, of trying to frame him.
It was a defence branded as "utter, utter rubbish" and "pure fiction and fantasy" by Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting.
A jury at Woolwich crown court, after deliberating for eight hours and 29 minutes, reached a majority verdict of 10 to two on all 29 counts against Grant, of Brockley, south-east London.
'A lack of diligence': how the Met again missed chances to catch violent rapist
Sorry may be the hardest word, but the Metropolitan police has in recent years been getting practice in saying it.
The "basic" errors that left Delroy Grant free to strike for a decade after he should have been caught are the latest in a series of instances that have led the force to apologise for missing chances to stop a serial attacker.
In the case of John Worboys, the Met missed chances to stop the man who was known as the "black-cab rapist". Worboys drugged, raped and sexually assaulted at least 85 victims despite numerous women reporting his attacks over many years. He was arrested then released after a woman came forward in July 2007 and officers chose to believe his account, not hers. The victim said she had been "lied to and laughed at" by officers. Worboys was given an indeterminate sentence in April 2009.
Soon after, errors were revealed about another serial rapist, Kirk Reid, who sexually assaulted 71 women over eight years. Police had a dozen clues and chances pointing to Reid, but missed them.
Senior officers say the Worboys errors were the result of a "culture of disbelief" of rape victims, while in the Reid case, errors also appeared to be systemic.
But one senior officer said the errors that left Grant free stemmed from lack of diligence by individual officers, and not because of something systemically wrong. The officer accepts that is of next to no comfort for anyone.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/25/night-stalker-case-police-sorry
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