True Crime All The Time - The Night Stalker

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

For 17 years, an unknown suspect called the Night Stalker carried out a series of burglaries and sexual attacks against the elderly in South London, Kent, and Surrey, England. In 2009, a massive surveillance operation resulted in an arrest and identification. The Night Stalker was branded one of the most prolific and depraved sex attackers in British history. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss Britain's Night Stalker. Eventually, Delroy Grant was identified and charged with the crimes of the Night Stalker. The authorities believe that his victims range from 200 to 600 as he operated for many years, unidentified.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 454 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. How are you? I'm doing good about you. I'm doing great. I'm having an excellent week. We did want to make one announcement. We talked about it on our Patreon episode this weekend.

You know, we've been with Wondry for a very long time. Yeah, we were. Six, seven years. I don't know how long it's been. Right. But they gave us notice last week. week that, you know, we need to find a new partner. So we have done that. We had to scramble pretty quickly. But the reason why we're letting everybody know is that, you know, if you do listen to

us on Wondry Plus or the Wondry app, we won't be on there anymore. Um, but everything else will be the same. You can find us in all the regular places. Absolutely. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Elsa Queen Psycho. Oh, hey Elsa. Elsa. Glinda Allen. Pratt. Well, thank you, Pratt. Cindy Blankenship. What's going on, Cindy? Effie Anastasia Diss. That's hard for you to say. It is. I've never seen it like that. Well, hey, Effie. Rhonda Harton. What's going on, Harton? Mark Taylor. Hey, Mark. Tara Brown. Well, thank you, Tara. Stephanie Magura. Oh, Magura. And last but not least, Steph Fleet. Just sounds so simple, doesn't it? It does. And then if we go back into the vault,

this week we selected Andrea L. Williams. Well, thanks, Al Williams. Yeah, we appreciate the new support and the continued support very much. So Gibbs, we have a brand new episode out on True Crime All the Time Unsolved where we're talking about the death of Amanda Antony. And she was found at the bottom of her stairs by her husband. It's got a real staircase vibe to it. It does.

It's very mysterious. Now, her husband Lee was suspected or maybe still is suspected, but we get into all of that. Good case. Yeah, it is. Check it out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready. We're talking about the Nightstocker.

And no, not Richard Ramirez, right? We've already done our episodes on him. We're actually headed to England. For 17 years, an unknown suspect called the Nightstocker carried out a series of series of burglaries and sexual attacks against the elderly in South London, Kent, and Surrey, England. In 2009, a massive surveillance operation resulted in an arrest and identification. The Nightstocker was branded one of the most prolific and depraved sexual attackers in British history. I love it when you go to Britain. No, I do too, but when you say British history,

It's pretty serious. Well, they have a much longer history than we do. That's true. Yeah, this guy is, he's one of the worst. And we're doing something that we did on our Patreon episode last weekend, which is we're not giving away the name of the perpetrator, something we're going to be doing more and more of on TCAD. We've had a lot of listeners ask for that, so we're trying it out. Yeah, we're giving it a shot. And we got a lot of positive feedback on our Patreon episode.

The Knight Stalker had a specific M.O that was easily identified by authorities. The suspect typically targeted older, detached, and semi-detached homes and suburbs. Over time, the suspect became more careful. The first home he broke into was on a busy main road. And he began seeking out homes he could break into from the back with minimal risk of being seen. That's the way to do it if you're going to break into a home. Which you should never do. Well, you know, to break into a home on a busy road from the front is not the smartest thing to do.

Let's be honest, right. But what do we see? Someone who is learning as they go. And I think that's something that happens with a lot of criminal. It is. Well, or any profession, really. Well, sure. Yeah, but definitely in the criminal world.

If you want to call crime a profession, which I guess to some is. it is when you're talking about burglaries. He also looked for signs that an elderly person might live in the home, such as handrails outside. The nightstocker often exploited a design flaw in older double glazed windows that allowed external beating to be pulled away and the entire window pane removed. That's definitely a flaw. And I remember some of these old windows that have that.

Because you exploited that very same situation? I'm just saying I remember. those windows. Okay. He also cut phone lines and then once inside he hid the victim's mobile phones and unscrewed light bulbs. He typically woke victims up by shining a flashlight in their eyes and speaking to them before raping sexually assaulting them. Afterwards, he stole money and valuables from the home. Now, the unscrewing of light bulbs is something we've seen in other cases as well, something that I think some predators have learned to do. Flatten grass found in the victim's gardens showed that he watched them for hours before breaking in,

most likely waiting until he felt sure they were asleep. In some cases, the suspect spent hours inside the homes with the victims. It was like he was methodical about what he was doing. Yeah. And again, you know, did he refine that over time? And probably so, because I think most criminals do. but we're talking about a very scary situation here somebody watching you while you're you know in the safety of your home getting in your home and then sexually attacking you and then

spending hours doing god knows what yeah that's like it has to be one of the worst feelings to have and to remember if you survive the attack know that you were watched And to be attacked in your own home. Yeah. That's the one place where you're supposed to feel safe. Exactly. And there's no doubt that, you know, he prayed on the vulnerable. The oldest of the known victims was 89 years old.

Several of them were blind, deaf or had conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. There should be a special place in hell for somebody like that. Well, I'm pretty sure there is. The night stalker typically violently assaulted the victims, but there were some cases where he showed what some have referred to as flashes of tenderness. Or he talked to the victims in an attempt to establish some kind of relationship with them. A lot of this came from the guardian flashes of tenderness. Do you find that to be really bizarre?

Yeah, I think in the context of a very brutal sexual assault. Yeah. trying to be tender in some moments. Yeah, it just seems, it seems strange. You got to wonder what the thinking was there and trying to establish some kind of relationship. What does that mean? Was this a lonely guy who besides, you know, as we know, he wanted to sexually assault these women, but he was also trying to get close to them? And it doesn't make any sense, right? For example, he's supported. some of the victim's elbows as he moved them around the house he kissed one victim's cheek and said he wouldn't assault her again he took another victim's pulse he lifted one victim

into a position where the pain of the rape would be minimized it's so weird it's like here i'm gonna do something to help you not be in so much pain as i violate you just don't even touch me Well, you just have to wonder what's what's going on in this guy's mind. After demanding money from one victim, he refused to take the coins from a plate in her hallway because she said they were for her church collection. The night stalker could easily overpower the elderly victims, but he often fled when they confronted him. One victim read the Quran to him until he left her home. Forensic psychologist, Professor David Cantor, from Huddersfield University,

told the BBC that the nightstocker escalated from burglary to quote stealing sex. He explained, for them stealing anything is potentially acceptable. And that would include stealing sexual activity, using a person as some sort of surrogate, and often thinking that they have every right to do so. Again, where's that thinking coming from, right? I have the right to do this. So I'm going to do it. I can take anything I want.

Yeah. Many of the victims felt humiliated by what happened to them, and they were reluctant to call the police. The suspect told some of them not to call the authorities, and they were so terrified that they didn't long after he left their home. Police linked the night stalker to incidents involving 203 separate surviving victims, but the actual number is thought to be much higher. That's already a very high number. Very extremely. The following is a timeline of known offenses between 1992 and 2009 that later resulted in charges.

Victim A, who was 89 years old, was raped in October 1992 in her home in Croydon, South London, according to police as reported by the BBC. Her bedroom door opened. She saw a man. His face was covered by a balaclava. He went over to her and forced a black glove over her mouth. He shouted at her to be quiet. She asked whether he wanted money.

She gave him money from her purse, 25 pounds. He took the bulb from her land. He then raped her. And then there were no known night stocker cases for six years. Until 81-year-old victim beat was raped in September 1998. In her home in Surrey, she was described as immobile and housebattle. And she died of unrelated causes the following year. Immobile and housebound.

Well, Gibbs, we know that a lot of predators look to prey on, you know, some of the more vulnerable persons, right, in society. But this is taking it to the very extreme level. We're talking extremely elderly here. And in some cases, you know, with the disease like Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's. In this case, this person was immobile. I mean, you talk about helpless.

That's helpless. I mean, this individual really is the bottom of the bottom. But what do you make of this six-year gap? Was there really a gap? Or was this person still committing, you know, crimes? They just don't know about it. Yeah, I think they were probably either still committing crimes or they were locked up somewhere doing a, you know,

a short stint for something. And couldn't commit crimes. But that year, DNA evidence confirmed the same man, committed the 1992 and 1998 rapes, but there was no match in the national database. Scott Lignard initiated Operation Minstead to find the nightstock. Officers started calling the suspect Minstead man and called break-ins with his MO, Minstead burglaries. In June 1999, the Nightstocker burglarized 71-year-old victim seized home in Beckingham.

The Nightstocker attempted to burglarize 77-year-old victim deeds, home in Orpington, between June and August, 1999. 83-year-old victim E, a male, was assaulted in July 1999 in Coltson. 82-year-old victim F was assaulted in July 1999 in Kent. the very same month, 82-year-old victim G was raped in her home also in Kent. He really does like the elderly. Yeah.

Doesn't care if they're male or female. I think most of his victims were female, but we just talked about a male being assaulted. So yeah, I mean, I think you would have to say that maybe he had a preference, but was open, right, to assaulting anyone. he thought was vulnerable. 88-year-old victim age was assaulted in August 1999 in Croydon.

88-year-old victim I was assaulted and raped in August 1999 in Orpington. Makes me sick. It really does because I'm thinking about, you know, like when my granny was alive. Yeah. You know, like somebody could actually break in and do something like this to somebody's granny or grandma. Great-grandmother. Great grandma, you know. I mean, 80 plus years old, how do you do that? Well, you know, we say it all the time, but how do you do it to anyone? Yes. But I go back to what you said. I mean, this is the lowest of the low. Yeah. I mean, it's all low, but to attack somebody who's, you know, almost 90 years old, unable to defend themselves in some cases with, you know, very,

serious diseases, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or just completely unable to defend themselves. In this last attack, the Guardian reported details of it and used the fake name Rose in their article. Rose lost consciousness after she was raped for the first time. She recalled afterwards he threw a towel at me to dry myself. Then he came at me again. I said, no, please, can't you go to a prostitute? Why pick on old ladies of 88? But he did it again.

Threw me a towel. Give me a break. He's trying to be cordial? Four hours later, she was able to crawl to her carolink alarm. She was rushed to the hospital for extreme blood loss. Her injuries were too severe. For her to be transported to the special rape unit in Beckingham, she had to undergo an emergency operation to repair a perforated bowel.

She spent a month in a hospital, followed by two months in a nursing home. Rose said, that man did awful things to me. I still have terrible mental and psychological scars to show for it. This man has taken my life away from me. Yeah, she was brutally attacked. And I'm sure a lot of assault victims that survive have those same. feelings, right? There's mental and psychological scars. Yeah, absolutely. You're going to have the one with the other. Seventy-year-old victim J was assaulted in October 2002 in her home

in Ken. In March 2003, the night stalker burglarized 78-year-old victim Kay's home in Ken. 84-year-old victim L's home in Bromley was burglarized in September 2004. So, I mean, we We're just going down a list here, Gibbs, and it's burglaries, it's sexual assaults, but there's a lot of them happening, sometimes multiples in the same month. Yeah. I mean, this guy is very busy. Yeah, very prolific. During the Operation Menstead investigation, police worked with two behavioral profilers and a

geographical profiler. Victims described the nightstocker as a light-skinned, black male who was about five foot nine with a slim athletic bill he was estimated to be between 25 and 45 years old but he often wore a mass i mean 25 to 45's that's a pretty healthy gap it is but i'm sure a lot of people are like me i am terrible with guessing people's ages i would never be good a good carny no at that booth where you guess wade or guess age Actually, I'd probably be better at weight and height. Ages, for some reason, they really throw me off.

I think either way, you're getting punched. Well, yeah, I mean, it's not like you walk around guessing people's ages because a lot of people don't like that. No. But the other thing is if this guy's wearing a mask, that's going to make it a lot more difficult. Sure it is. In April 2004, news outlets reported that a new DNA technique that traces ancestral bloodlines determined that the night stalker was of Caribbean origin.

His ancestry was linked to the windward islands. Okay, never heard of the windward islands. I'm sure you've been there. Oh, you know, you travel to the Caribbean frequently. So the ocean blue too. In 2006, the police created a list of 21,500 people of interest to rule out. I'm sorry, that is a massive list. It is.

I don't know that we've ever had a case where you're talking about 20 plus thousand persons of interest. Now, I get it probably wouldn't label the list as persons of interest. But if you're having to rule them out, it's pretty much the same thing. Seems like there would be a lot of work involved. But by this point, 98 attacks had been linked to the same man, including four rapes and 24 sexual assaults. Black men in London were asked to voluntarily submit DNA for elimination. Over 2,000 samples were collected. However, in 2006, the Metropolitan Police were accused of sending threatening letters

to men who refused to submit their DNA. Well, that's not going to help you get what you want. No, I don't think that's the right tactic to take. But I will say, I'm sure they were under immense pressure to stop this guy. 98 attacks linked to the same man. The night stalker struck again in the late spring and summer of 2009, sometimes committing multiple burglaries in one week. 62-year-old victim M's home in Bromley was burglarized in May 2009.

In June of that year, the night stalker burglarized 82-year-old victim in home in South Croydon. That month, the London police announced that nine, recent burglaries appeared to be the work of the night stalker. By 2009, the night stalker had been linked to at least 106 crimes. He's very active. Yeah, I mean, I can picture this guy out at night. He had to have been doing reconnaissance, right? Maybe out during the day doing his reconnaissance and because he's going to strike at night, but he's looking for homes with Elton's. elderly victims.

So my thought is he's not just picking homes at random. He's watching. Yeah, he's doing well at identifying these homes. And that takes a lot of work. It does. 16 other burglaries had been linked to the night stalker before June. The most recent June victims were 91 and 93-year-old women, who lived just 400 yards apart in Shirley near Croydon in southeast London.

Both houses were broken into on June 9th. The women reported that they were disturbed in the middle of the night by an intruder in their home, but they weren't injured. The location of the break-ins was somewhere the night stalker had struck previously. So again, two houses in one night, 400 yards apart from each other. He seems like he's taking a little bit of risk there. If it, uh, police get called on site. Yeah. to strike another house just 400 yards away.

But my thought was, okay, two victims both in their 90s. Again, he had to have scouted them ahead of time. He had to have picked them out ahead of time. You're not just stumbling upon two homes with women home alone who are in their 90s. No, no, you were definitely stalking them. In August 2009, 88 year old victim O, a male, was sexually assaulted in his home in Croydon, the guardian identified this man as Merrick,

which was a fake name, a Polish immigrant who lived alone. Merrick recalled that on the night of August 13, 2009, he heard someone forcing his front door open and walking into the hallway. Merrick said, it was the second time he had come. The first time around a year earlier, he broke in, dressed in black with his face all covered up,

but after I challenged him, he left. I think it surprised him that I wasn't asleep. The second time, he told me he wanted money. I gave him what I had, but then he said he wanted something else. And we said it earlier, but I think it's kind of emphasized here, right? This person, the night star, seems like he was easily scared off with the slightest challenge by any victim. So I don't think there's any debate as to why he chose, you know, these victims who were in their late 80s, early 90s. I think this guy did not want confrontation with anyone.

Yeah, he was definitely looking for the least resistance. In October 2009, the nightstocker burglarized an 87-year-olds and an 82-year-old's home in London and Croydon, respectively. The nightstocker attempted to burglarize 86-year-old victim Arsholm in Croydon in November 2009. So by 2009, the nightstocker was burglarizing up to three houses a night. Busy person. Well, yeah, because you think about the time that it would take to commit the burglaries. But then there's also has to be the reconnaissance beforehand to identify the victims. Do you think it's risky that he's trying to pull off three and one?

night? I don't know that it is if he's spreading them out. I mean, I don't think he's committing burglaries right next door to each other. For two weeks in late October and early November 2009, 70 officers conducted a massive covert surveillance operation in an area of Croydon. The surveillance started on October 29. On the first night, there were three reported nightstocker break-ins, but they were outside the surveillance area. However, CCTV captured a man getting into a vehicle, identified as a box hall severe. And I'm not familiar with that.

I know over in the UK, they have, you know, some different names that for vehicles that might be similar to what we're used to here, but I don't know what this is. You know, I did notice that when I was in Greece, that there was a lot of vehicles with different names, but they look similar to what we have. After two weeks, the surveillance operation was coming to an end, but on November 15, 2009,

the night stalker was caught fleeing the scene of a burglary at 10.30 p.m. An officer spotted a box hall severe that matched the suspects. At midnight, he saw a man running to the car. He was stopped and police searched his car inside the trunk. Was a flashlight, a crowbar, gloves, a hat, a blue weatherproof coat, and a fleece jacket. The suspect was also wearing two pairs of jeans, three shirts, two pairs of underwear, and shoes but no socks. That's really weird. Well, that is a lot of layers of clothing to wear.

I'm just wondering if maybe he would shed a layer of clothing before he went to his next house. Maybe. So as to give a different description in case somebody happened to see him. I don't know what the theory would be behind wearing two pairs of jeans. Or maybe he thought that that would better keep DNA from shedding. I don't know. Yeah. It's just bizarre.

At the place where the car was parked, a dog followed a scent trail back to a house that had just been broken into. The person who lived there was 88 years old. The man was arrested and identified himself as 52-year-old Delroy Grant. While his prints were being taken, Grant told the officer, I don't know why you're bothering. I always wear gloves.

That's kind of a balsy statement. make. Well, but you're also kind of giving yourself away there, aren't you, a little bit? Now, I want to go back to what was found, you know, inside this guy's trunk. It seems to me very similar to what, you know, police would find if they searched your vehicle. You call it tools of the trade, but, uh, I do. And I carry him around for research. Or at least that's what you would tell the authorities if you were pulled over. Absolutely. But Delroy Grant seemed like an unlikely suspect. He was a father of eight and a full-time caretaker for his wife, Jennifer, who had MS. However, detectives had often suspected the night stalker would be someone known as a family man,

but one who lived a secret life. Delroy Easton Grant was born in Jamaica in 1957, at the age of two. His mother left him in the care of his elderly relatives. Police looked into his childhood but found no evidence of abuse. I remember that they were looking for somebody from the Caribbean. Yeah, some DNA technique had traced his origins to the Caribbean. I wonder because he was being taken care of by elderly family when he was younger. If that has something to do with... His choice of victims?

Yes. It could have. When he was a teenager, Delroy and his father moved to the UK. according to the telegraph, soon after the move, Delroy began committing petty crimes like theft, but this escalated to burglary and an armed robbery of a post office, which if you're going to commit armed robbery, a post office is a terrible place to pick. That's what I'm thinking. Because then it becomes kind of federal, at least here in the United States.

I'm sure it's, uh, has similar implications over in the UK. I would think so. The source is used for the settlement. episode didn't report what type of sentencing he received. In 1975, Delroy met his first wife, 19-year-old Janet Watson, at a pub in Bermancy. They were engaged within two weeks of meeting. Janet told the telegraph, he was very charming and sophisticated. I thought I'd found my soulmate. But then the violence started. They had two sons together, Delroy Jr. and Michael. Janet claimed Delroy attacked her. When she was in labor,

with one of their children. This guy's a real winner. Well, and I mean, I think that goes to the level of violence or rage in a person. I mean, the delivery of your child is supposed to be this magical time. And it is for most people, especially for, you know, a father who's not having to put in the very tough work. Yeah, exactly. But what kind of man attacks his world? wife who's about ready to give birth to his to his child oh very weak man i mean let alone attacks

his wife at any point but specifically while she's in labor janet said that he was obsessed with cleanliness and if she didn't clean up to his standards he beat her sounds like one of those guys that likes the labels faced out it's based a certain distance towels even on the rack yeah According to the telegraph, Delroy left his family after viciously attacking Janet in 1977. She divorced him in 1979. Delroy moved to Lester, where he met his girlfriend, Jane Finley. They had two children together. In 1991, Delroy was convicted of handling stolen goods.

The Guardian reported that this was his only criminal conviction before his 2009 arrest, which contradicts the telegraphs report that he was convicted of armed robbery. And this does make some sense because he wasn't in the country's DNA database and his fingerprints were not on file, which is why I think he, you know, was able to get away with his crimes for so long. His relationship with Jane ended after his conviction. Delroy eventually returned to southeast London. He met his future wife, Jennifer Edwards.

they married in November 1991 and moved to a home in Broccoli, southeast London. He worked as a truck driver, cab driver, and handyman. Delroy and Jennifer had two sons named Jason and Lewis and Jennifer's twin daughters from her previous marriage. Live with them. They were active members of their local Jehovah's Witness congregation. Between 1992 and 1996, there was no evidence of Grant committing any crimes. detectives weren't sure why he stopped. But one theory attributed the pause in crime to his marriage with Jennifer.

So we kind of talked about it, right? Why would this guy just all of a sudden quit? You said, well, maybe he was incarcerated, which I, you know, is a really good theory. Sure. But also a change in your family situation can also prompt some serial predators to pause. And maybe that's exactly what happened. She was able to get him unknowingly to stop doing what he was doing. Or maybe he just didn't have the freedom that he had before.

Well, that's true. Because a change in your family situation can mean that, you know, maybe you can't just sneak out of the house whenever you want. And due hours of surveillance and stalking and... Or burglarizing homes in the middle of the night. Yeah. In 2001, Jennifer was diagnosed. with multiple sclerosis.

She relied on a wheelchair and later became paralyzed. Delroy was her full-time caretaker and continued driving cabs at night. Friends, neighbors, and church members thought Delroy was charming, honorable, and self-sacrifice. Delroy's longtime friend and neighbor Ray told the Guardian, even now, I still respect him for the way he looked after his wife. He was a number one to all of us on the street because he was so kind to her and so gentle. He would take her on day trips if the weather was nice and come to my allotment to pick up fresh vegetables for her.

Ray added, I never saw him lose his temper or heard him say a single swear word. He never gave away very much, but we thought he was a good man, humble and cool. Ray did notice that Delroy kept his house extremely clean. He said there wasn't a speck of dirt and nothing was out of place. He did that himself. Jennifer couldn't leave her wheelchair to do any clean. It's so strange that you have this individual that's so compassionate towards his wife. Yeah, at one hand. But then can be the totally opposite to the elderly or anybody.

Well, it's also strange to me that he seems to have changed in regards to his wives over time in the way he treated them. You know, we detailed out some of his, his first marriages, you know, he was violent. But it doesn't sound, at least from the reporting, that he was with general. And maybe that part of him did change. Yeah. Over time, what didn't change was the predator side of him. Yeah, he took a break or he took breaks, but he was, but he would always go back to it. Neighbors recalled that Delroy liked to go out for late night drugs.

But they didn't think much of it because he was a cab driver. One neighbor recalled that man could drive at two to three o'clock in the morning. He would come blazing up in his family car and break sharply outside his house. Then 10 minutes later, he'd be back off again at high speed and stay out for hours. You know what's interesting about this is I know somebody, let's go back like nine, ten years ago that used to go out for late night drives for several hours. And that person is sitting across from me. Oh, you mean when I was Ubering? You called it Ubering.

Right before we started the podcast? Yeah. Yeah, I told you, and I told my wife I was Ubering, who knows what I was really doing. And we're kind of unsure what you actually were doing. An elder at the family's church said, Jennifer always seemed content and well cared for. The boys were friendly but respectful. They were always smiling. Delroy was definitely very attentive and caring.

He was affectionate. they were a nice family. So again, as you pointed out, you know, some of these things said about Delroy or what people observed of him, thought about him, is very much at odds with what we know he did. Yeah. At the time of his arrest, he and Jennifer were separated, but he was still her full-time caretaker. The telegraph reported that Delroy was in a relationship with a bank worker named Barbara Stock. whom he met driving cabs.

They had what was described as an intense relationship. In the early stages, Delroy would shower Barbara with flowers and gifts. Her friends thought he was charming and handsome, and they noticed he dressed in expensive clothes. Delroy began to spend more and more time at Barbara's home, sometimes up to four nights a week. It was only about a 15-minute drive from his home so he could get there quickly if Jennifer needed him.

And this is a, you know, such a strange thing as well, right? He's met somebody new. He's separated from his wife. Yet he's still taking care of her. Yeah. He's her full-time caretaker. And you would think, wow, how honorable of him. You know, if you're an outsider looking in, I get it.

Okay, maybe the relationship didn't work out, but he's still taking care of her full time. Now, what are those people going to think when they find out that, yeah, he's, uh, he's, uh, this prolific burglar and rapist and sexual assaulter. They're going to change how they feel about them. And it was said that Barbara was completely devastated when she learned of Delroy's crimes. After he was arrested, Delroy was unwilling to answer questions. But he did try to shift suspicion to his own son telling officers, have you thought about my son, Delroy Jr.?

Now, talking about throwing somebody on. underneath the bus. Your own son. It's not the first time we've heard that. Have you tried my piece of shit, son? Like I always say, people will say just about anything once they're caught, right, to try to get out of this awful situation that they put themselves in. DNA testing linked Delroy to the original 1992 and 1998 attacks as well as numerous other crime scenes.

So, I mean, I think when you talk about throwing someone else under the bus, it can't be just anyone, right? It has to be someone who could potentially share DNA markers with him. Yeah, because at least you can try to throw them off. Delroy went on to construct an elaborate story. He claimed his ex-wife Janet had been storing his DNA for years. And an accomplice of hers planted his DNA at the crime scenes. All right. So first it's, hey, check out my son. Now it's my ex-wife who, for some reason, has been storing my DNA for years. We don't know what DNA that form was in, but she's got someone who is planting it at these crime scenes. Well, use your imagination on what that is and seems pretty far-fetched.

Yeah, I'm sure police weren't. putting a lot of stock into these claims. Delroy's trial started on March 3rd, 2011. By this point, seven of the known victims had died. Police believed trauma hastened the deaths of some of the victims. And, you know, unfortunately, that's going to happen when you're choosing victims who are in their 90s. Maybe that was part of his plan, too. And I actually thought about that as a possibility.

I think it had more to do with the fact that he was afraid of any type of fight and felt as though these older individuals were less likely to be able to, you know, fight with him. But that is a possibility. I mean, if anything, it was a convenient benefit for him. Yeah, even if he didn't think about it ahead of time. In their opening statement, prosecutors described how Delroy prayed on vulnerable elderly people in their Holmes at night, the jury heard that Delroy tried to pin the crimes on his son and his supposed admission after he was arrested. As mentioned, Delroy told the officer taking his fingerprints,

I don't know why you're bothering. I always wear gloves. And this was true as none of his fingerprints were recovered from any of the crime scenes. Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said per the BBC, he was apparently desperate enough to have suggested that his own son, may be responsible, arriving at him as an alternative candidate, presumably because he hoped that his son might share his DNA profile. During his interviews, Delroy said nothing at all, and he provided not a hint of genuine defense. His story that his ex-wife tried to frame him was extraordinary.

Yes, it was. Delroy went to great lengths to avoid being caught, such as removing light bulbs and cutting phone lines to give himself more time to escape. This became a hallmark of his crimes. And I think we said it early on, but, you know, he obviously had an M.O. One of the big things was the age of his victims. But some of these other things, you know, helped police throughout the years to kind of think that, you know, they were dealing with the night stalker.

Yeah, they were related to the other cases. after the 1999 media campaigns to catch the night soccer were ramped up. Delroy became increasingly careful not to leave clues. He often wore gloves. And in March 2003, he burglarized the home of a 78 year old widow and wiped her hands with a claw. So, I mean, you could say he knew, right, that they were really looking for him. Right. And so he had to be extremely careful.

what's amazing is that he can't stop or doesn't want to stop. You know, the, the threat of being caught, right? We had this entire manhunt operation out for the night star. But his compulsion was too great. He couldn't stop it. No,

or didn't want to stop one or the other. He just went to greater and greater lengths is to try to not leave anything behind. Yeah, I mean, you're wiping down your victims now. But even that didn't work because police were still able to obtain a DNA sample. The rapes mostly stopped in the last 10 years of Delroy's crime spree, possibly because he thought advances in forensic science would lead to his capture. And that would make sense. You think about the, at the time when he started, I mean, DNA was around, it was known about,

but it wasn't everywhere. and not everybody outside of law enforcement had a great understanding of it. But, you know, this guy was active for 17 years. So at some point, I'm sure he started to hear more and more about DNA and started to get scared, that that was going to be what caught him. It was difficult and if not impossible to understand what Delroy's motive was. The prosecutor told the jury whether it was just that. the additional sexual element that he enjoyed, or it was the power and control.

He could assert whilst committing these offenses, or it was the fear and anxiety, which he created and reveled in, will probably remain unclear. The prosecutor read details of several cases where the victims had passed away. The court heard that after attacking an 88-year-old victim, Delroy touched him on the shoulder and said, we're still good friends. Okay. Yeah, sure we are, buddy. That just goes back to what we were talking about earlier, right? The mindset. What's going on in this guy's mind? Despite the attack, the man still had the presence of mine. To give Delroy the wrong pin number for his bank card, Delroy made two failed attempts to withdraw money from cash machines shortly after the attack. Detective Constable Yvette Daniel testified that the 89-year-old victim from 1992, told her she regretted reporting the attack.

Daniel described the victim as proud and private. She was left crying and shaking. His doctors inspected her after she was raped twice in her home. After the attack, she was too scared to be left on her own at night. And I think, again, just gives you a sense of what some of these victims not only go through during the attacks, the rapes, the sexual assaults, but what they have to live with after the fact.

Yeah, for the rest of their life. The detective read the woman's statement in court. She said that she got into bed to read but struggled to sleep. After hearing a loud knocking sound, she made herself a cup of coffee and returned to bed for about 15 minutes before seeing a man in the doorway of her room. The victim asked him what he was doing. And according to her statement,

he rushed to me and forced his gloved hand on. my mouth. He shouted at me to be quiet. I said, what do you want? Money? He didn't say anything. She attempted to hide a key to her safe, but gave him her money and purse. He unscrewed the light bulb in her bedroom and cut the phone line. He raped her and left her home with several hundred pounds in jewelry. She couldn't call for help, so she had to walk to her niece's house to call the police. The second victim statement was also read in court. She believed the attacker was going to finish me off. She initially didn't want to tell her son because he would have been horrified.

When recalling the attack, the victim said, it's a nasty feeling to know that a stranger has been through your home. The assault was absolutely ghastly. I can't imagine, but to be violated on different levels. And inside your own home. Exactly. I think is an extra added element. The prosecutor read a statement from an 82-year-old victim identified as Mrs. F, who was attacked in July 1999.

Mrs. F fell asleep and said that the next thing I knew, a hand was covering my mouth and nose. I felt quite a bit of pressure from his hand on my face. I thought, I must be dreaming. I remember seeing this big black, hooded, masked face. After assaulting her, the man drank a can of beer. shook her hand and walked out the front door. She thanked him because she feared the attack could have been worse. Like, what was he trying to do by shaking her hand?

Like, hey, thanks. Hope we're all good here. We're still friends. Like he told that one guy. Yeah. But, you know, if you're one of the victims, you know, at that point, you're doing anything you can to save your life. Yeah, of course.

So if he reaches out to shake hands, you're going to shake hands. Yeah. If that's going to keep you alive, you're going to do whatever you have to do. But it does seem so strange. Mrs. F elaborated in her statement. I said something like, thank you for not hurting me.

I felt that he could have been so horrible and nasty in me that as shocking and unpleasant as it was, I was thankful that he didn't hurt me. Somehow he shook my hand and pushed me back from the door. She described him as well-spoken and almost, respectful. Minus the assault. Right, minus that. A deceased 88-year-old victim who was assaulted in 1999 said the attacker stopped after she told him, it's a good job your mother can't see you now. She later told the police she was unsure if she had actually spoken the words. Another 88-year-old

victim said in her statement that she was woken up by a creaking noise. And all of a sudden, I saw this figure at the end of the bed. He was completely covered. head to foot in an all-in-one type cat suit. He was really brutal. I was in such awful pain. The jury heard testimony from Delroy's ex-wife, Janet Watson, who said his allegations that she stored his seamen in order to plan it at crime scenes years later was unbelievable. Yeah, I don't think there's too many people out there storing semen. Yeah, you have a freezer full of yours.

I don't know why, but for most people, that that's not a thing that they do. It's not normal. It's not. And just the thought that this woman who, you know, had been married to Delroy, he was violent to her and she's storing his semen. Why? Because years later, she's going to find somebody to help her plant this as evidence at Burrower. It's just such an outlandish claim. It really is.

Janet testified about her reaction to learning of the allegations that Delroy accused her of using a male accomplice to plan his DNA saying, I was speechless. I was amazed that he could do that. Halfway through her testimony, Delroy shouted at her, you are a liar. During her cross-examination, Janet testified that Delroy was a serious womanizer. they met after Grant started talking to her infant daughter. Their relationship moved quickly, and he soon moved in with her and proposed. At first, she said he was Prince Charming, but their relationship turned well sour after they

were married. She soon became pregnant. And I said it, right? He was violent during their marriage. Janet said, as quoted by the BBC, he made it very clear that it was not going to be a nice time, staying with him. so she filed for divorce in 1979. After the divorce, she said she knew nothing about where he was or what he was doing.

She denied having a friend at a hospital who gave her specimen bottles in which she could store Grant Seaman. She said, none of this is true. I think his imagination is getting away with him. I had no friend working at the hospital. He needs help. I do not know what is wrong with him. I did not do that.

I was getting on with my life. I had a sick child to look after and I had other children to look after. I had no time to do this. So, you know, just imagine what this woman went through. She didn't have a great marriage, right, with Delroy. And then years later, he accuses her of storing his semen and planning it at crimes to frame him. Yeah. And she has to get on the stand and.

defend herself. Now, Delroy got on the stand and denied committing the rape, sexual assaults, and burglaries. Again, he accused his ex-wife of framing him in a campaign of malice and hatred and maintained that my DNA was planted by someone else. Because what else are you going to say? Your DNA is found at these crime scenes. You're trying to create some reasonable doubt. And the only way to do that is to claim that someone planned it. You can't say it's not yours because they've conclusively matched it to you.

He denied telling officers there was no point taking his fingerprints and that the crowbar and fleece jacket in his car were planted by Janet and her accomplice. Man, they were busy, right? Janet and her accomplice. Yes, they were really, really busy. Planning all this semen all over the place.

There's just semen everywhere. Like a lot of Navy vessels stopped off at port. Yeah, exactly. During cross-examination, he asked a prosecutor, for what reason would anyone want to rape old women? When asked how one of the victims who said she was kissed by the attacker, had his DNA on her, Delroy responded,

It's possible he, meaning Janet Watson's alleged accomplice, knows how to kiss someone and leave someone else's DNA on her face. Because they teach that somewhere. And this is like a, like a sci fi. movie or some kind of spy thriller that, you know, is kind of outside the realm of possibility. He also claimed that the reason he was wearing two pairs of jeans, three shirts and two pairs of underwear on the night of his arrest was because he was helping his lover decorate her kitchen.

And that makes sense, right? Because when you're decorating a kitchen, you want many, many layers of clothes on. Yeah, at least two pairs of pants and three shirts. He said he normally wore two pairs of underwear because he was not like some men walking about in one pair hanging about. I do not like to see that. So what is he's bragging? He needs two pairs of underwear to keep his junk in or what? Sounds like it. I mean, I get it. I mean, from coming from somebody that wears four pairs. So you know what that's all about. It's just. just again, right? We say it a lot, but

the things that these people say when confronted with the known evidence, it's laughable sometimes. It is. It really is. Now, their crimes are not laughable. They're horrible. But what they say to try to get out from under those crimes is laughable. In his closing statement,

prosecutor Jonathan Laylaw said, Delroy's defense defies belief in that the series of attacks were the stuff of nightmares in the sort of case, which keeps us all awake at night. And he's not wrong there, right? What this guy did is the stuff of nightmares. On March 24th, 2011, Grant was found guilty of 29 offenses, including burglary, rape, and sexual assault. The following day, he received four life sentences with a minimum of 27 years. He was given life sentences for three counts of rape and one count of attempted rape, he received concurrent eight-year sentences for seven indecent assaults and concurrent six-year sentences for 18 burglaries

and attempted burglaries. The judge told Delroy, per the BBC, your utter depravity knows no bounds. I have no doubt that you're a very evil man capable of committing heinous crimes. The judge described how he left a trail of distress, fear, and misery, and carried out humiliating and degrading sexual attacks. He said, you targeted elderly victims living alone. Your actions blighted the remaining precious years of their lives, their homes where many of them had lived for years, should have been their safest refuge, where they could have expected to live their lives undisturbed and at peace. It's hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand, in the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds.

He's exactly right. Yeah, he is. And it just goes back to, for me, to that what must have been a horrifying feeling of now being in your home, where before it was probably where you felt the safe is. And it's never going to be the same, right? No. You've been violated on several different levels inside your own. home. And even if you move out of that home, your, your, your feeling of safety is never going to be

the same. Yeah, I don't know if you would ever feel secure. No, I think it would be hard. Delroy had never shown remorse and his allegations about his ex-wife, planning semen at crime scenes to frame him, showed his complete amorality. The court also heard statements from victims and their families. An 85-year-old identified as Miss Jay, said that she needs. She knew. She knew. She knew. She knew. She knew. She's now does a lot of locking and bolting and taking precautions, it changed my life. Police link Delroyd incidents involving 203 victims. But like we said in the beginning, some investigators believe that actual number of victims could be as high as 600.

I think it's pretty high. Yeah. I mean, there's no way to know for sure. But, you know, many of the victims likely died without reporting what happened to them. You know, if they were in their late 80s, their early 90s, and for whatever reason, decided not to come forward and reported, as, you know, some victims do, it's likely that they could have died and no one ever knew about it. Yeah. The Metropolitan Police said Delroy was responsible for some of the most awful and disturbing crimes in police history. After the

conviction, it came out that the police missed a chance to arrest Delroy. In 1999, 146 offenses, including 23 sexual assaults, were committed after this missed opportunity. And that's tough. That's always tough. Well, it's not going to make the victims feel any better about what happened. Commander Simon Foy, head of the MET'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, as you should be.

An independent police complaints commission investigation found that confusion over names and a poor response to a burglary caused officers to fail to arrest Delaware sooner. On May 28, 1999, a member of the public spotted a car

at a burglary. In Bromley, they took down the license plate number and called the police. The car was traced to Delaware Grant through driver records at the driver and vehicle licensing agency when officers did a search of their own system. The police national computer, they found a man with the same name, living in East London.

He wasn't the same age as the other Delroy Grant. By coincidence, this Delaware Grant's DNA happened to be in the national database. His DNA was not a match to the crime scene. The police did go to the older Delroy Grant's home in South London, but they weren't thorough enough. He wasn't home. An officer spoke to his wife. She confirmed that the car scene near the burglary did belong to them. Inexplicably, the police never returned to the home to speak to Delroy himself.

In August of 1999, Delroy Grant was eliminated from police inquiries. So, I mean, I think when you actually learn the full scope of it, it becomes even more frustrating that police really kind of had him. him. They just didn't, they didn't do their job. They didn't follow through. No. In 2001, police received another clue that might have led to Grant. A citizen called crime stoppers and said in EFIT of the offender resembled a man in a children's home named Delroy Grant. Police do not regard this as a missed opportunity because the information was sketchy and the caller said the EFIT also looked like someone else. Officers also found no evidence. Delroy worked in a children's home, and the children's home in question was destroyed in a fire, making it difficult

to obtain records. The investigation may also have been sidetracked by Scotland Yards' public appeal. In 2006, investigators said the suspect rode a motorcycle, and this was one of his significant characteristics. One victim heard a noisy, throaty engine roar after the offender left their home. However, there was no evidence, Delroy Grant. owned a motorcycle. But he did own a car that could have made a similar noise. Yeah, but if you're Scotland Yard and putting something like that out there, people are going to be thinking, oh, that's got to be a motorcycle, Scotland Yard. Yeah, so it's a bad idea, right, to put that out there with no proof. According to the BBC, what sidetracked the police more than anything

was their effort to identify the offender's ancestry. DNA analysis showed that he originated from the Caribbean and his relatives going back five generations were probably from the windward islands. This helped narrowed down the pool of potential suspects from 26,000 to 6,000. But it didn't get the police closer to Delroy, who was born in Jamaica and was not on the list of suspects. Following the IPCC investigation, two detective constables were disciplined by being given management advice. Okay. I don't know exactly what all that entails. It doesn't sound like that much of a discipline. According to the BBC, Delroy can apply for parole after 25 years and eight months, but it's possible he may

never get out of prison for 17 years. The night stalker terrorized South London and the surrounding area. Delroy Grant targeted elderly men and women who lived alone like we've touched on, right? And extremely vulnerable group. And we'll most likely never know. The true number of his victims, which authorities believe ranges from 200 all the way up to 600. And I have a feeling it's probably closer to the latter. Same here.

Guy was a piece of shit. Yeah, I mean, you say was. He's still alive. So I would probably change it to his. Now, could he technically be rehabilitated? Yeah, maybe. But in my opinion, should a guy like this having done what he did to so many people ever get out of prison? And I would say no.

He shouldn't. I mean, he got a handful of life sentences, so he should just stay there. But he could be eligible for parole after 25 years. It doesn't mean they'll let him out, but I think it would be scary, even though, you know, obviously he would be older. he would probably, what, in his 80s? I don't know. Well, you know what? Maybe they should let him out when he's in his 80s,

and maybe someone could go visit him. I don't know how many people are as sick as this guy, nasty is this guy. You know, for all we know, he never killed anybody. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a very brutal, nasty human being. Yeah, his violence.

didn't go to the extreme of murder, like you said, that we're aware of, but he scarred these victims for the rest of their lives. Yeah, the number of people he affected is unbelievable. But that's it for our episode on Delroy Grant, the Nightstocker. We got a voicemail Gibbs. You want to check that out? Let's hear it. Hi, Mike and Gibby.

This is Catherine from Atlanta, Georgia. I just finished listening to the episode about Todd Kenhammer, wherein you two were debating how to pronounce the word crychoid, which is correct the way that y'all said it. Mike, I believe you said your daughter just started working as a speech pathologist, which is what I do for a living. And I would say any time you're not sure how to pronounce a structure in the neck or the throat for the podcast, you should probably ask her because we all have to learn all of that for our licensing exam. And it's probably pretty fresh in her mind. So just something you might not have thought of. I love the podcast.

And keep your head on this level. Keep your own time ticking. Bye. No, that's great advice. You know, I'm not used to asking my daughters for advice on the podcast. but my daughter is a professional now. It's kind of hard to believe that.

That's true. She is. So I should be asking her about stuff like that. You've got a few professionals in your life now. Uh-huh. Yeah. I'm still waiting for you to graduate to that rank. Oh, okay.

A professional. You're a professional, but professional what? There you go. That's the question. But we appreciate the voicemail very much. All right, buddy, that is it for another episode. of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.