Manhunt: Martin Clunes stars in true story crime drama
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Delroy’s crimes on the elderly have formed the basis of the second season of ITV drama Manhunt, which will air over the next few weeks. The detective who cracked the case of Delroy’s crimes was DCI Colin Sutton (played by Martin Clunes) who also put Millie Dowler’s killer Levi Bellfield behind bars. With Delroy’s case being reexamined in the television show, here is everything you need to know about what happened to him and how he was brought to justice.
Who is the ‘Night Stalker’ Delroy Grant?
Between the years of 1992 and 2009, Delroy raped and sexually assaulted numerous elderly pensioners in their beds in South East London.
It is thought his crimes actually began in 1990 and his victims were often elderly women who lived on their own.
He also burgled the homes of his victims and often took prolonged hiatus’ between each of his crimes to avoid getting caught.
The exact number of offences is unknown but it is thought there are potentially 100 the authorities have accounted for.
To date, the investigation is one of the most complex rape cases the Metropolitan police has undertaken as they launched the case in 1998 and apprehended the guilty party in 2009.
How was the ‘Night Stalker’ Delroy Grant caught out?
With the investigation taking over 11 years, it was one of the longest rape cases the Met had dealt with and it was DCI Sutton who got the answers.
As the case was bringing up continuous dead ends, the man who brought down Bellfield was asked to look at the evidence to see if he could identify anything his colleagues had missed.
It was to be Sutton’s last case before retirement and he wanted to make sure he got justice for the numerous women who had been assaulted.
Sutton examined the evidence and combined both an extensive DNA trail and how Delroy had broken into the homes to gauge who the suspect could be.
He changed the investigation’s angle, making his colleagues look at each new offence as an intelligent opportunity rather than a crime.
When a robbery took place on the night of May 25, 2009, Sutton was curious as to whether anything at the scene was different than when the residents went to bed as they had not been assaulted or disturbed.
The son of the household noticed the volume of orange juice in the fridge had reduced and a DNA swab was taken matched with the DNA found at some of the other crime scenes the ‘Night Stalker’ had been to.
CCTV from a neighbour’s house also caught footage of what Delroy looked like from the torso downwards as he made his way into the house.
CCTV was also used in another part of the investigation, with the ‘Night Stalker’ using the same cash point in South East London to withdraw money from the cards of his victims.
This helped the team to locate the exact location Delroy was stalking and they determined he would often walk to the houses of his victims.
A massive stakeout project saw the authorities identify the ‘Night Stalker’ would use a Vauxhall Zafira, B model to help with part of his journey to commit a crime.
With the DNA of the ‘Night Stalker’ also determining it was a black man who was carrying out the burglaries and assaults, the police found their target on the night of November 14, 2009.
Delroy was taken in for questioning and the arrest was described as “significant” by the Met police.
What happened to the ‘Night Stalker’ Delroy Grant?
It wasn’t until two years later Delroy was convicted of the crimes he had been arrested for after pleading not guilty in June 2010.
The judge at the time stated Delroy would be held in remand until March 2011 which is when a trial would begin.
In less than three weeks, the court had ruled Delroy was guilty of the 22 charges put against him.
He was sentenced to 27 years behind bars for his crimes and the judge said only after almost three decades would Delroy be eligible for parole.
Manhunt season 2 begins Monday at 9pm on ITV.
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