Artists sketch of Nightstalker handed out by police

Jehovah’s Witness Delroy Grant identified twice but slipped through police fingers

with stories from Mirror.co.uk and News of the World

The case of the Nightstalker had Scotland Yard searching for 17 years looking for the man who raped, assaulted and robbed more than 100 seniors in and around London England.

Human error ten years ago let Grant continue his crime spree and religious ministry.

Scotland Yard is estimated to have spent $32 million US in hunting down the elusive Nightstalker.

Ten years ago a witness gave police Grant’s license number when a house was buglered in Orpington, Kent. The modus operandi was similar to the Nightstalker.

The Nightstalker chose elderly singles. He would cut their electricity and phone lines and often assaulted his victims over several hours. Assaulting and robbing seniors makes sense for a cowardly criminal since they would be weaker than working age adults. Raping elderly women is probably the most perverse part of the Nightstalkers M.O.

Scotland Yard identified the car belonged to a “Delroy Grant”.

Related story London’s “Night Stalker” was Jehovah’s Witness

“But incredibly, officers followed up the information by knocking on the door of the WRONG Delroy Grant – another man with the same name living in Dulwich, south east London. His DNA was taken and unsurprisingly eliminated him from the inquiry.” News of the World

That error led police to discard the second clue Grant was their man.

Within the same year, a friend of Delroy Grant called Crimestoppers to say the television program on the Nightstalker reminded him of Grant. Police ignored that clue since they had already mis-identified the innocent Delroy Grant.

Human error compounded human error and the Nightstalker was free to continue assaulting, raping and robbing up to 200 seniors.

The Mirror is reporting that police actually came to Grant’s home in Brockley, South-East London ten years ago. They knocked on his door but no one answered. They didn’t come back.

Perhaps he was at the local Kingdom Hall at a meeting, or perhaps he was raping another senior.

Police said “There is a course of events that went on in 1999 that are being looked at.

“When you involve humans it will always be open to error. With an investigation that has gone on for as long as this there was always going to be criticism.

“It would be very odd to suggest over the course of a 17-year investigation there were not lessons to be learned. Our focus is on getting closure for the victims.” News of the World

Grant’s Jehovah’s Witness religion practices door-to-door ministry. No doubt calling on people that way help Grant to identify seniors in the neighborhood.

Prior to retiring to look after his disabled wife, Grant worked as a taxi cab driver which might also have helped him chose lonely seniors for attack.

Grant is a study in contrasts, a good quiet neighbor. He cared for his beautiful wife who developed MS and was often seen pushing her wheelchair from place to place. He was religious to some extent.

Yet he lived a secret depraved life of violent and perverse crime.

Police are investigating exactly how many of the 200 plus unsolved crimes of similar description Grant may be involved with. More charges may be laid.