Delroy Grant - the Night Stalker - has been jailed for life with a minimum of 27 years. Judge Peter Hook set out the severity of his crimes. Here are his sentencing comments:
Delroy Grant. Your utter depravity knows no bounds.
The 18 victims of your offending were all elderly. In respect of nine of them, not only did you break into their homes in the middle of the night, that invasion being a highly traumatic experience for them in itself, but you then proceeded to subject them to humiliating and degrading sexual attacks.
Your offending spanned a period of 17 years. Five south London boroughs were affected by your offending. Over 17 years you have terrified a whole community. As your counsel accepted, thousands of people in south London have been living in fear that they might be your next victim.
It also led to an enormous drain on police resources as the years went by and you evaded arrest. Your offending led to the largest hunt for a serial rapist ever conducted in London.
This series of offences have multiple aggravating features. Your offending falls in a category of its own, way above anything envisaged in the definitive sentencing guidelines.
You targeted elderly victims living alone. Your actions blighted the remaining years of their lives. Their homes, where many of them had lived for years, should have been their safest refuge, where they could expect to live their lives undisturbed and at peace. You chose to invade their homes when they were in bed at night.
It is hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand and the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds.
Those who you raped or attempted to rape were all over 80. Many of your victims were in poor health.
Read rest of article comments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ht-Stalker-the-judges-sentencing-remarks.html
Delroy Grant. Your utter depravity knows no bounds.
The 18 victims of your offending were all elderly. In respect of nine of them, not only did you break into their homes in the middle of the night, that invasion being a highly traumatic experience for them in itself, but you then proceeded to subject them to humiliating and degrading sexual attacks.
Your offending spanned a period of 17 years. Five south London boroughs were affected by your offending. Over 17 years you have terrified a whole community. As your counsel accepted, thousands of people in south London have been living in fear that they might be your next victim.
It also led to an enormous drain on police resources as the years went by and you evaded arrest. Your offending led to the largest hunt for a serial rapist ever conducted in London.
This series of offences have multiple aggravating features. Your offending falls in a category of its own, way above anything envisaged in the definitive sentencing guidelines.
You targeted elderly victims living alone. Your actions blighted the remaining years of their lives. Their homes, where many of them had lived for years, should have been their safest refuge, where they could expect to live their lives undisturbed and at peace. You chose to invade their homes when they were in bed at night.
It is hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand and the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds.
Those who you raped or attempted to rape were all over 80. Many of your victims were in poor health.
Read rest of article comments: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ht-Stalker-the-judges-sentencing-remarks.html
