Man charged in 'Night Stalker' case

A man accused of carrying out dozens of sex attacks on elderly people in London over the course of 17 years has appeared in court…

A man accused of carrying out dozens of sex attacks on elderly people in London over the course of 17 years has appeared in court.

Delroy Grant (52), has been charged with 22 counts - five rapes, six indecent assaults and 11 burglaries - committed between 1992 and 2009, Scotland Yard said.

Mr Grant, from Brockley in south London, was remanded in custody until Thursday following a brief appearance before Greenwich Magistrates this morning.  He was arrested as he returned to his car in south east London in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The "Operation Minstead" investigation into attacks on mainly elderly women, but also some men, is the largest hunt for a rapist ever conducted by Metropolitan Police.

The offender, widely dubbed the "Night Stalker", is suspected of having committed about 100 attacks, with the eldest victim aged 93.

The attacks took place in clusters in south and south east London, including Dulwich, Orpington, Norwood, Downham, Lee, Croydon, West Wickham and Bickley.

Police said this type of offender, a gerontophile who seeks sexual gratification from the elderly, was extremely rare.

Three years ago detectives said DNA and other forensic evidence narrowed the ancestral profile of the man to someone originating from the Windward Islands of the Caribbean.