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25 March 2011
Last updated at 01:02 ET
Night Stalker rapist Delroy Grant is to be sentenced later after being found guilty of a string of sex assaults.
Grant has been branded one of the most prolific and depraved sex attackers in UK history and a "perverted, callous and violent individual".
Grant, 53, raped and assaulted elderly victims over a period of 17 years in south London, Kent and Surrey.
After he was convicted of 29 offences on Thursday, the judge told Grant his jail term would be "very long indeed".
Judge Peter Rook said Grant's crimes were "of the utmost gravity".
Police said Grant was responsible for some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" in Scotland Yard's history.
But they also apologised for missing chances which could have stopped him.
Detectives have linked him to incidents involving 203 separate surviving victims - but fear Grant's actual number of victims could be as many as 600.
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WATCH: The background to the Night Stalker case
They think many of his victims may have died without reporting what had happened.
Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, from the Metropolitan Police (Met), said: "Officially we have looked at 203 offences but my guess would be you could probably double or treble that number."
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."
The police chief branded Grant a "perverted, callous and violent individual" who attacked some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Mr Foy added: "He was also feared by many people living in the same communities and it is not too dramatic to say when he was caught, thousands of people in the South East were able to switch out their lights and go to sleep without the dreadful thought they would be preyed upon by Grant."
In his trial at Woolwich Crown Court Grant, of Honor Oak, south London, denied the 29 offences, including burglary, rape and sexual assault, carried out between 1992 and 2009.
He targeted vulnerable elderly people in their homes at night, while wearing a mask, in attacks that sometimes lasted hours.
Grant subjected his victims, many of whom were blind, deaf or had conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, to degrading and humiliating sexual assaults for a gratification described in court as "impossible to understand".
The offences took place in Warlingham, Shirley, Beckenham, Bromley, Addiscombe, Orpington and West Dulwich.
Grant told the court his ex-wife had stored his semen in 1977, then waited 15 years to frame him for the crimes, and also tried to blame his son. His explanations for the crimes were described by the prosecution as "almost laughable".
Officers had been hunting the Night Stalker, under the codename Operation Minstead, since 1998 when two rapes were linked to the same attacker.
The massive manhunt cost tens of millions of pounds and involved hundreds of officers.
The Met missed a key chance to stop Grant in 1999 when he was mistakenly ruled out of a police inquiry when the DNA of another suspect with a similar name was confused with his.
An officer also visited Grant's home but, after finding he was not there, never returned to speak to him.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation found the confusion over names and poor response to a burglary led to them failing to arrest the serial sex attacker sooner.
Three Scotland Yard officers have faced misconduct proceedings over the botched investigation into one of Grant's burglaries.
Grant was eventually arrested in November 2009, when a massive surveillance operation led to police catching him red-handed in Shirley, near Croydon, as he drove home from a burglary.
Incidents investigated as part of Operation Minstead
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Grant has been branded one of the most prolific and depraved sex attackers in UK history and a "perverted, callous and violent individual".
Grant, 53, raped and assaulted elderly victims over a period of 17 years in south London, Kent and Surrey.
After he was convicted of 29 offences on Thursday, the judge told Grant his jail term would be "very long indeed".
Judge Peter Rook said Grant's crimes were "of the utmost gravity".
Police said Grant was responsible for some of the most "awful and disturbing crimes" in Scotland Yard's history.
But they also apologised for missing chances which could have stopped him.
Detectives have linked him to incidents involving 203 separate surviving victims - but fear Grant's actual number of victims could be as many as 600.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.WATCH: The background to the Night Stalker case
They think many of his victims may have died without reporting what had happened.
Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton, from the Metropolitan Police (Met), said: "Officially we have looked at 203 offences but my guess would be you could probably double or treble that number."
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."
The police chief branded Grant a "perverted, callous and violent individual" who attacked some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Mr Foy added: "He was also feared by many people living in the same communities and it is not too dramatic to say when he was caught, thousands of people in the South East were able to switch out their lights and go to sleep without the dreadful thought they would be preyed upon by Grant."
In his trial at Woolwich Crown Court Grant, of Honor Oak, south London, denied the 29 offences, including burglary, rape and sexual assault, carried out between 1992 and 2009.
He targeted vulnerable elderly people in their homes at night, while wearing a mask, in attacks that sometimes lasted hours.
Grant subjected his victims, many of whom were blind, deaf or had conditions including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, to degrading and humiliating sexual assaults for a gratification described in court as "impossible to understand".
The offences took place in Warlingham, Shirley, Beckenham, Bromley, Addiscombe, Orpington and West Dulwich.
Grant told the court his ex-wife had stored his semen in 1977, then waited 15 years to frame him for the crimes, and also tried to blame his son. His explanations for the crimes were described by the prosecution as "almost laughable".
Officers had been hunting the Night Stalker, under the codename Operation Minstead, since 1998 when two rapes were linked to the same attacker.
The massive manhunt cost tens of millions of pounds and involved hundreds of officers.
The Met missed a key chance to stop Grant in 1999 when he was mistakenly ruled out of a police inquiry when the DNA of another suspect with a similar name was confused with his.
An officer also visited Grant's home but, after finding he was not there, never returned to speak to him.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation found the confusion over names and poor response to a burglary led to them failing to arrest the serial sex attacker sooner.
Three Scotland Yard officers have faced misconduct proceedings over the botched investigation into one of Grant's burglaries.
Grant was eventually arrested in November 2009, when a massive surveillance operation led to police catching him red-handed in Shirley, near Croydon, as he drove home from a burglary.
Incidents investigated as part of Operation Minstead
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