Before Delroy Grant was arrested in connection with the Night Stalker offences, reporter Linda Piper looked into the Operation Minstead investigation.

IT IS nearly 18 years since the Met Police began their search for serial sex attacker who preys on old people.

But following more than 100 attacks and an investigation whose costs are likely to run into millions of pounds, it would appear the police are very little further forward in their search for the man dubbed the Night Stalker.

Operation Minstead, created six years after the first attack, is the longest running Met investigation.

It still occupies the working days of 20 police officers and nine civilian staff, with dozens more drafted in for special operations and to process information such as CCTV.

Yet according to a Freedom of Information request by News Shopper, not a single suspect has been arrested or interviewed.

The Met has spent £102,700 on processing 2,054 voluntary DNA samples to see if they can match any to DNA left by the attacker.

But so far, they appear to have drawn a blank.

In the meantime, estimates of the number of attacks this man has carried out, have risen from a list of 32 in 2003 to anywhere between 100 and 200.

The Met refuses to reveal how many attacks it believes the Night Stalker has carried out, because it claims the information could hamper the investigation and help the man avoid capture.

Yet in 2003, it issued a detailed list of his victims, including their ages, the date of attack and the towns where they took place.

The victims are pensioners, both men and women.

Already a number of the Night Stalker's victims have died without the comfort of knowing the man who brough fear and indignity to their last years, has been caught.

The Met was unable to tell News Shopper how much the investigation has cost, how many officers have been involved or how much overtime has been claimed, because it said id would cost too much and take too long.

A Met Police spokesman said: "It is one of the Met's top priorities to catch this man and we are doing all we can to make sure that happens."

Their homes are broken into in the middle of the night and the Night Stalker removes lighbulbs, cuts phone lines and shines a torch in his victims’ faces, so they cannot see his face.

He often spends time talking with them.

He robs them and, in many cases, he also sexually assaults them.

In one attack in Orpington, his victim was so badly injured, she almost died.

He has been described by his victims as a light-skinned black man, about 5ft 11 tall, wearing dark clothing, gloves and a balaclava.

He could be aged anything from mid-20s to mid-40s.

His victims all live in towns within a defined area which encompasses mainly Bromley and Bexley boroughs, the Croydon area and parts of nearby Surrey.

DNA LEADS HUNT TO THE CARIBBEAN

DNA research suggested his family came from the Caribbean’s lower Winward group of islands, including Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, St Lucia and St Vincent.

Operation Minstead sent officers to the islands to liaise with police officers there and appeal for information.

The Met was able to reveal to News Shopper eight officers went on investigations overseas, but refused to say where, when, why, how long for and how much the trips cost.

It said trying to recover the information from years of documentation would be too costly and take too long.

Yet newspaper coverage at the time revealed details of one trip which involved five officers, including Chief Superintendent Simon Morgan, who has been in charge of the investigation since Operation Minstead was launched in 1998, six years after the first attack.

According to the reports, the officers spent eight days visiting Tobago and Barbados in October 2006, at an estimated cost of £10,000.

It is not known whether they returned with any useful information.

Since the search began, several of the Night Stalker’s victims have died without the comfort of knowing the man who brought fear and indignity to their last years, had been caught.

HAS OPERATION BEEN A WASTE?

TO TRY and find out how Operation Minstead was progressing after so many years and so many attacks, News Shopper asked the Met 23 questions in a freedom of Information request.

Of the 23 questions, they answered on six.

The other 17 questions covering costs, trips abroad, number of offences and dates of the first and latest attacks, were refused.

So, after nearly 18 years we ask is the Met any nearer to catching the Night Stalker? They will not say.

Has he struck in recent weeks, months or years? They will not say.

Do the police have any suspects? They will not say.

Does the Met know how many victims he has claimed? They will not say.

Do the police know how he chooses his victims? They will not say.

Have millions of pounds been wasted and have many elderly people’s lives blighted unnecessarily through Operation Minstead’s incompetence? That is a question still to be answered.