JURORS today heard the tape of a 999 call from a distressed 82-year-old woman said to be one of the victims of the Night Stalker.

Woolwich Crown Court heard the woman tell emergency services she was “terrified” and that a man in “dark clothes with a hat or cap” had broken into her home in Shirley.

The man is alleged to be Delroy Grant, of Brockley Mews, Brockley, who is accused of carrying out a string of burglaries and sex attacks on elderly men and women at homes across south-east London over the course of 17 years.

Former minicab driver Grant, aged 53, is charged with 29 offences relating to 18 separate incidents between 1992 and 2009.

Today the court also heard evidence from forensic scientist John Birkett who said a series of offences were linked by tool marks.

In the 999 recording from around 4am on October 29 in 2009, the caller said the burglar had forced open two windows facing on to her rear garden.

She said the man, who she thought was wearing gloves, told her not to make any noise.

The police officer who responded to her call described her as “tearful” and “visibly shaking” when he arrived at her home, the jury heard.

From evidence given by Mr Birkett, the prosecution said tool marks found on window beading at victims’ homes linked offences allegedly carried out by Grant during the summer of 1999.

The court also heard a screwdriver recovered from a home in south Croydon, where Grant is accused of committing a burglary on June 6 in 2009, was the tool used at the scene of another break-in two weeks earlier in Bromley.

Grant denies 16 counts of burglary, two attempted burglaries, three rapes, one attempted rape, six indecent assaults and one sexual assault.

The trial continues.