'Night Stalker' victim, 88, prayed for a quick death

The taxi driver accused of preying on vulnerable elderly women and men in a series of burglaries and "humiliating and degrading sexual assaults" tried to frame his own son after he was arrested, a jury heard yesterday.

While Delroy Grant was being held by police in 2009, an officer came to his cell. Grant appeared agitated and allegedly said: "I do not want to fit anyone up." Asked what he meant, he is said to have told the officer: "Have you thought about my son? Delroy Junior? He lives in the right area and is the same height as me.

When the police officer told him the information would have to be passed to detectives, the minicab driver allegedly said: "No, don't pass it on. I don't want to fit anyone up."

Grant was arrested after a police surveillance team watched him running away from the home of a wheelchair-bound 86-year-old widow in Shirley, Croydon.

The court heard more details about Grant's alleged 17-year campaign of attacks against women and men in their 80s. He burgled and sexually assaulted an 88-year-old man before telling his victim, "We're still good friends", the jury was told.

The elderly victim feared he would be killed and "prayed for a quick death" when the taxi driver broke into his house in Thornton Heath, Surrey, in August 2009 and made him undress, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said.

Instead, Grant allegedly indecently assaulted him and stole £60 and his bank card.

Grant, of Brockley Mews, Honor Oak, south-east London, denies 29 charges relating to burglaries, attempted burglaries, rapes and indecent assaults against 18 pensioners between October 1992 and November 2009. The trial was adjourned until Monday.