Detective Superintendent Simon Morgan was the senior investigating officer on the ‘Night Stalker’ case but came under fire for his actions.
Operation Minstead was the police investigation that led to the arrest and conviction of serial rapist Delroy Grant.
It was launched in 2001 and DS Morgan was one of the main members of the police team.
READ MORE: ITV The Real Manhunt: How Night Stalker Delroy Grant was caught and what happened to him
There were already 73 cases linked to the case and DS Morgan was the one who realised the perpetrator had a distinctive method to his crimes.
He noticed he waited for his victims to be asleep before he entered their homes quietly and carefully.
Matt Bardock as Det Supt Simon Morgan in the ITV drama Manhunt
(Image: ITV)
He also clocked the man behind the crimes targeted electricity supplies by switching it off at the mains, as well as cutting telephone wires and unscrewing lightbulbs.
But everything turned sour for DS Morgan after DNA evidence traced Grant to the Caribbean.
Five detectives, including DS Morgan, flew out to Trinidad to “liaise with local officers” and make a public appeal for information.
He and his colleagues faced major public backlash after they were photographed on sun loungers on the island, as well as eating and drinking for hours on end in Barbados.
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But his involvement was instrumental to helping DCI Colin Sutton capture Grant and subsequently sentence him.
DCI Sutton was almost ready to retire when he was drafted in to solve the Night Stalker case, but he brought a wealth of experience.
He applied the same techniques he had used to search for serial killer and sex offender Levi Bellfield , who murdered teenager Milly Dowler .
DCI Sutton was almost ready to retire when he was drafted in to solve the Night Stalker case
(Image: Cate Gillon/Getty Images)
This moved away from DNA evidence and more towards setting up a ‘rat trap’.
This included hidden cameras, look-out posts and a infra-red camera-carrying helicopter in one of Grant’s regular haunts.
More than 75 officers also joined the covert burglary squad following several attempted break-ins.
And DCI Sutton’s plan worked. On November 14, 2009, an officer spotted Grant walking back to his car after trying to enter an elderly woman’s home.
He was caught with a crowbar in the boot and a woolly hat in the glove box.
Grant slipped through the police net several times
(Image: The Mirror)
Grant had been terrorising Londoners between 1992 and 2009.
He earned the nickname the Night Stalker as he committed his crimes under the cover of darkness.
He left thousands of OAPs living in south east London living in fear as he attacked his elderly victims as they slept.
Grant was charged and convicted of rape, indecent assault, and burglary, and was subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison.
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