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Delroy Grant said woman collected his body fluids and kept them in medical storage to be planted around London years later
Delroy Grant's DNA was collected from 10 of the crime scenes, often from pensioners who agreed to undergo medical examinations after being raped by the former minicab driver. But when confronted with such evidence, rather than admit to his crimes Grant resorted to a series of increasingly bizarre legal defences. After initially suggesting to police that it might have been his son Delroy Jr who committed the crimes, he later insisted that he was framed by his ex-wife, 53-year-old Janet Watson.
Watson had, he claimed, collected his semen and saliva in 1979, towards the end of their four-year marriage. She had asked, he said, for the body fluids so she could get them tested and check he had not contracted an STD after sleeping with other women.
Grant maintained his wife had pre-empted the scientific advances that, 11 years later, would see DNA evidence used as an investigative tool for the first time. Instead of testing his fluids, he said, she had arranged for an unidentified friend to store the material at St Guy's and Thomas' hospital. Between 1992 and 2009 that same friend had planted the material around south London.
It was a defence at odds with the "admirable" and "self-sacrificing" man recalled by neighbours in Brockley Mews, south London.
"Even now I still respect him for the way he looked after his wife. He was a number one to all of us on the street because he was so kind to her and so gentle," said Ray, who for 17 years was a friend and neighbour of Grant and his second wife, the wheelchair-bound Jennifer, who has MS.
"He would take her on day trips if the weather was nice and come to my allotment to pick up fresh vegetables for her. I never saw him lose his temper or heard him say a single swear word. He never gave away very much but we thought he was a good man: humble and cool."
But what all his neighbours noticed was Grant's fondness for late-night drives. "That man could drive," said Wheylan Riviere, a college student who used to play football with Grant's youngest son. "At two to three o'clock in the morning he would come blazing up in his family car and brake sharply outside his house. Then, 10 minutes later, he'd be back off again at high speed and stay out for hours."
