On 19th August 2004, French student Amelie Delagrange is found on Twickenham Green with fatal head injuries. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton of the Metropolitan Police is appointed as Senior Investigating Officer, tasked with leading the investigation.
Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton and his team are trying to identify the white van they have discovered close to the crime scene at the time of the attack from an extensive trawl of CCTV images - but there are 25,000 possible vans that need to be checked and eliminated.
Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton briefs the team in preparation for Bellfield’s arrest. But when they raid his home they can’t find him. Have they lost him? DS Griffiths persuades Bellfield’s frightened partner Laura Marsh to reveal that he is hiding up in the loft. DS Griffiths searches the loft, and finds Bellfield hiding under some fibreglass roof insulation. Finally they have Bellfield in custody.
DCI Colin Sutton is asked to review the police investigation into a series of rapes, sexual assaults and burglaries that took place in south-east London between 1992 and 2009. Working with Det Supt Simon Morgan and the Operation Minstead team, the detective proposed a strategy he believed could catch one of Britain's most prolific rapists.
Colin presents his review findings to DCS Hamish Campbell and suggests a strategy called 'Minstead Lite', but Hamish wants Colin to stay on to see this new approach through. Meanwhile, DC Spier's informant suggests that she has found one of the pieces of jewellery that was stolen from a Minstead victim.
With absolutely no guarantee it will work, the Force Tasking Group have to come to a decision about funding Colin's high stakes gamble. Meanwhile, the news of a new and very vicious attack on an elderly lady makes the team all the more determined to catch their prey. Fact-based crime drama about the police investigation to bring serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice.
As the search for the rapist continues, the team are losing morale. It seems unlikely Minstead Man will appear again after such a close call. Eventually a suspect is taken into custody, where he has a DNA test, but it remains to be seen whether DCI Sutton and his team have caught The Night Stalker.
Susanna Reid interviews senior officers from Operation Minstead to tell the real story of the 17-year hunt for the serial rapist known as 'The Night Stalker'.
