Creepy ‘Night Watcher’ preying on wealthy considered troop with sawn off shotgun

A thief dubbed the Night Watcher has nicked greater than £10million value of valuables and continues to evade police seize regardless of being the goal of a six-year manhunt.

The violent robber, who has been breaking into rich households since 2006 in a sequence of brutal assaults. He is now thought to have raided some 17 houses throughout southeast England, reviews The Mirror.

Police now imagine the unidentified man may very well be an ex-soldier and utilizing his military coaching to keep away from being caught. Since officers final launched particulars of the person’s crimes in 2019 he has been linked to 4 raids – three in Kent and one in London. During the onslaught within the capital in 2021, he attacked two girls of their house.

The duo each required hospital remedy following the assault in Bromley, southeast London. The different three offences within the final 4 years, carried out in 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively, all passed off in Tonbridge.

However he has additionally carried out assaults in Berkshire, Sussex and Surrey. Among his prosperous victims are the Duke and Duchess of Richmond, who had been attacked of their stately house of Goodwood House in Westhampnett, West Sussex, again in 2016.

The aristocratic pair had been tied up and made to surrender valuable heirlooms valued at £700,000. In one other assault the Night Watcher kicked a pregnant girl within the abdomen.

Another girl, Susan Morris, stated she feared she was going to be raped and murdered when the person focused her. Ms Morris, then 61, suffered a damaged jaw and misplaced a tooth after the person broke into her Surrey house with a sawn-off shotgun again in 2017.

The Night Watcher’s most up-to-date recognized assault was in January 2022, making this the second-longest interval he has gone with out offending. The longest was previous to his second assault in 2009.

While the person has been lively since 2006, police solely linked the assaults in 2017. A police spokeswoman stated: “Kent Police is [investigating] a series of five burglaries between November 2016 and January 2022 where isolated properties have been targeted. It is reported that on each occasion a lone offender threatened victims in order to steal cash and high value possessions including jewellery and watches.

“Victims have been threatened with a firearm and restrained with cable ties and ropes. Inquiries have included intensive evaluation of any CCTV, in addition to a full forensic evaluation of every housebreaking. Officers are additionally persevering with to work intently with different police forces, the place comparable burglaries have taken place.”

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