#7 The Night Creeper

[Intro voice over] – A stranger who appeared through windows, rifled through underwear drawers, and recorded videos of women undressing unsettled students in Lenton.

Thinking the guise of a delivery driver would hide his true intentions, this is how detectives unmasked 'the night creeper'.

[Music]

[Host] – Hello. Welcome Detective Constable Ben Grayson to Nottinghamshire Police's Interview Room. Great to have you here today.

[DC Grayson] – Thank you. Thanks Matt.

[Host] – And before we get started, can you tell our viewers and our listeners a little bit about yourself? You work for the City CID department, is that right?

[DC Grayson] – Yes, City CID, so I've been with Notts Police for 16 years. Been in the CID for 11 of those now.

[Host] – Still enjoying it?

[DC Grayson] – Still enjoying it, yeah. Every day is different, so you never know what you're going to get.

[Host] – And this is a very different case, isn't it? This is why we've brought you on the podcast today.

[DC Grayson] – It is different, yeah. It's interesting and very different to my day-to-day work.

[Host] – Absolutely. I mean, would you say this is probably one of the most disturbing cases you've come across in terms of sexual offending? You know, you have multiple victims, multiple invasions of privacy, all undertaken in the dead of night in a heavily populated student area of Nottingham, and the suspect in this case is using the guise of a delivery driver.

Just sum it up a little bit for our readers and our listeners.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So first of all, interesting for me to deal with. Day-to-day, I tend to deal with serious assaults, robberies, burglaries, they're the type of offences we look at in the CID. My colleagues in Public Protection would normally deal with serious sexual offending.

However, this started off as something very different to what it ended up being, actually.

[Host] – It took quite a sinister turn, didn't it?

[DC Grayson] – It took a sinister turn. We thought perhaps we were looking at a burglar to start with, but then once we had looked into it a little bit further, we realised that that wasn't the case, and it changed quite quickly.

[Host] – Well, let's go back to the beginning, then. Let's go right back to the beginning. The investigation began, didn't it, with some unsettling doorbell footage? I think we have that clip now, let's just take a look at that.

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[Clip of suspect on doorbell camera]

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[Host] – So, tell us a little bit about what's happening in that clip?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, this is December 2022 into I think February 2023. So, those couple of months we've got two addresses in the Lenton Triangle, so student area, and we've got this guy going to a couple of addresses and revisiting those addresses on numerous occasions.

He's looking through windows, trying the door handle as well.

[Host] – Sounds like a burglar.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, it sounds like your typical burglar. Someone who's looking, targeting student addresses, so will know there'll be a lot of people living there, a lot of laptops and mobile phones, that kind of thing. Perhaps doors and windows left insecure, so that's an area that does have issues like that.

And it looked to me like he was a burglar to start with. Looked like he was attempting to break in, trying door handles.

[Host] – So when you get that sort of footage, so obviously the students had provided the police with this footage, they were a little bit worried about who this man was outside their property. How do you go about investigating them?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, the students did exactly the right thing, contacted us. They'd disturbed him on their doorstep once.

[Host] – Did he say anything to them?

[DC Grayson] – I don't think so. He was dressed up, well, essentially working as a delivery rider. So motorcycle gear, helmet and a moped. They'd seen him on their doorbell and CCTV footage on a couple of occasions as well.

So both the residents of these two houses had called into us and described the same person, provided a description, a description of his moped and a part of the registration number as well, so we had an idea of who we were looking for.

[Host] – And when you had that picture circulated among officers, nobody knew who this person was? He wasn't your typical burglar; he hadn't pinged up in any of your systems?

[DC Grayson] – No, because local officers will know who is operating criminally in the area, often. But we didn't know who he was, we didn't know the full registration of the moped, so couldn't work that out. So, it was a case of trying to see when he next popped up, really.

[Host] – And how worried were you then at that stage?

[DC Grayson] – I mean, at that stage it seemed to be someone who was trying to break into properties. So, taking it as seriously as we would any other report of crime. However, we didn't quite know the true extent until a lot later.

[Host] – Absolutely. And you managed to catch him, didn't you, in the city centre?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, he was stopped by colleagues in the city centre, matching the description. They'd had the photograph from a couple of the Ring doorbell cameras, the CCTV and the smart doorbell cameras. And he was on a moped, he was stopped, he was searched.

They found what was described as a rubber cosh in his backpack and couldn't provide any kind of reasonable explanation why he had that, so he was arrested on suspicion of a couple of attempted burglaries that had been reported by the students.

[Host] – So, tell us a little bit about this suspect.

[DC Grayson] – So, the suspect is Stanislaw Filipiak. He's a Polish national in his 30s, he was living in the Nottingham area and working as a delivery rider at the time.

[Host] – Any previous convictions?

[DC Grayson] – No, so that's the thing. We didn't really know much about him. Obviously, when he was identified and arrested, we found out who he was, his age, etc. But nothing more really from our records and other records we have access to, he'd never come into contact with the police before, which makes it difficult to work out like who someone is, like who are they and what risk do they pose?

[Host] – And interestingly, we'll just play a clip of that first interview that he gave. It goes on for, in its entirety, an hour and a half. And he does discuss quite a lot about why he's out in the student area at Nottingham. Let's just hear one of those clips.

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[Stanislaw Filipiak] - As this area as I think you've stated before, this is an area heavily populated by students. I see a lot of partygoers in my work, witnessing people having fun, having a good relationship, something that I've struggled with my entire life. I was curious to observe that.

In my head it was not intended to be finalised with a burglary, with entering a house. It was kind of like a juvenile thrill that I was seeking.

[Detective] – What were you hoping to see?

[Stanislaw Filipiak] – I wasn't assuming to see anything in particular. The fact that I looked through the bathroom window was random. It could have been any other window, any other type of room, to be honest.

[Detective] – What was it you weren't getting from that house that you kept trying for?

[Stanislaw Filipiak] – I actually think I was getting everything that I needed. I was getting that thrill. As stupid as it will sound, it just felt like I was playing the game in my head. When a certain behaviour starts, it takes some time to stop it. So, I could almost say, I'm not going to say I'm happy that you guys arrested me, but I could almost say that it's some sort of blessing in disguise.

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[Host] – So, what do you think then, to that? He was saying that he was approaching student properties for the thrill of it.

[DC Grayson] – Yes. You can imagine when you arrest people, they often don't say much. When you come to interview them, often they don't tell you what's going on. They decide not to speak to you, which is their right. They can do that.

This was slightly different in that, I suppose I set up every interview expecting someone not to talk to me, but I go through and ask them the questions I need to anyway.

[Host] – I mean, this suspect didn't stop talking, did he?

[DC Grayson] – No, or perhaps I was thinking he may admit to trying a couple of door handles in an attempt to burgle the properties. However, that wasn't the case.

[Host] – He wasn't talking like a burglar was he?

[DC Grayson] – No, he wasn't. He said that he was glad that we caught him. He said he was going to these houses almost out of a teenage thrill or a kind of obsession that he wanted to keep going back. And he felt like he couldn't stop, which was quite worrying.

[Host] – Then how did the investigation change? Did you start to think to yourself, perhaps we've got something else on our hands here?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, I think so. I think after that initial interview, it was clear that perhaps I wasn't dealing with a burglar. Perhaps his intentions weren't to go in and steal items. And the fact that he talks about this compulsion to keep going back to the properties, and I knew that there were properties with half a dozen female students inside.

That was worrying. And what I was able to do is based on the fact that he'd been back to these properties on more than a couple of occasions. The fact that he talked about that almost obsessive fixated nature of his behaviour.

[Host] – He started talking as well about the architecture of the buildings, didn't he? Do you think that was nonsense?

[DC Grayson] – No, I think a lot of what he was saying was kind of made up on the spot. I think he was unable to provide detailed accounts or explanations of what he was doing. When asked what would you do if one of the doors had been unlocked, what would you have done?

He wasn't able to tell me what he would do. But because of the nature of his offending, I was able to charge him at that point with stalking, because the students who had reported it were extremely scared.

[Host] – Yeah., rightly so.

[DC Grayson] – Clearly his behaviour, his attendance at their addresses was unwanted. And he talked about this obsessive nature as well, so we were able to charge him with stalking. He was subsequently bailed by the magistrates' courts. And then I suppose it was a case of, right, let's try and figure out what is happening here.

[Host] – And that brings me on nicely to when you seized his mobile phone and started to look into that. Tell us what you uncovered when you went into his devices.

[DC Grayson] – So he had two mobile phones seized from him upon his arrest. He provided the pins, which again is not always the case. And what I found on the phones was really disturbing.

[Host] – Give our viewers and our listeners a flavour of some of the things you uncovered.

[DC Grayson] – So, there's a number of things to look at, I suppose, in terms of data on a mobile phone. His Google searches were quite sinister. Lots of violent porn searches. Searches such as 'CCTV coverage in Nottingham', '24-hour locksmiths in Nottingham'.

[Host] – Wow.

[DC Grayson] – You know, things like that, student pornography. And also then in his camera reel there was a lot of photos and videos that were really, really disturbing. So, there were photos of what appeared to be young females, taken through gaps in blinds. Videos of, again, females getting dressed and undressed, taking photos of themselves, getting ready, showering, fake tanning, that kind of thing.

[Host] – How many of these videos did you locate on his mobile?

[DC Grayson] – Well, hundreds of videos and photos. And we could tell, really, that there were dozens of victims as well, of people he photographed or videoed.

[Host] – What happens when you see something like that?

[DC Grayson] – Well, it's shocking because first of all, you think you're dealing with perhaps a burglar. After what he said in interview, again, we knew the investigation had changed somewhat. But then, I suppose the difficulty is you're thinking about criminal convictions and can we get someone charged and convicted of an offence, you're also thinking about safeguarding of people. And his offending was clearly quite dangerous.

He was on bail. So, from that point on, I knew I had victims of at least voyeurism offenses. So, even though I wasn't at that point able to identify who the victims were, I knew there were numerous.

[Host] – And aside from the devices, when you searched his property, again, there was quite a sinister find, wasn't there?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, I went to his address pretty much the same day that I found these videos and photographs.

[Host] – Explain the address to us, whereabouts was he living in Nottingham? What sort of life was he leading?

[DC Grayson] – He was in a flat in a, kind of, multi-occupancy address. He was working as a delivery rider. So, I went straight around there, arrested him and then searched his address. So, like you say, found some disturbing things. Lots of pornography, lots of pornographic videos, numerous hard drives, there was a book on evil murderers. And then a drawstring bag, which was really sinister.

[Host] – What was inside the bag?

[DC Grayson] – So, inside the drawstring bag were, manacles, handcuffs, duct tape, sex toys. Things like that.

[Host] – I think the courts described it as a 'rape kit', didn't they?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, the judge himself I think described it as a 'rape kit' during sentencing. So, it was all bagged up in his flat, but, you know, who's to say what plans he had with those items.

[Host] – Yeah, absolutely. So, you go back, you rearrest him, you get him back in again. Tell us the next part of the investigation.

[DC Grayson] – It was a case of then, I suppose, what has he committed? Clearly offences of voyeurism. So, he's watching people, they don't know he's watching them, it's clearly for a sexual thrill as he'd alluded to, I think, in his first interview.

So, we had a number of victims, but I didn't know who they were. So, at that point we were able to charge him with up to I think a dozen cases of voyeurism, but on unknown individuals at that point.

[Host] – So, all you had really then was the footage, some of it I imagine quite grainy because he committed these offences at the dead of night, of where he had been. But we didn't actually know who these victims were.

[DC Grayson] – No, not at that point. Not at that point.

[Host] – But also as well in that footage you found, he had actually not only been at windows and trying doors, he'd actually been into people's properties, hadn't he?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, you could see that he had been in to at least one address.

[Host] – And filmed himself in there?

[DC Grayson] – And filmed himself in there, taken photographs of himself in there, found the victim's passport in an underwear drawer and taken photos of that and actually used those personal details to access the victim's iPad, which was also in the address.

[Host] – So he got access to our iPad?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, he did, and then obviously with her personal information knew who she was and then there were searches, Google searches, on his phone in relation to that individual as well.

[Host] – So he'd almost become fixated by this person?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, almost like an obsession in terms of that person.

[Host] – That's terrifying.

[DC Grayson] – It is. Thankfully the victim was away at the time, but pretty much all of the victims were in bedrooms on the front ground floor of the houses. And him in his role as a delivery rider, he just didn't look out of place looking through windows.

[Host] – Yeah, because he's constantly delivering, isn't he?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. If you're around the back looking in a back room or you're up on the first floor, it's odd, but if you're in motorcycle gear with an enormous backpack and you're peering through windows, even late afternoon, early evening, no one even thinks twice about it.

[Host] – So then let's talk about then going back to the victims, how did you manage to locate all of these victims from the footage you found on his phone and devices?

[DC Grayson] – I was able to look at the properties of that media, and it'd tell me the date and time that that was obtained. I was then able to look at the location data on his phone to see where he had been at certain dates and times, and then I cross-referenced the dates and times that the photos and the videos were taken with his location data.

And that gave me a general idea of where the photos and videos were obtained from, like the location of that media.

[Host] – But you still wouldn't have known necessarily where the house was, so was it a case of looking at blinds, looking at brickwork? I mean, I think you discovered one through a wheelie bin didn't you?

[DC Grayson] – That's absolutely right. So, it was a case of here's a photograph of a young female through a gap in a blind. And I was looking at all of the photos and videos. Is it a horizontal or vertical blind? Is it roller shutter or Venetian? What colour is the window frame? On one occasion there was a reflection on the window of quite an interesting architectural feature on the other side of the street.

And like you say, on one case there was a wheelie bin, a big number written on in paint and the dripping paint on one of the numbers, which was distinctive and I was able to try and locate that.

[Host] – Real attention to detail.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. Well, I was just glad to be able to do a little bit of detective work, I suppose.

[Host] – And obviously identify these victims.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. That was paramount. I mean, I suppose you could have never told them, and they would have never known that they were victims of such an invasive, horrendous crime and they would have gone about their lives not knowing. However, I had a duty to tell them. They deserve to know they've been a victim of crime.

[Host] – Yeah. And I imagine as well, by locating these victims as well, you could build up a stronger case against him.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. And I was able to locate nine victims in total. So, it was a case of, right, I've narrowed the location down using that location data in the photos to three or four properties and then knocking on the door to see if there was anyone living there who matched the photo or video that I had from his phone.

[Host] – And how did they take that news? I mean, it must have been horrific.

[DC Grayson] – Yeah, it was.

[Host] – They probably were never expecting the police to turn up on their door and say that that day.

[DC Grayson] – No, they really weren't. So, houses with half a dozen students getting ready for a night out, get a knock on the door from me. No one's ever pleased to see me. It gives you a bit of a complex after a few years, doesn't it?

But, the conversation I had was difficult, but it was one that had to be had. They were all shocked, very distressed, because I had to tell them exactly, you know, what I'd uncovered, what I'd seen, you know. But they were all really co-operative, really eager to help as well.

I think probably only that person who'd seen the chap at the window did report it, but a couple of them hadn't. I think only after I visited them to tell them what I was investigating, they then recalled, you know, actually on that day that you're saying that photo was taken, I do remember seeing a flash outside the window or actually, let me think about that date and time, and yeah I do remember hearing a noise at the window.

So, something that perhaps you wouldn't report at the time, they then, in hindsight, realised that that would have been him outside the window.

[Host] – And when you bring him back in now that you've built up this evidence, whereas before he's saying, I'm not a burglar, I'm just a bit of a thrill seeker. I like going to students' properties and I like looking around. Now that you've got some really overwhelming evidence, is he as talkative this time around?

[DC Grayson] – No, he wasn't. But perhaps that was because he was legally represented that time. Perhaps it's because he had a solicitor the second time around. You know, sometimes the advice from a solicitor is to say 'no comment' or not to answer questions, they're simply testing the police's evidence. They don't want their client saying anything that gets them into trouble.

[Host] – What do you think, Ben, his motive was, when you look at all this overwhelming evidence, what do you think he was capable of doing?

[DC Grayson] – I think he was capable of doing something really really serious. Clearly, the stalking, the voyeurism, the offences for which he was charged, the serious offences anyway. But what was he capable of? It appeared to me that his offending was escalating.

[Host] – Yeah, was he building himself up to something?

[DC Grayson] – I think so, that would be my view on it. I think perhaps the pornographic material he had in his house, he was watching that perhaps. And then he started creeping around, looking through windows. Then he's in someone's house, isn't he? Rifling through the underwear drawer. What was he going to do next? You know, what if the door had been open to X address? What if the victim had been in when he went into the other address?

[Host] – Doesn't bare thinking about, does it?

[DC Grayson] – What would he have done then? Given he had that bag of those items? It's fairly scary, yeah.

[Host] – So, would it be fair to say then, Ben, you caught him in the nick of time?

[DC Grayson] – I think so, yeah. Well, obviously my colleagues caught him and then I was able to run with the investigation and uncover all this other stuff, which really changed the investigation from a potential attempted burglary into something really sinister.

[Host] – And he got a good result, didn't he, when he was at court? I mean, he pled guilty to a number of offences including voyeurism, possession of an offensive weapon, and trespass, and also as well, stalking.

So, a nine-year extended sentence when he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register. How does that make you feel?

[DC Grayson] – Yeah. So, it's an excellent result. Like you say, two stalkings from the original offences that were reported, nine victims of voyeurism, and then the offence of trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence, so going into that address with the intention of either voyeurism or something much more serious.

Sex Offenders Register and then a restraining order for ten years against all of the victims, which is really good. You know, you can only imagine how happy the victims were and that's the main thing, really. I was really happy how it turned out, to be honest.

[Host] – Well, thank you very much, Ben, for sharing the investigation with us today. Thank you very much.

[DC Grayson] – Thanks Matt.

[Host] – And if you like what you heard today, there will be other episodes of Nottinghamshire Police's Interview Room uploaded to our Spotify and YouTube channels each month. That's all for today. Thank you so much for listening.