Who is the ‘Night Watcher’? Violent burglar who stole £10,000,000 and hasn’t been caught

He’s stolen more than £10,000,000 from 17 homes, but the ‘Night Watcher’ has never been caught.

The burglar’s bulky build is burnt into the minds of his victims, and spreads fear through the wealthy homes of the Home Counties.

But police now hope this muscular physique may finally be his undoing.

‘He is meticulous in his planning’, Detective ­Inspector Maxine Harris said.

‘You can see that he is evidently very careful. He only touches the end of that train ticket.

‘However, the way he treated the victim in the most recent case is contrary to that — she was co-operating, yet he was exceptionally and unnecessarily violent. I will never forget watching the CCTV and hearing her screams.’

In his latest, most brazen theft, the Night Watcher ran up behind his target as she approached the front door of her large house on a quiet road in Sevenoaks, Kent, last June 21.

He had a gun in hand. His face was covered. His clothes were grey.

‘The key to the garage’, he told his victim. ‘Open it! Open the garage. Open the garage. Open it.’

Mary, as the Mail have called the businesswoman in her 60s to protect her identity, was ‘petrified’.

She said: ‘Everything goes through your mind. Is he going to kill me? You are in absolute terror.’

The burglar demanded Mary, who had just stepped out to pop a bag of rubbish in the ban, take him to her safes.

‘I was in the process of punching in the code when he took the gun to my forehead and split my head open’, she said.

‘I couldn’t see for the blood. He bundled everything into a satchel and then he dragged me down the stairs, into the dining room and put me face down on the floor.’

He then tied her limbs together with electrical cable and left her like that while he made off with £1.4million of jewellery.

It was 75 minutes before Mary’s husband came home and freed her. She insisted he take a picture of her while still bound – ‘I think it’s really professional’, she said.

Everything the Night Watcher does seems carefully planned and intentional- gently holding the corner of a train ticket with the tips of his fingers – to avoid detection.

But this was the first time his voice has been recorded, and that in itself is a clue. He hails from the ‘prosperous southern counties’ – his hunting ground – linguistic experts say.

Officially police have linked the burglar to five raids in Kent, where he has used guns, tied up victims to made off with – sometimes – millions of pound of jewellery.

A further 11 raids in Surrey, West Sussex, London and Berkshire, as well as Kent, share the same pattern. They stretch as far back as 2006.

One of those victims suspected of being a Night Watcher target was the Duke of Richmond, Charles Gordon-Lennox and his wife in 2016.

After climbing with a ladder through an upstairs window of Goodwood House, West Sussex, the Night Watcher hit Lady March over the head with a blunt instrument.

He then tied the pair up and stole their jewellery – more than £700,000 worth of family heirlooms. They were freed two hours later when their staff arrived for work.

Two years earlier, entrepreneur Robert Stiff was at home in Kingswood, Surrey, with his wife and daughters when a man in a balaclava burst in and into their six-bedroom gated home and kicked his pregnant daughter in the stomach.

‘He tends to target lone victims’, Harris said. ‘On the one occasion there was a pair they were elderly, which again suggests planning.’

Another Kingswood victim was Susan Morris, 61, who feared she’d might be raped or killed when a burglar burst in in November 2017.

She said: ‘I gave him a lot of jewellery from the safe and I said to him, “You have got very valuable stuff there, now get out”.

‘But he wasn’t happy with that, he asked for more jewellery, I gave him some more jewellery and he then wanted more jewellery, and this is when he really got angry and started to hit me.

‘He hit me very hard on my face, not enough to knock me out, he knew exactly how hard to hit me, he hit me three times on my face, it was very painful, I couldn’t believe the blows kept coming.’

After trawling through hours of CCTV footage connected to the Night Watcher’s latest raid, police believe they may have stumbled on some clues.

He’s muscular with a large build, meaning he may be linked to local gyms.

The man rode off on a bike with aerobar handlebars, usually used by triathletes and competitive cyclists.

He was filmed the morning of the burglary – around 9.37am – cycling to Staplehurst railway station. He has travelled through that are several times.

From Staplehurst he cycled to Sevenoaks, and then, after the robbery, he took trains between Hildenborough, Tonbridge and Marden. He was later seen cycling in Staplehurst again.

On board the train, he wore a face mask, a cream baseball cap, and trainers with red soles. At some points while cycling, he wore a hi-vis top.

His method and seemingly professional approach to burglaries has led to some speculation that he may be a former of current member of the armed services.

But it’s voice and muscles in particular that police think might give him away.

Detective Inspector Harris said: ‘I’m really encouraging people to ­listen to the voice and consider the mannerisms and then also consider that against all the other information that we know about this individual.

‘He’s got exceptionally muscular arms, for example. If that is someone’s brother, father, son, they would recognise the mannerisms, even if there’s been an attempt to disguise the voice.’

She added: ‘Someone must know who this man is,’ says Detective Inspector Harris.

‘He is a dangerous man and the outcome of this case could have been far worse.

‘I won’t forget hearing those screams. It’s terrifying and has left the victim physically and mentally traumatised.

‘I want people to listen to his voice, look at the video. You can’t hide your mannerisms from your partner, your family.

‘Someone knows who he is, but that person could be frightened, this man could be coercively controlling, he might be violent at home.

‘I want to reassure anyone [thinking of coming forward] that they can trust in my team and me.’

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