The taxi driver accused of being the "Night Stalker" rapist questioned why police were bothering to take his fingerprints, telling an officer: "I always wear gloves", a court has heard.
Delroy Grant, 53, also tried to frame his own son when he was arrested on suspicion of preying on vulnerable elderly women and men for 17 years, a jury was told.
His fingerprints were never found at the scenes of a series of burglaries - many accompanied by sexual assaults - he allegedly carried out across south London, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said: "At the police station, the defendant's fingerprints were taken. The officer told him, 'I am making sure I get ink all over your hands and get a good print from you'. To which the defendant replied, 'I don't know why you're bothering, I always wear gloves'."
Police found a black woollen glove near the home of an 84-year-old widow in Bromley, Kent, allegedly burgled by Grant in September 2004, the prosecutor said. The glove contained a mixture of DNA from both the minicab driver and a woman called Barbara Stocks with whom he was having a relationship, the court heard.
Grant allegedly attempted to pin the blame for the burglaries and "humiliating and degrading sexual assaults" on his son while he was being held by police, the court heard. When an officer came to his cell to give him some deodorant, Grant appeared agitated and allegedly said: "I do not want to fit anyone up."
Asked what he meant, the court heard he told the officer "Have you thought about my son? Delroy Junior" and "He lives in the right area and he is the same height as me".
Grant was arrested early on November 15 2009 after a police surveillance team watched him running away from the home of a wheelchair-bound 86-year-old widow in Shirley, Croydon, the court heard. For an unknown reason he had abandoned his attempt to break into the elderly woman's house, the jury was told.
Asked why he was out that night, Grant claimed he had been trying to buy cannabis. But a search of his pockets and his car revealed a torch, crowbar, blue cagoule, fleece and woolly hat linked to burglaries allegedly carried out by the sexual predator known as the "Night Stalker", the court heard.
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Grant, of Brockley Mews, Honor Oak, south-east London, denies 29 charges relating to burglaries, attempted burglaries, rapes and indecent assaults against 18 pensioners between October 1992 and November 2009. The trial was adjourned until Monday.
