Stephen Port: Police failures ‘probably’ contributed to deaths of victims, inquest jury finds

‘Incensed’ families launch legal action against force, as police watchdog mulls whether to reopen investigation

Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth, two of Port’s four victims (PA)

Mistakes by the Metropolitan Police “probably” contributed to the deaths of Stephen Port’s victims, an inquest jury has found, as the force faced the prospect of legal action over its bungled investigations.

The families of the so-called Grindr serial killer’s victims said their loved ones’ deaths “should be on public record as one of the most widespread institutional failures in modern history”, with one describing Friday’s verdict as a “massive victory” which proved “we were right all this time”.

But the families also said they were “incensed” that jurors in the Barking inquests had been barred from considering the possibility of police prejudice against the young gay men all killed with fatal doses of the drug GHB.

Scotland Yard insisted that it did not recognise allegations of “institutional homophobia” within its force, but instead saw “all sorts of errors in the investigation, which came together in a truly dreadful way” and for which it apologised to the victims’ families.

While relatives were reported on Friday to have lodged civil claims against the Met, with a partner of one of the victims calling for Commissioner Cressida Dick’s resignation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) also said it would examine evidence given by officers during the inquests for possible grounds to reopen its own investigation.

Amanda Whitworth, the stepmother of Port’s youngest victim, described being “still in shock” at the revelations of the inquest, and said she had sometimes sobbed while hearing evidence of how police officers missed repeated opportunities to catch the sexual predator after he dumped the body of his first victim Anthony Walgate, a 23-year-old fashion student, outside his own block of flats.

In weeks of hearings at Barking Town Hall, yards from Port’s flat, police admitted failing to carry out basic checks, send evidence to be forensically examined, and exercise professional curiosity during the 16-month killing spree, from June 2014 to September 2015.

Port, who was questioned by police and identified as a “significant witness” hours after he called 999 to report the body of his first victim, went on to kill three more times in near-identical circumstances before he was caught, also drugging and sexually assaulting more than a dozen other men.

Deliberating for a week before concluding the inquests into the deaths of Mr Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and 25-year-old Jack Taylor, jurors acknowledged police officers’ “heavy workload”, but said there were failures in the police response that “cannot be overlooked”.

While coroner Sarah Munro QC had barred jurors from deciding on the issue of homophobia for legal reasons, the four victims’ loved ones have claimed police failings partly stemmed from prejudice, because the victims were gay and their deaths were drug-related.

“Had four, white, heterosexual girls been found dead in the same manner as Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack, then the police’s actions, and the likely outcomes, would have been different,” they said in a statement.

Saying the Met was “deeply sorry” for its failings in the investigation, Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball added: “I don’t think the Met is institutionally homophobic. I do think we had failings in our investigations.

“I do trust that those failings would not be repeated today. And certainly, every single one of us here and many people beyond us, are here to make sure that they wouldn’t happen again.”

Ms Ball said she and Met Commissioner Dame Cressida had offered to meet personally with the victims’ loved ones and, acknowledging that people’s trust in the force had been damaged, particularly among London’s LGBT+ community, said: “It is very important now to show that we are trustworthy, that we care, that we have changed, and that we are learning.”

But John Pape, a friend of Mr Kovari, said: “You have to hope prejudice did play a part. Because if the Met were this incompetent with every serious crime, regardless of the victim’s origin, sexuality or the setting in which they are found, rapists and murderers would be going unpoliced and no one would be protected.”

Mr Whitworth's partner, Ricky Waumsley, said: “I believe it’s a mixture of everything – so, a bit of laziness, incompetence, lack of training. But I absolutely stand by that they were being homophobic towards these four victims and making general assumptions that they’re all young, gay men who take drugs.”

While Mr Waumsley called for Met Commissioner Dame Cressida to resign “with immediate effect” following the jury’s findings, Mr Taylor’s sister Donna Taylor said that as she had not been head of the force during the time of Port’s offending, “her role in this now is to stand up and be counted”.

Speaking on behalf of the families, lawyer Neil Hudgell said they wanted the police watchdog to reopen its investigation into the handling of the case, and were concerned that officers involved in the case had been promoted, suggesting “a culture of rewarding failure”.

Seventeen officers were investigated by the IOPC in 2018, nine of whom were found to have performance failings. The Met said the nine officers were properly dealt with by their managers, and that the six who remain with the Met today have been checked again recently and are meeting expected standards.

None of the nine were disciplined or lost their jobs, and five have since been promoted.

Mr Hudgell said: “We ask the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, how that can be right? What faith in policing can the British public have when failings not only go unpunished, but are instead rewarded?”

Mr Hudgell added: “Finally, but most importantly, we want to say to Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack that you will never be forgotten. We feel your loss every minute of every day, we will forever wonder how your lives would have turned out, but you live on strongly in our cherished memories.”

Additional reporting by PA