The results of the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of the young gay men murdered by serial killer Stephen Port in Barking, Essex are in, the inquest has finished and the jury has concluded, as many of us suspected it would, that the Metropolitan Police made some major errors in investigating these murders. The inquest has pointed the finger at the Met with the coroner saying that police failings ‘probably’ featured in why Port was not caught sooner.

Sky News said:

Police mistakes “probably” contributed to the deaths of victims of serial killer Stephen Port, an inquest jury has found.

Port is serving a whole-life sentence for the murders of four young men in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015.

Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor were all plied with fatal doses of the “date rape” drug GHB by Port, who was dubbed the “Grindr killer” for the way he scouted his victims on the gay dating app.

Police initially failed to link the fatalities despite their striking similarities, with the bodies of three victims found at the same graveyard and Mr Walgate left outside Port’s block of flats in Barking.

An inquest jury found that police failings in the investigation into the death of Mr Walgate, Port’s first victim, “probably” contributed to the deaths of Mr Kovari and Mr Whitworth.

Errors in the police investigations into all three deaths also “probably” contributed to the fatality of Port’s final victim, Mr Taylor, the panel concluded.

I believe at least one, maybe two of Port’s victims might have been saved had the Met been a bit more proactive in investigating Port. Finding a body outside of Port’s flat should have rung alarm bells as would finding another body in a churchyard very near to Port’s home.

Sky News added:

The inquests heard that officers failed to follow leads, murder detectives turned down requests from borough officers to take over the investigations, and concerns from the victims’ families were ignored.

Police had seized Port’s laptop after the death of the first victim but failed to submit it for forensic analysis for 10 months, and then missed repeated searches for drug rape videos contained on the device.

I’m absolutely gobsmacked by the failings in this case. They had a murder literally on the doorstep of the suspect plus another murder nearby yet the local officers in charge of the investigation turned down offers of help from more senior and experienced officers. They refused to listen to the families of victims and didn’t properly investigate a laptop belonging to the chief suspect.

The coroner has said that she did not find that this investigation had been compromised by homophobia and that may well be the case. However what is more likely to be the root cause of this bungled investigation is police incompetence, police indolence and a failure to carry out an investigation to the required standard.

The Metropolitan Police have blood on their hands, the blood of at least two of Stephen Port’s victims who may not have been victims had the Met used what evidence they had to more intensively investigate Port, his contacts and his movements. This is a shameful day for the Met but I very much doubt that anything positive will be done to prevent this from happening again.