The Stephen Port murders exposed police failures on a scale that an inquest jury later found probably contributed to three of the four deaths. Between June 2014 and September 2015, Port drugged and killed four young men in Barking, east London, dumping three of the bodies within roughly 400 yards of his flat. Officers treated the deaths as unconnected and non-suspicious, missed intelligence already on their own databases, and were still doing so after the third victim was found in the same churchyard as the second. Families sued the Metropolitan Police, most claims have now settled, and a watchdog reinvestigation and inspectorate review followed.
What Port Did
Port met young men through Grindr, Fitlads, and Sleepyboy, brought them to his flat on Cooke Street, and gave them lethal doses of GHB. Anthony Walgate, 23, was found outside Port’s address on June 19, 2014. Gabriel Kovari, 22, was found on August 28, 2014, in St. Margaret’s churchyard. Daniel Whitworth, 21, was found in the same churchyard on September 20, 2014, in a nearly identical position, with a forged suicide note Port had planted to make it look as though Whitworth had killed Kovari and then himself. Jack Taylor, 25, was found against a wall of the same churchyard on September 13, 2015, staged to look like a self-inflicted overdose. In each case Port took the victim’s phone and left drug paraphernalia to suggest accident or suicide.
Port was convicted at the Old Bailey of all four murders along with 18 other offenses against seven further men, and on November 25, 2016, Mr. Justice Openshaw sentenced him to a whole-life order.1The Guardian. Serial Killer Stephen Port Jailed for Life
What the Police Got Wrong
The core failure was classification. Officers repeatedly recorded the deaths as “unexplained” or “non-suspicious” despite policies requiring sudden, unexplained deaths to be treated as suspicious until proven otherwise. When local Barking and Dagenham officers asked the specialist homicide command to take over, homicide detectives declined, in one instance saying they could not “prove it is murder” before any real investigation had happened.2Judiciary UK. Prevention of Future Deaths Report
Basic investigative steps were skipped. Police refused to examine Port’s laptop, citing cost. They failed to check CCTV. They never tested the forged suicide note found on Whitworth’s body for fingerprints or DNA. They dismissed information offered by the victims’ families and by members of the gay community.3UK Parliament. Metropolitan Police: Stephen Port Murders Inquest Daniel Whitworth’s long-term partner was excluded from discussions on the basis that he was not next of kin, even though the couple shared a home and a bank account. Thierry Amodio, an ex-partner of Kovari who had information that could have led officers to Port, was told he was “fishing for information.”4Peter Tatchell Foundation. Stephen Port Inquest Verdict: Police Were Homophobic
The Met also missed what it already knew. Port had been the subject of a 2013 rape allegation and a 2014 assault on another male, intelligence held on police databases that was never adequately followed up.2Judiciary UK. Prevention of Future Deaths Report He had been jailed in March 2015 for perverting the course of justice, after lying about how he had found Walgate’s body, and was released in June 2015. He killed Jack Taylor three months later.1The Guardian. Serial Killer Stephen Port Jailed for Life No public warning to the LGBT+ community about a possible serial killer was issued until October 2015, more than a year after the first two killings.4Peter Tatchell Foundation. Stephen Port Inquest Verdict: Police Were Homophobic
An inquest into the four deaths concluded in December 2021. The jury found that police failures “probably” contributed to the deaths of Kovari, Whitworth, and Taylor.5BBC News. Stephen Port Inquest Jury Finds Police Failures Contributed to Deaths In January 2022, Senior Coroner Sarah Munro QC issued a prevention of future deaths report describing “a large number of very serious and very basic investigative failings” and a pervasive “lack of professional curiosity” among officers.2Judiciary UK. Prevention of Future Deaths Report
Was It Homophobia?
The families said it was, and the inquest heard evidence that some officers treated the deaths of young gay men as low priority. A leaked Independent Office for Police Conduct report seen by Channel 4 News concluded that “assumptions regarding the lifestyles of gay men” had influenced the investigations and “could have been based, consciously or unconsciously, on discriminatory views.”6Channel 4 News. Stephen Port: Met Officers’ Assumptions About Gay Victims Cannot Be Ignored, Leaked Watchdog Report Says
The Met initially rejected that framing, attributing the failures to a lack of professional curiosity, understaffing, and resources. In March 2023, the Baroness Casey Review of Met culture found the force “institutionally homophobic,” alongside findings of institutional racism and sexism. The review said LGBTQ+ community trust in the Met had begun to sharply decline after the Port murders and that the force had used an “oversimplification” of the coroner’s instructions to “bat away” calls for a public inquiry into institutional homophobia.7The Independent. Met Police Institutionally Racist, Misogynist and Homophobic, Casey Review Finds
Civil Claims and Settlements
The families of all four victims filed civil claims against the Metropolitan Police, represented by Hudgell Solicitors and Leslie Thomas QC of Garden Court Chambers.8Evening Standard. Families of Serial Killer Stephen Port’s Victims Announce Legal Action By August 2022, the Met had settled with the relatives of Anthony Walgate and Gabriel Kovari and with the partner of Daniel Whitworth. Financial terms were not publicly disclosed. Claims by the family of Jack Taylor and by the father and stepmother of Daniel Whitworth remained outstanding at that point.9BBC News. Stephen Port Victims’ Families Settled Civil Claims With Met Police
The Met announced the settlements publicly without seeking the families’ permission. A spokesperson for the families said they were “caught completely off guard” by the disclosure. The Met apologized, saying it had “previously apologised to the families for the police failings in this matter and understand the impact these have had and the distress caused.”10The Guardian. Stephen Port Victims’ Families Say Met Insensitive to Make Settlements Public
Officer Accountability
The original watchdog inquiry examined 17 officers. Sixteen gave “no comment” interviews under misconduct caution. None were dismissed, and five were later promoted.3UK Parliament. Metropolitan Police: Stephen Port Murders Inquest
In June 2022, the IOPC announced it would reinvestigate the Met’s handling of the case after determining the original inquiry was “materially flawed,” prompted by new evidence given during the 2021 inquest hearings.11The Guardian. Stephen Port: Watchdog to Reinvestigate Met Police Inquiry By November 2023, five serving and three former officers were under investigation for potential gross misconduct, with allegations covering equality and diversity, duties and responsibilities, and honesty and integrity. The IOPC cautioned that an indication of potential gross misconduct does not automatically produce formal disciplinary proceedings.12IOPC. Eight Met Officers Facing Gross Misconduct Investigations Over Stephen Port Case
Reforms and Whether They Hold
The Met announced a series of changes. In April 2022, it replaced the ambiguous “unexplained” category in death investigations with four classifications: expected death, unexpected death investigated and not suspicious, unexpected death under investigation, and homicide. The coroner had specifically flagged the old terminology.13Police Professional. Unexplained Death Investigations to Undergo Reform Other measures included requiring a substantive sergeant or above to attend sudden death reports, embedding “professional curiosity” into policy, restructuring from 32 boroughs into 12 command units, setting up an LGBTQ+ improvement group with 125 volunteer advisers, and beginning the phased rollout of a new integrated intelligence system called CONNECT to replace eight older data systems.14HMICFRS. Inspection of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Response to Lessons From the Stephen Port Murders
Even so, in April 2023 an HMICFRS inspection concluded that the failures that let Port keep killing could happen again. His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr called the original investigation a “calamitous litany of failures” and reported that officers still described relying on “luck” to spot links between local deaths. The inspectorate issued 20 recommendations, citing persistent problems with training, record keeping, case management systems, and supervision of unexpected death investigations.15HMICFRS. Met Police’s Failure to Stop Stephen Port Murders Could Happen Again
The Public Inquiry That Hasn’t Happened
Barking MP Margaret Hodge and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper formally called for a full public inquiry into whether institutional homophobia influenced the Met’s investigation during a parliamentary debate in December 2021.16BBC News. Stephen Port: MP Calls for Public Inquiry Into Police Handling Policing minister Kit Malthouse declined, preferring to await the Casey Review and the HMICFRS inspection.3UK Parliament. Metropolitan Police: Stephen Port Murders Inquest Both have since reported, both were critical, and the sisters of Jack Taylor renewed the call, saying Met culture “cannot be changed if the root of the problems is not fully investigated.”7The Independent. Met Police Institutionally Racist, Misogynist and Homophobic, Casey Review Finds No formal public inquiry has been established.