good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. in the last hour, an inquest has concluded that police mistakes probably contributed to the death of three young men who were killed by a serial killer. the jury found that errors and omissions made by detectives after stephen port killed his first victim meant that he was free to kill three other young men before being caught. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford has this report. four lives cruelly cut short by a serial killer. fashion student anthony walgate from hull, gabriel kovari from slovakia, young chef daniel whitworth from kent and forklift driverjack taylor from dagenham. all murdered with the date rape drug ghb. but the police could have stopped the killing. the men s bodies had all been discovered in the same small area of barking in east london over a period of less than a year and a quarter. but detectives simply didn tjoin the dots.
they didn t investigate. they didn t do the smallest of things that you would expect a police officer to do. they didn t do theirjob, as simple as that. it all began injune 2014 when 23 year old anthony walgate was found dead outside stephen port s flat in barking. it was port who had called the ambulance, and almost immediately the police errors started mounting up. the mistakes are too many to list but they went on for 15 months before port was finally arrested for murder. and by that time, three other young men were also dead. after anthony walgate died and port reported the body, detectives missed this record in the police national database of port at barking station with a man who could barely walk after taking ghb. and they failed to examine port s computer which would have shown him repeatedly searching for videos of young men being raped while unconscious on drugs.
us. for now thanks very much for joining us. now, the families of four men murdered by the serial killer stephen port have accused the metropolitan police of homophobia. an inquestjury has found that police failures probably contributed to the deaths of three of the four victims. anthony walgate, gabriel kovari, daniel whitworth and jack taylor were all killed in barking in east london by stephen port over a 16 month period beginning in 2014. the englishjury found 16 month period beginning in 2014. the english jury found a string of failures in the police investigations. what was eventually jailed for life in 2016. daniel sandford has more. four lives cruelly cut short by serial killer. fashion student anthony
and by that time, three other young men were also dead. after anthony died and port reported the body, detectives missed this record in the police national database of port with a man who could barely walk after taking the date rape drug ghb. they didn t examine port s computer, which would have shown him constantly searching for videos of young men being raped, while unconscious on drugs. anthony s mother is convinced a competent police investigation would have stopped port there and then. all the other victims would have been safe if they could have just actually been bothered to investigate anthony s murder. stephen port was arrested for lying about moving anthony s body, but he remained on bail, free to kill again. and within weeks, in a nearby church graveyard, two more bodies were found. first, gabriel kovari, and then daniel whitworth. he had what appeared to be a suicide note, in which he also said he d taken
anthony s mother is convinced a better police investigation would have stopped port within weeks of her son s death. all the other victims would have been saved if they could have just actually been bothered to investigate anthony s murder. stephen port was arrested on suspicion of lying about moving anthony s body. but the investigation of the death went no further and he remained on bail, free to kill again. ten weeks later, a second body was found in a church graveyard less than 400 metres from stephen port s front door. it was gabriel kovari, another gay man in his 20s. detectives didn t connect the two deaths and did so little that the officer tasked with liaising with gabriel s family never spoke to them. and just over three weeks later, in the same corner of the same graveyard, the body of daniel whitworth was found. he had what appeared