Revealed: Police in payouts to families of serial killer’s victims
Deal follows fatal errors in Stephen Port inquiry
SCOTLAND Yard has agreed to pay tens of thousands of pounds in compensation to the loved ones of three victims of gay serial killer Stephen Port.
The out-of-court settlements with the families of Anthony Walgate and Gabriel Kovari, as well as the partner of Daniel Whitworth, emerged after a new inquest into the murders last year revealed a string of fatal blunders by detectives.
The payouts can be revealed two months after the police watchdog confirmed there would be a new investigation into alleged misconduct by officers involved in the botched case.
Further compensation deals are in the pipeline over the bungled hunt for Port, with the Metropolitan Police confirming it has received ‘ ongoing’ civil claims from the family of another victim, Jack Taylor, and relatives of Mr Whitworth.
In April the Daily Mail revealed the ‘whitewash’ inquiry that cleared 17 officers of misconduct over the investigation into Port’s four murders of young men was to be reopened. The officers were
‘A woeful lack of remorse’
accused of appalling mistakes that hindered the probe into Port, who went on a year-long killing spree before he was caught in September 2015.
All but one of the 17 officers investigated for alleged misconduct refused to answer questions when questioned by investigators.
But after an inquest jury ruled in December that ‘fundamental failures’ to investigate Port ‘probably’ allowed him to kill another three gay men after his first murder in 2014, the Independent Office for Police Conduct ( IOPC) decided to launch a new inquiry.
Confirmation of the move was announced in June, with the victims’ families saying a ‘ big question mark’ remains over whether homophobia played a part in the flawed police inquiries.
The IOPC said it would reexamine how Scotland Yard investigated Port’s killings in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015 after none of the 17 officers involved in the case faced disciplinary action.
The new inquests last year into the deaths of Mr Walgate, 23, Mr Kovari, 22, Mr Whitworth, 21, and Mr Taylor, 25, concluded police failings ‘probably’ contributed to the deaths of the last three victims.
The IOPC said new evidence at those inquests that was ‘previously unknown to us’ had prompted its decision to reinvestigate the Met.
Port, 47, was sentenced to a whole-life order at the Old Bailey in 2016 for the murders.
Neil Hudgell, the families’ solicitor, said a reinvestigation
was the ‘ only logical decision open to the IOPC’. He added: ‘The inadequate investigations by the Metropolitan Police into the four deaths is one of the most widespread institutional failures in modern history, exacerbated by a woeful lack of remorse, regret or sympathy displayed at the inquests by some of the officers involved.
‘The inquests identified fundamental failings… We expect the IOPC to investigate with renewed vigour. The families are ready to assist in any way they can. We hope the same can
be said of the police.’ The Met referred itself to the police watchdog in October 2015 after it identified concerns over its initial investigations.
The inquest jury found officers missed repeated opportunities to catch Port after he fatally administered the date rape drug GHB to Mr Walgate.
Critics said the force had ‘blood on its hands’ after the inquest uncovered blunders that allowed Port to roam free for 16 months while officers dismissed the deaths as unexplained and unrelated, even though the victims were killed in the same way and dumped within 300 yards of Port’s flat.
The mistakes included officers not carrying out basic checks on the police national computer that would have revealed Port had been accused of a near identical drug rape two years earlier and carried out another assault on a man
spiked with GHB just days before his first murder. Officers also neglected to examine his laptop seized after the first murder, which would have revealed his obsession with drug rape and a further 12 victims he sexually assaulted.
Police also failed to carry out basic forensic checks or examine Port’s movements and ignored concerns from the victims’ families and friends.
In a statement, the Met confirmed it had settled claims from the families of Mr Walgate and Mr Kovari, and the partner of Mr Whitworth, and received others from Mr Taylor and Mr Whitworth’s families.
It declined to say how much it has agreed to pay in the outof-court settlements. But the Mail understands that Ricky Walmsley, the partner of Mr Whitworth, has received a fivefigure sum from the force.
‘Blundering’ police face new probe into serial sex killer case