Police payouts to killer’s victims
Fatal errors in bungled probe
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 last year revealed a string of fatal blunders by detectives.
It came two months after the police watchdog confirmed there would be a new probe into alleged misconduct by officers involved in the botched case.
Further compensation deals are in the pipeline, 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 a ‘whitewash’ inquiry that cleared 17 officers of misconduct over the investigation was to be reopened.
The officers were accused of mistakes that hindered the probe into Port, who went on a year-long killing spree in Barking, east London, before he was caught in September 2015.
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 decided to launch a new inquiry.
Victims’ families said a ‘big question mark’ remains over whether homophobia played a part in the flawed police inquiries.
Port, 47, was sentenced to a whole-life order at the Old Bailey in 2016.
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 yards of Port’s flat.
In a statement, the Met confirmed it had settled claims. It declined to say how much it has agreed to pay. But the Mail understands Ricky Walmsley, the partner of Mr Whitworth, received a five-figure sum.