Eleven days after Jack’s death, Dagenham, east London

Donna and Jen contact the Met for an update, demonstrating more proactivity than the entirety of their local police force. Their reward is hearing that the investigation about which they are enquiring doesn’t exist. Not only do police inform them that they aren’t investigating, they categorically state that Jack had not been drugged or raped. Donna and Jen start their own investigation.

It isn’t just the bereaved who are frustrated. The fact that a serial killer has been at large for more than a year leaves gay men asking why the police didn’t protect them.

The sisters finally secure an appeal in the local paper... the Barking and Dagenham Post and London Evening Standard run stills of the CCTV footage in the hope of identifying the man seen walking with Jack hours before his death.

Within hours, the identity of the supposedly elusive man is revealed through a tip-off. Two days after the pictures first circulate, Barking and Dagenham police officers arrest Stephen Port.

Extract from Easy Kills by Sebastian Murphy-bates, RRP £8.99, from mirrorbooks. co.uk and all good book stores