Internal police report into Stephen Port’s victims will be shown to families
Port murdered four gay men he met using gay dating apps and websites
By Steve Brown
An internal police report into the murder of four gay men by Stephen Port will be shown to the families within six weeks, an inquest heard.
Former chef Port, of Barking, east London, was found guilty of killing Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Gabriel Kovari, 22, in 2014.
Inquests into the pairs’ deaths before Port’s conviction originally recorded an open verdict, but High Court Lord Justice Holroyde said that new inquests were both “necessary and desirable” after new evidence had come to light last year.
The body of Slovak-born artist Kovari, was discovered close to a churchyard in Barking on 28 August, 2014.
The body of Daniel Whitworth, from Kent, was found in the same spot less than three weeks later.
Daniel Whitworth and Gabriel Kovari
Port was also convicted last year of killing Anthony Walgate, 23, Jack Taylor, 25, whose bodies were discovered in an around the same east London churchyard where Daniel and Gabriel’s bodies had been found.
Police faced huge criticism after they failed to link the murders after the four bodies were found near Port’s home.
But now the Independent Office for Police Conduct told Walthamstow Coroners Court today (August 14) that their report will be made available to the families.
It’s reported fresh inquests into the deaths may have to be held after complaints from victims’ families, a coroner will decide, Kent Online reported.
Jack Taylor and Anthony Walgate
Paul Clark, representing the four families, said: “The family’s concerns are whether certain discrepancies around the circumstances of the second set of deaths were impacted by how they were dealt with.
“The question is whether the well-informed observer would have concerns.
“The submission is based on the question of whether enough questions were asked at the previous inquest. One example is that there was a series of questions about a fake suicide note.”
Rachel Dobbin, representing individual police officers from the Met Police, said: “There were inquests into two of the deaths that the new inquests will consider.
“There were missed opportunities in that distinct independent investigation.
“Public confidence and the family confidence in these new inquests will be very important.”