The risk of murders in London not being identified by the Metropolitan Police is “way higher than it should be” and the force has not fully learnt the lessons of the bungled investigation into serial killer Stephen Port, a report has said.
The Met is called to attend 30 unexpected deaths in London every day, or 10,000 a year.
The head of HMICFRS, Matt Parr, said, “The vast majority are—as they initially were in Port—discounted and not recognised as a homicide.”
“It seems to me likely, if not certain, that among the deaths that they do not classify as homicide, that there are some,” he added.
Parr said: “The Met has not learned enough from their failings eight years ago, and starkly, what went wrong there could happen again.”
He added: “The risk of something like that happening again has to be minimised.”
Between June 2014 and September 2015 four young homosexual men—Anthony Walgate, 22, Gabriel Kovari, 23, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25—were found dead in Barking, east London.
It later transpired all four had been lured to the home of Stephen Port for sex but then had been given overdoses of the date rape drug GHB and left for dead.
One had been left outside the block of flats where Port lived while the others were left in a churchyard nearby.
It was not until October 2015 that Port was arrested and charged with murder after the police finally realised all four victims had been contacted by Port either on the app Grindr or on an escort website in the hours before they met their deaths.
Parr wrote: “We find that the Met has not learned enough from its failings in the Port case—and it could happen again. Most worryingly, officers admitted to us that they still rely on luck to identify links between deaths.”
Police Relying on ‘Luck’
The inspectorate found some officers who admitted it was sometimes “luck” which enabled them to identify links between deaths.The report also said, “Record keeping is unacceptable, such as poor-quality death reports with basic details omitted or incorrectly recorded, confusing case-management systems, and incorrectly packaged, labelled and recorded property and exhibits.”
“Intelligence and crime analysis processes are inadequate, which can lead to the reliance on luck to identify links between deaths at a local level and make it less likely that any links between minor incidents and crimes, that may be precursors to more serious events, are identified,” it added.
In December 2021 jurors at the inquests into the deaths of Walgate, Kovari, Whitworth, and Taylor concluded police failings “probably” contributed to the deaths of the three last victims, all of whom were unlawfully killed.
The families of three of Port’s victims received payouts from the Met after settling civil claims.
Taylor’s sisters, Donna and Jenny Taylor, issued a statement after the HMICFRS report in which they said: “Once again we are reading a report which highlights continuing failings in the Met Police which will put lives at risk. The reality is that if police had investigated things properly, Jack could still be here with us today.”
The Labour MP for Barking, Dame Margaret Hodge, said the report made “absolutely depressing” reading and added, “It should not have taken this long for the Met to take action.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said, “Every Londoner, irrespective of sexuality, gender or race, has the right to have their allegations of crime taken seriously by police and the Met must ensure the quality of their initial investigations is of a higher standard.”
“Sir Mark Rowley and the new team at the top of the Met have assured me that they are committed to reform and getting the basics right,” he added.
The Met’s Assistant Commissioner, Louisa Rolfe, said: “The deaths of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor were a tragedy and we are sincerely sorry we failed them and their families. While, as the inspection report acknowledges, we have worked hard since the murders to understand what went wrong and improve how we work, it highlights more we need to do.”
