Officials have announced that a new investigation will take place into the the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the deaths of Stephen Port’s victims. The decision follows the 2021 inquests into their deaths, the watchdog has confirmed.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it will now look into how Scotland Yard investigated the cases during Port’s killing spree in Barking, east London, from June 2014 to September 2015, after none of the 17 officers involved in the case faced disciplinary action. The IOPC previously investigated the Met’s probe after the force made a voluntary referral in 2015, and subsequently shared its findings with the families of the victims and a coroner in 2018.
New inquests into the deaths of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor concluded in 2021 and found “investigative failures” by the Met “probably contributed” to the deaths of three of the men. The inquests also revealed new evidence previously unknown to the IOPC from officers who had been subject to the earlier probe.
