Police mistakes ‘probably’ contributed to Port victims’ deaths, inquest finds

Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball answers questions on Stephen Port victims’ inquests.Police mistakes “probably” contributed to the deaths of Stephen Port’s victims, an inquest jury has found.Officers in Barking, east London, missed repeated opportunities to catch sexual predator Port after he plied first victim Anthony Walgate with a fatal dose of date-rape drug GHB and dumped his body.Port struck three more times before he was caught, killing each of his young, gay, male victims in near-identical circumstances, with police failing to link him to the deaths despite detective work carried out by the victims’ family and friends that would lead them to the culprit.Jurors at the inquests into the deaths of Mr Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and 25-year-old Jack Taylor, concluded that police failings “probably” contributed to the deaths of victims, all of whom were unlawfully killed.