Stephen Port: Met Police apologises to families of victims of serial killer

The Metropolitan Police has apologised to the families of four men murdered by the serial killer Stephen Port.

Port is serving a whole-life term for killing Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor in Barking over 17 months.

Inquests are examining whether the Met Police's investigations into the murders were adequate.

Giving evidence at the hearings, a senior police officer said the force was "deeply sorry" over its response.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy told the inquests at Barking Town Hall: "It is a matter of personal disappointment to me that many of the things that should have been done weren't done.

"I am deeply sorry, personally and on behalf of the [Metropolitan Police Service], that we didn't conduct the initial investigations to the standards that you rightly expected."

Mr Walgate, Mr Kovari, Mr Whitworth, and Mr Taylor, who were all in their early 20s, were killed by overdoses of GHB administered by Port at his east London home, between June 2014 and September 2015.

The inquests have heard about a long series of failures in the four investigations.

John Pape, a friend of Mr Kovari, previously told the inquest jury that he thought the Met was "institutionally homophobic".

He said the force had not taken the deaths as seriously as it would have done if the victims were young women who had died after ingesting date-rape drugs.

The force has argued that the failings were due to incompetence, rather than homophobia.