UK serial killers could walk free because of Met Police failure to link deaths, Stephen Port report finds

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Serial killers could go undetected because the Metropolitan Police does not always carry out “even the most basic enquiries”, a watchdog has warned in a damning new report. The HMIC report said that Boris Johnson’s drive to hire 20,000 extra officers in three years had “created an inexperienced workforce”, adding: “We are concerned that such officers are making crucial decisions when responding to a report of death.” In 2022 alone, the Metropolitan Police received almost 11,000 death reports – around 30 per day – and investigated 86 per cent of them. “There is no formal process to spot the similarities to link deaths.” HMIC said there is no pan-London approach to understanding or mapping deaths across the capital, adding: “We are especially concerned that deaths considered non-suspicious from the outset could be completely overlooked.” Daniel Whitworth, Jack Taylor, Anthony Walgate and Gabriel Kovari were murdered during a 16-month period by Stephen Port The inspectorate found that searches for intelligence on the Police National Database searches were not routinely carried out after all unexpected deaths, and that there were “basic omissions” in records. Serial killer Stephen Port to spend rest of life in jail for murders of four men The report said that in the Port case, police had “failed to carry out even the most basic enquiries”, treating each case in isolation and finding that his victims had died of a “self-administered drug overdose”.