If Stephen Port had killed women 'there would have been an outcry,' says victims' families

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The loved ones of serial killer Stephen Port's victims have again accused the Metropolitan Police of homophobia and said the case would have been properly investigated if the murder victims had been women.

Speaking after inquests into police failings found three murders could probably have been prevented, the families of Port's first and last victims both told ITV News London they believed officers didn't investigate properly because they were dealing with young, gay men.

Anthony Walgate, a fashion student from Hull, was the first man murdered by Port in Barking, Essex, in 2014.

"I've said all along and I will always say it, it was homophobia," said Sarah Sak, Walgate’s mother.

"If that was a young girl, 23, dumped outside the bins there would have been a lot more investigating."

Stephen Port had killed Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth and spent time in jail for perverting the course of justice in relation to the Walgate case by the time he murdered 25-year-old forklift truck driver Jack Taylor in 2015.

Jenny and Donna, Taylor's sisters, told ITV News London: "If that was a woman, Stephen Port would have been looked into."

Police still failed to link Taylor's murder to Port and it was the sisters who cracked the case, producing a file including 33 pages of notes linking the four deaths.

Jurors in the inquests into the deaths were told they could not consider prejudice on legal grounds.

But those close to the four men who died have continued to raise their concerns that homophobia played a part in police failings.

Met police chiefs have denied institutional or individual homophobia among officers, instead citing a lack of knowledge around the use of the drug GHB as a weapon, and professional shortcomings in the investigations.

Daniel Whitworth's boyfriend, Ricky Waumsley, said: "I absolutely stand by that they were being homophobic towards these four victims and making general assumptions that they’re all young, gay men who take drugs."

Waumsley said police officers passed information to Whitworth’s stepmother Amanda, although she was not married to his father at the time, but would not give him any details.

He told the inquests: "If it was a straight couple I wouldn’t have been pushed out as much as I was at the time.

"They dismissed me in every single way. I believe, and I stand by it, it was because we were a gay unmarried couple."

Amanda Whitworth said: "There is an element of [homophobia] there. Whether they’re aware of it or not, it is there.

"The boys were depersonalised. There’s lots of ingredients in this particular recipe, but that’s one of them."

Jurors heard that after the post-mortem examination of Whitworth's body, the pathologist noticed bruising that could be consistent with being moved before or after death.

But in notes made after the procedure, an officer instead put forward the idea that the marks could have occurred during rough sex.

At the conclusion of the inquests, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the case showed the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally homophobic."

"They treated the deaths of young gay men as low priority," he said.

"The investigation was marred by stereotyping and biased assumptions. It is one of the most incompetent murder investigations by police for many years."

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball apologised for the failings, but said: "I don’t think the Met is institutionally homophobic. I do think we had failings in our investigations.

"I do trust that those failings would not be repeated today. And certainly, every single one of us here and many people beyond us, are here to make sure that they wouldn’t happen again."