0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language
0:00:05 > 0:00:09and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11In the summer of 2014, this church graveyard in east London
0:00:11 > 0:00:13became the dumping ground for the victims
0:00:13 > 0:00:16of gay date rape serial killer Stephen Port.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20His murder and rape spree lasted over a year,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23before he was finally brought to justice.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38This is the story of how police repeatedly let the killer
0:00:38 > 0:00:41slip through their fingers.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Stephen Port took Jack's life, but they let that happen.
0:00:45 > 0:00:50As far as we're concerned, they're just as guilty as him
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and we have to live with that for the rest of our lives.
0:01:28 > 0:01:34On the 19th of June 2014, Stephen Port called the emergency services
0:01:34 > 0:01:37claiming he had discovered a man collapsed
0:01:37 > 0:01:40outside a block of flats in east London.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41He was lying.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Port had date-raped and murdered 23-year-old Anthony Walgate,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10and dumped the body outside his own front door.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31When the emergency services arrived at Cooke Street,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33they found the body of Anthony Walgate.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37The police constable who attended the scene believed the death
0:02:37 > 0:02:38was suspicious and noted...
0:02:43 > 0:02:45After questioning Port,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48Barking and Dagenham officers accepted his claim that he had found
0:02:48 > 0:02:53the body outside his front door when he returned from a night shift.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14I had this book made to put some special photos in of Anthony.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18These pictures do reflect his personality.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20He was always the life and soul of the party.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24He was always one that wanted to make people laugh.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28They make me smile, because these are my favourite pictures of all.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30He really did have a zest for life.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33He just threw himself into everything he did.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36I've no doubt he would have succeeded in what he did,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39because he had such passion, such drive to do it.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43But that's been taken away from him.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52When I first received the news about Anthony,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55I was on holiday in Turkey at the time. My phone was turned off,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58so I turned my phone back on on the Sunday evening
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and received hundreds of missed calls, text messages,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05so I rang Paul, my other son,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08who then told me that Anthony had been found dead in the street.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11I just literally went into shock, there and then.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14I don't even remember the flight home or anything about it.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16It was awful.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21When I rang Barking and Dagenham Police,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25the first initial contact was, Anthony's been found dead in the street.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26So I said, "Was he shot?
0:04:26 > 0:04:29"Was he stabbed? You know, had he been beaten up?"
0:04:31 > 0:04:33"We don't know."
0:04:33 > 0:04:36And at that moment, they weren't treating it as suspicious.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38So I said, "Well, it is suspicious."
0:04:38 > 0:04:40I said, "You found him dead in the street.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44"He hasn't been beaten up, he hasn't been stabbed, he hasn't been shot, anything. Something's not right.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47"Where's his phone? Why don't you track his phone?"
0:04:47 > 0:04:49"No, it's too expensive."
0:04:49 > 0:04:54They refused to ever investigate it from the very beginning.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Right. This is what's left of Anthony's property.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06His whole life. I've been waiting two-and-a-half years for all this
0:05:06 > 0:05:10stuff to come back. Police took it from his room after he'd died
0:05:10 > 0:05:12and put it into storage.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15Because they've been stored so long, all the clothes are mouldy.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18So I'm trying to salvage what I can.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22This is the saddest thing, it's been broken.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Anthony loved it.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26It's quite sad looking at that.
0:05:29 > 0:05:30Not a lot for somebody's life, is it?
0:05:33 > 0:05:34This is a lot of his designs,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37his bits of fabric that he was working with.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Anthony was studying fashion and design at Middlesex University.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47All he ever wanted to do was be a famous fashion designer,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49for everybody to know his name.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52That's all he ever wanted.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55He wanted to be... You're upsetting me now.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04He did get fame, but for all the wrong reasons.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14A week after Anthony's death, police received dramatic new evidence.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19One of his friends revealed that Anthony had hooked up with Stephen Port
0:06:19 > 0:06:22via a male escort website called Sleepyboy,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25a couple of days before his body was found.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Port was then arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34for lying to police about not knowing Anthony.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39After changing his story, Port admitted he had hired Anthony as an escort
0:06:39 > 0:06:42for the night, but insisted Anthony had died
0:06:42 > 0:06:45from a self-inflicted drugs overdose.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53Stephen Port was saying that when Anthony got there he had taken GHB
0:06:53 > 0:06:57and then, an hour or two later, he'd gone back into the bathroom
0:06:57 > 0:06:59and taken more GHB,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01at which time, he was violently ill.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Stephen Port had then said that Anthony had gone to sleep
0:07:07 > 0:07:09and he went to work and left him for eight hours
0:07:09 > 0:07:11while he went and did his shift.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15So then Port said he came back from work and found Anthony dead,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18so he panicked and carried him outside.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20So I'd said to the liaison officer,
0:07:20 > 0:07:27"Why would you leave a total stranger that you've never met before, in your flat, in bed?"
0:07:27 > 0:07:29I said, "You just wouldn't do... You wouldn't do it."
0:07:29 > 0:07:31"Well, he did."
0:07:32 > 0:07:36After Port was arrested for lying to police,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38they took samples of his DNA.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44He was released on bail and later discounted as a murder suspect.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Every single time I tried ringing the police, I kept saying to them,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49"Have you found anything else out?
0:07:49 > 0:07:50"Have you done any more investigating?
0:07:50 > 0:07:52"Have you looked at Anthony's computer?"
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Because I had Anthony's computer.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56They took Port's computer at the same time
0:07:56 > 0:07:58and wouldn't look at either of them.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01"Why would we do that? It's too expensive."
0:08:01 > 0:08:05It was a total and utter open-and-shut case to them.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11If police had looked through Port's computer, they would have found vital
0:08:11 > 0:08:15evidence. Immediately before he accessed Anthony's escort profile on
0:08:15 > 0:08:20Sleepyboy, Port did several disturbing online searches.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26These included date rape drug,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30unconscious boys rape videos, boys being drug raped,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32unconscious porn videos.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35In the early hours of the next day,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Port messaged Anthony to arrange a meet-up.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51It makes me feel absolutely furious that they would never entertain the
0:08:51 > 0:08:54idea that Stephen Port had anything to do with his death.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00If maybe they'd listened to me in the first place and investigated it,
0:09:00 > 0:09:05any investigation whatsoever, three more young boys would still be alive.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14Stephen Port was born in 1975 in Southend,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16then his family moved to Dagenham in east London.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22Bullied at school, he was a loner who went on to become a chef.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33In 2005, Ryan Edwards got to know Stephen Port as a neighbour.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38So I used to live there, where the blue chairs are on the first floor,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40so diagonally opposite to Stephen's flat here.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45So I had a good view, actually, there, of wherever he was out
0:09:45 > 0:09:48with, normally, young men on the ground floor.
0:09:49 > 0:09:54Stephen's appetite for men was extremely high.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59It was almost like an insatiable thirst, because it was, literally,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01one after another, after another, after another.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Port was regularly meeting young men through gay dating and escort sites.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11He had multiple profiles and used a variety of fake names.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Stephen's type was, in gay terms, a twink,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20which is, you know, a young, slim, gay guy.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Sometimes, effeminate.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27The chaps that Stephen would date would be sort of 16, 17, 18
0:10:27 > 0:10:30and almost a bit vulnerable types.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Stephen did have a peculiar, childlike personality.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39There was one time when it was coming up to one of my parties
0:10:39 > 0:10:42and I found an old, disused toy truck.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48I gave him the toy truck as a present and so it was a bizarre sight.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53There was a party happening, Stephen was sat on the floor, cross-legged
0:10:53 > 0:10:55and pushing the toy truck up and down the floor.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Again, like a world of his own.
0:10:57 > 0:11:02Just like a child would play with a toy. It was very, very bizarre to see.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Ryan detected a darker side to his neighbour
0:11:06 > 0:11:09when he dropped into Port's flat
0:11:09 > 0:11:12one afternoon for coffee a little unexpectedly.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14Stephen took ages to get to the door
0:11:14 > 0:11:16and he sort of shuffled up and opened the door,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19and he looked absolutely dreadful,
0:11:19 > 0:11:20like he hadn't slept a wink.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23His eyes were red raw
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and he was very... Almost slurring his speech.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30As I sat down, I was completely shocked,
0:11:30 > 0:11:36because on the coffee table was a massive clear plastic container
0:11:36 > 0:11:39that actually filled the whole circumference of the coffee table
0:11:39 > 0:11:45and it was full of vials of clear liquid and sachets of white powder.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48I was completely taken aback.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51There were dozens and dozens of clear bags of white powder
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and, again, dozens of these vials of clear liquid.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57It really disturbed me, because...
0:11:57 > 0:12:01it was a huge... It was obviously a huge amount of drugs,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04far beyond personal use for someone.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07So, you know, what on earth was he doing with them?
0:12:09 > 0:12:11When Ryan met some of Port's boyfriends,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14they revealed the violent and abusive character.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18On this one occasion I asked, "Why? What happened?"
0:12:18 > 0:12:24And he said, "Stephen had pushed me into a TV and I cut my head."
0:12:25 > 0:12:29There was another time where one of the boyfriends said that Stephen had
0:12:29 > 0:12:31actually been violent to him.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34I did see a trend towards the later years,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37the issues the boyfriends were describing to me seemed more sinister.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40In the summer of 2014,
0:12:40 > 0:12:45just two months after killing his first victim, Port struck again.
0:12:51 > 0:12:5622-year-old Slovakian Gabriel Kovari moved to London in June
0:12:56 > 0:12:58and began looking online for a room to rent.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04I met Gabriel online.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06He had a profile on a kind of
0:13:06 > 0:13:10gay social networking stroke dating site
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and because I had this spare room, I agreed to meet him.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18He was Slovakian.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22He was very smart, very sweet-natured.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28After six weeks in John's spare room Gabriel announced he was leaving.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32I didn't kind of pry into what he was doing
0:13:32 > 0:13:33and who he was going to meet.
0:13:33 > 0:13:40I know he went and met one guy via, you know, a dating app.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42I regret...
0:13:42 > 0:13:46not having asked more questions about where he was going...
0:13:47 > 0:13:49..who he was going to stay with.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58The guy Gabriel was moving in with was Stephen Port,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02who soon introduced his new flatmate to his neighbour.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04It was a normal text from Stephen, you know,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07"Come over and see my Slovakian twink flatmate."
0:14:07 > 0:14:09So I went round there and met Gabriel.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14Stephen wasn't there and he struck me as a really nice, articulate chap
0:14:14 > 0:14:18and so after that first meeting, we kept in touch.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24When Ryan texted Port to say how nice he thought Gabriel was,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29Port replied saying he was "taking good care of him, hehe".
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Within days, Ryan noticed Gabriel's sudden disappearance.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45Suddenly communication stopped.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47And I thought that was odd,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51and so I picked it up with Stephen, actually via text message, you know,
0:14:51 > 0:14:53"Oh, have you heard from Gabriel?"
0:14:53 > 0:14:57Stephen was then texting me various things saying that, you know,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59he wasn't sure where Gabriel was,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03that he thinks he's left to stay with an army guy.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05And then I got - a bolt out of the blue - a text from Stephen,
0:15:05 > 0:15:10a long text, saying, "I've got some really sad news, neighbour,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15"but Gabriel has gone back home and he's picked up a mysterious illness
0:15:15 > 0:15:16"and he's died.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19"Whatever you do, please don't mention this on Facebook,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22"to the friends and family, because obviously, they're upset enough as it is."
0:15:26 > 0:15:31Port had killed Gabriel with a fatal dose of chem sex drug GHB,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35then somehow moved his body without being spotted a few hundred metres
0:15:35 > 0:15:39away to a nearby church graveyard.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41I like coming here.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46It's such a quiet area, this churchyard.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I've walked the dogs through the gate and
0:15:51 > 0:15:53as I've come through here,
0:15:53 > 0:15:54I've looked up
0:15:54 > 0:15:59and I could see what I thought was someone asleep,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01leaning up against the wall.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06He was wearing dark glasses, but they weren't on his face properly.
0:16:06 > 0:16:13I went up to him and touched a bit of bare skin.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16The skin I felt was cold.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21He was almost semi-clothed in the sense his clothes were up here,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23up towards his chest area.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26It did look highly suspicious.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30He couldn't have clothed himself
0:16:30 > 0:16:33in that way.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35He must have been placed there.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38I just thought the whole scenario didn't look right.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46The police suspected that Gabriel had died from a self-inflicted drugs overdose
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and the death was not treated as suspicious.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54They tracked down Gabriel's recent address.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Less than a week after he'd left,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I was working from home
0:17:02 > 0:17:07and four police turn up at my door
0:17:07 > 0:17:13and they tell me that he's been found dead in a cemetery.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And after that, it's a bit of a blur.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24So you're not just dealing with the fact that your friend has died,
0:17:24 > 0:17:30it's the horrific circumstances and this...
0:17:30 > 0:17:37mystery and, I guess, that was why I felt compelled,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41even at that early stage, to understand and know what happened.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Many questions remained unanswered about his friend's death,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53so John decided to do a little investigating of his own.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58I typed in "unexplained deaths Barking",
0:17:58 > 0:18:00and this link came up,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05which is about two-and-a-half to three months before Gabriel was found.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09"Man dies in unexplained circumstances in Barking.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13"Police are appealing for information after a man died
0:18:13 > 0:18:15"in unexplained circumstances on Cooke Street."
0:18:15 > 0:18:20So, then, what I did was I typed "Cooke Street" into Google Maps.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27So there's Cooke Street and there is St Margaret's churchyard.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32It's like a stone's throw. A couple of blocks away.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39That's too close. They're two similar
0:18:39 > 0:18:44young men, found dead in the same circumstances
0:18:44 > 0:18:46that close, mere streets away.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48It made me suspicious.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50It seemed suspicious.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Barking and Dagenham Police did not link the deaths of the two gay young men.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00No public warnings were issued to Barking's gay community.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03At the time of Gabriel's death, I didn't hear anything about it in the
0:19:03 > 0:19:04local community,
0:19:04 > 0:19:08so the information I had on my phone, that crucial evidence,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10stayed on my phone.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15Had the police even made any kind of outreach to the LGBT community,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18then local people, like myself, would've been aware and we could've
0:19:18 > 0:19:21gone straight to the police with the information we knew,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25and people's lives could've been saved.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32Just a week after murdering his second victim, Port used one of his
0:19:32 > 0:19:37profiles on the gay dating site Fit Lads to contact 21-year-old
0:19:37 > 0:19:38Daniel Whitworth.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44On the 3rd of September 2014,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Port suggested they meet for a drink before dinner at his flat,
0:19:48 > 0:19:52"Just so you can get to know me a bit, so you know I'm not some psycho."
0:19:55 > 0:19:59It was about three weeks later, I'm coming through this gate
0:19:59 > 0:20:06and I've seen what looked like another young man lying in exactly the same spot, virtually.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08And I thought, "No, I don't believe this."
0:20:08 > 0:20:11I thought, "Please, God, don't let this be another body."
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I thought, "I don't believe it, it can't be."
0:20:14 > 0:20:20This body was placed in exactly the same position as the previous one.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25Again, I was thinking, "What made him sort of want to sit in the same,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28"you know, L-shaped position?"
0:20:28 > 0:20:32This was very suspicious to my way of thinking.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Well, anybody would've thought it was suspicious.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Barking and Dagenham Police,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42I don't really think they know what they're doing, quite honestly.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45They're nothing better than the Keystone Cops.
0:20:47 > 0:20:51After drugging, raping and murdering Daniel Whitworth, Port had planted
0:20:51 > 0:20:53a fake suicide note on his body.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59It suggested that Daniel had been in a relationship with Gabriel Kovari,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01the previous young man to die,
0:21:01 > 0:21:03and that they had been using GHB,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06and Gabriel accidentally overdosed and died.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10Now Daniel was taking his own life out of remorse.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17We were just going about our usual routine
0:21:17 > 0:21:19and there was a knock at the door,
0:21:19 > 0:21:20and there were two policemen
0:21:20 > 0:21:24who immediately removed their hats
0:21:24 > 0:21:26and held their hats in front of them.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29And I thought...
0:21:29 > 0:21:31"Oh, my God."
0:21:33 > 0:21:37They said they were sorry to inform us that somebody who matched
0:21:37 > 0:21:41Daniel's description was found in Barking
0:21:41 > 0:21:47and they were very sorry, but it looked like he'd taken his own life.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53And...I turned away,
0:21:53 > 0:21:58I turned my face from them and I could feel the tears
0:21:58 > 0:22:00and I gave way to them.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05They said they'd found a suicide note
0:22:05 > 0:22:10and he was just found, peacefully, underneath a tree.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13We were led to believe it was a drug overdose.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18We were extremely confused, because Daniel was quite a happy lad,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20everything was going his way,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23it just didn't seem to make any sense.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33I've used this box since the death of Daniel,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36basically, to keep everything in -
0:22:36 > 0:22:38photographs and...
0:22:38 > 0:22:40things.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42He did have his whole life ahead of him.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47Adam raised Daniel by himself.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49He was his only child, yeah.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51He was the apple of his eye.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55I mean, I'm Daniel's stepmother and I love him dearly,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59but I can't...
0:22:59 > 0:23:01begin to imagine...
0:23:07 > 0:23:08Sorry.
0:23:17 > 0:23:18There are no words.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29The pathologist who examined Daniel's body noted there was...
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Police did not treat the death as suspicious
0:23:42 > 0:23:46and focused on Daniel's apparent suicide note.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51Mandy says the police asked them to verify it was Daniel's handwriting.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Police sent us the bottom half, not even the bottom half,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01but the goodbye part of the suicide note via e-mail
0:24:01 > 0:24:04and we couldn't be sure,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08because we hadn't seen his handwriting on a regular basis.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12We used modern technology to communicate.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18This is one of the last birthday cards I got from the boys,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21which is in Daniel's handwriting.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24This was really all we had to compare the note to.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27We did say that we couldn't be sure
0:24:27 > 0:24:32and they did say that they had experts in the field to look at this
0:24:32 > 0:24:36handwriting, so that it could be analysed,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and that's exactly what we thought was happening.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47Later, Mandy and Daniel's father Adam saw the whole suicide note.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52It was so cold...
0:24:52 > 0:24:58and to the point and matter-of-fact, and Adam voiced this immediately,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00almost immediately,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03said, "There is nothing here
0:25:03 > 0:25:05"that tells me this is Daniel.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08"Absolutely nothing."
0:25:10 > 0:25:15It also said, you know, "Don't blame the guy I was with last night."
0:25:16 > 0:25:19And so one of our first questions was
0:25:19 > 0:25:22"who is this man that he's mentioning?
0:25:22 > 0:25:24"Who was he with last night?"
0:25:25 > 0:25:28And he said, "We don't know.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30"We may never know.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33"We won't know the answer to everything."
0:25:33 > 0:25:36In retrospect, I don't believe they were looking for the answers.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40If they were looking, they wouldn't have had to have looked very far.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43The links were there.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45The links were there.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Gabriel's friend John Pape
0:25:53 > 0:25:57grew even more suspicious when he heard about the third death of a young man in the area.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01It may have been mild paranoia,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04but at the time I was thinking, "You've got
0:26:04 > 0:26:10"now three young men turning up dead in the same area in Barking.
0:26:10 > 0:26:14"There's something very wrong going on here."
0:26:14 > 0:26:20And because I knew Gabriel, I started to worry that I might be in danger
0:26:20 > 0:26:26and so I called the detective from Barking and Dagenham.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30And I said, "If this is murder, you have to tell me,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34"because I'm concerned for my own safety."
0:26:34 > 0:26:39I suppose my thoughts ran to, "Are these young men being murdered?"
0:26:39 > 0:26:43And I was assured that it wasn't murder.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48During this period, Port tried to bolster his cover story.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Using a false Facebook profile, he posed as Jon Luck,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56a 21-year-old former gay porn star from California,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59now living in Dagenham.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01He claimed to have known Gabriel
0:27:01 > 0:27:04and began spreading stories about Gabriel and Daniel's involvement in
0:27:04 > 0:27:07dangerous chem sex orgies.
0:27:07 > 0:27:15This person is saying that Gabriel and Daniel were together
0:27:15 > 0:27:18at a party in Barking.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Essentially, a drug-fuelled orgy.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27So he says, "Young guys, loads of drugs provided by older guys.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31"They take advantage of the young ones when they are passed out.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35"One collapsed and when he woke up, one was fucking him.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38"They say these parties last three days, nonstop,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42"they give them shots with dope inside and coke."
0:27:45 > 0:27:50Obviously, the first port of call is to go to the detectives at Barking
0:27:50 > 0:27:54and Dagenham, and, immediately, I ran into that brick wall.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58"You're not next of kin, there's nothing we can tell you."
0:27:59 > 0:28:02But the point is, I was trying to engage with them,
0:28:02 > 0:28:07because I felt that maybe I had information about Gabriel's final movements.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12And they said that they would speak with their superior officer
0:28:12 > 0:28:14and get back to me, and they never did.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22John Pape then contacted gay online news site Pink News and Galop,
0:28:22 > 0:28:27an LGBT support group with close links to the police.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32Both organisations approached Barking and Dagenham Police to highlight John's concerns.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Galop called the police and they said, "We've got a guy
0:28:36 > 0:28:39"and he thinks he's got relevant information.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43"He thinks that possibly Gabriel and Daniel were at the same chem sex
0:28:43 > 0:28:46"party. Do you want to speak to him?"
0:28:46 > 0:28:49And the police said no
0:28:49 > 0:28:52and also that these deaths are not suspicious.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00On the 23rd of June 2015, Daniel Whitworth's parents were summoned to the
0:29:00 > 0:29:02inquest into his death.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07They were confused to learn that the police had recorded that they,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11the Whitworths, had identified the handwriting on the suicide note as Daniel's.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15More surprises were to follow.
0:29:15 > 0:29:22The coroner asked the detective whether this handwriting had been properly analysed
0:29:22 > 0:29:25and he responded that, you know,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30they'd taken it back to the police station and had a look.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33It was such a shock,
0:29:33 > 0:29:37because they said that they were going to get this handwriting
0:29:37 > 0:29:40expertly analysed by a handwriting specialist
0:29:40 > 0:29:45and they didn't do it. They quite simply didn't do it and if they had,
0:29:45 > 0:29:51they would've known pretty early on that that was not Daniel's handwriting
0:29:51 > 0:29:53and they were then looking at murder.
0:29:56 > 0:29:57And before you know it,
0:29:57 > 0:30:02they're asking the detective in charge about a blue bedsheet that
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Daniel was found on that we knew nothing about.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10The coroner did ask the inspector in charge had they done any DNA testing
0:30:10 > 0:30:15on the bedsheet, to which he replied that he hadn't.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17And when he was asked why
0:30:17 > 0:30:21they hadn't done any DNA testing on the bedsheet, he said
0:30:21 > 0:30:26they didn't feel the need to scrutinise this bedsheet,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31because he didn't think there was anybody else involved at that time.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35The DNA on the bedsheet would most likely have matched with Stephen
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Port's DNA, which was already on the police database.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45And then, we hear that he was bruised under the arms.
0:30:45 > 0:30:52The coroner said that there was bruising found under Daniel's arms
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and across his chest,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58which suggested he had been manhandled.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01And so there we had it.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05We had our third-party involvement.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09There was no way this was a suicide.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11He was taken there.
0:31:11 > 0:31:12He was taken there.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17The coroner recorded an open verdict,
0:31:17 > 0:31:22concluding that third-party involvement could not be ruled out.
0:31:22 > 0:31:28At the end, we came out and I specifically said to the liaison, "You know,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32"we've been given an open verdict, can we now reopen this?
0:31:32 > 0:31:35"Can we carry on with investigations?
0:31:35 > 0:31:38"Because there's a lot that we've heard in there today,"
0:31:38 > 0:31:42and they actually said, "No, that's it.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44"It's an open verdict
0:31:44 > 0:31:48"and that doesn't mean that we can carry on with it.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52"That is the conclusion of Daniel's death."
0:31:52 > 0:31:55"That's your lot, live with it,"
0:31:55 > 0:31:56was the attitude.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00I just think that we were hurried along
0:32:00 > 0:32:03to get a line drawn under this
0:32:03 > 0:32:09and it's left another family, another family besides ours,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13and Gabriel's family, and Anthony's family,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17in this awful, awful position.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20That's a huge mistake.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26In early 2015, Stephen Port was convicted of perverting the course
0:32:26 > 0:32:31of justice during the investigation into Anthony Walgate's death.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34He was sentenced to four months in prison,
0:32:34 > 0:32:37but was released two months early on licence.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43On the 13th of September, on gay dating app Grindr,
0:32:43 > 0:32:47he exchanged messages with 25-year-old Jack Taylor.
0:32:49 > 0:32:50Jack was lovely.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53He was a beautiful person.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56He was funny, very considerate.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59He was like a big brother to me and Jen,
0:32:59 > 0:33:01even though he was our younger brother. He looked out for us.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07I just remember his smile, his laugh
0:33:07 > 0:33:09and just the way he was in general -
0:33:09 > 0:33:11happy, caring.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14There will always be a hole...
0:33:14 > 0:33:16now that he's gone.
0:33:17 > 0:33:18Always.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26Jack went out on the Saturday evening to visit friends.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28He had a few drinks with people
0:33:28 > 0:33:30that he would normally have had a drink with.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32He didn't come home Sunday night.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35We then started to think there was something a little bit odd
0:33:35 > 0:33:40and then, come Monday, as I come out of college, Mum had rung me.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44And then, whilst I'm on the phone to her,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47the police had pulled up outside
0:33:47 > 0:33:53and they came in and asked Mum and Dad if they was Jack's mum and dad.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58So, they've obviously said yes and they said, "Your son's dead."
0:33:58 > 0:34:00It was as simple as that.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02"Jack's dead."
0:34:02 > 0:34:06And, obviously, I heard the scream from Mum
0:34:06 > 0:34:08and...
0:34:08 > 0:34:12I just slid down my fridge, onto my floor
0:34:12 > 0:34:17and just sat there crying.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21It's like you was living in a nightmare at that point...
0:34:22 > 0:34:24..waiting for somebody to say it wasn't true.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Police told the family Jack was found in a park, next to a churchyard
0:34:30 > 0:34:34in Barking having died of a drugs overdose.
0:34:34 > 0:34:40They'd said that there was a syringe found in Jack's pocket
0:34:40 > 0:34:42and a powder in his wallet.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47They said that the coroner had also found a needle mark in Jack's arm.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Well, straightaway, our immediate thoughts were,
0:34:51 > 0:34:52"Jack wouldn't have done drugs."
0:34:52 > 0:34:54He was anti-drugs,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56so something wasn't right.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Nearly two weeks after Jack's death,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03his sisters say they contacted Barking
0:35:03 > 0:35:07and Dagenham Police for an update on their investigation.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11Me and my sister were just blown away to find out that
0:35:11 > 0:35:14nothing had been done for 11 days.
0:35:14 > 0:35:15No investigation.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19It was just a case of Jack had just gone and sat there,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22done an overdose and that was that.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28Unhappy with the police's investigation, Donna and Jen began their own detective work.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30I'll just put these ones here,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34because these are about Jack and his needle mark and arm...
0:35:34 > 0:35:35Jack's last steps on Friday night
0:35:35 > 0:35:37and Saturday night.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41'Me and my sister, Jen, we sat up till four,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44'five every morning after Jack died
0:35:44 > 0:35:47'and what we'd do is we'd get pieces of paper
0:35:47 > 0:35:51'and we'd put things around the outside, like a jigsaw puzzle,
0:35:51 > 0:35:53'to see what bit fitted with what.'
0:35:56 > 0:36:00We did a lot of research on the internet and we come across,
0:36:00 > 0:36:04obviously, the other boys that had been found in Barking.
0:36:04 > 0:36:10This one is when we found Gabriel and Daniel online.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12That was the third boy that passed away.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15It did all look suspicious to us.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20The three young boys, all in their 20s, all found around the same area.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22They all had GHB.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24It really did seem suspicious to us.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Me and my sister questioned the police a few times about these other boys
0:36:29 > 0:36:34and Jack, and we'd said about, you know, "Could there be a connection?"
0:36:34 > 0:36:35They'd said no.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43The Taylor sisters say they continued to raise questions with the police
0:36:43 > 0:36:48and as a result, officers eventually agreed to show them where Jack's body was found.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52We just walked out the train station, didn't we?
0:36:52 > 0:36:55And they were both waiting for us, the two police officers,
0:36:55 > 0:37:00and when we arrived, they told us that they had CCTV footage of Jack
0:37:00 > 0:37:01meeting a man.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11We were really shocked, because, obviously,
0:37:11 > 0:37:14this is 14 days after Jack's died,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17so we wasn't aware that there was any CCTV.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22The man in the CCTV footage was Stephen Port,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26captured here on his way to meet Jack Taylor.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29We was expecting them to say, "Right, we know who this man is,
0:37:29 > 0:37:36"we've already asked him, you know, questions regarding when he met Jack, where did they go."
0:37:36 > 0:37:40And when they said no, we was really shocked.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48It was shocking, just how much they wasn't bothered about who that man was.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Jack meets a man at Barking Station
0:37:54 > 0:37:59and then they've got footage of him walking through a particular route.
0:38:03 > 0:38:04According to his sisters,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08police claimed that Jack and this man then parted company.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13The police had said that they'd got Jack with this man,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17walking through this area, together, up until this point.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23And then they'd said that they lose the man
0:38:23 > 0:38:28and then Jack's alone. And then they'd said that Jack goes straight ahead, on his own.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Towards the green, where Jack was found dead.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33Which, to us, just didn't feel right, did it?
0:38:33 > 0:38:35- No.- It just didn't sit right.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51They told us that Jack was found just sitting, leaning against the wall there.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58Just around about here, wasn't it?
0:39:00 > 0:39:04It's just awful to think that...
0:39:04 > 0:39:05this is where he was.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09The fact how dirty it is.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Look how dirty it is. He just wouldn't have sat here, would he?
0:39:14 > 0:39:16We just knew something was wrong.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19For whatever reason, he wouldn't have walked through the green.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22He definitely wouldn't have sat here on his own, in the pitch-black.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26He didn't do drugs anyway,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30let alone sit here and inject himself. It was just...
0:39:30 > 0:39:34you know, the whole situation didn't make sense, not for Jack.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Convinced the police were wrong about their brother walking alone
0:39:43 > 0:39:48into the park, Donna and Jen returned to the last known point where CCTV had
0:39:48 > 0:39:50captured Jack with the man.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56We said again and again and again, "Could he have gone left?"
0:39:56 > 0:39:58And they'd said no. "No, definitely not."
0:40:00 > 0:40:02Shortly after, a sergeant came on the scene
0:40:02 > 0:40:05and we explained everything to him.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07The sergeant said he would go and have a look.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15He got back to us and he said that we were right.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Jack turned left, that wasn't Jack that walked into that green area.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24There was never any footage of Jack on his own.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26He was always with this man.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Jack's sisters wanted the police to release an image of the man to the
0:40:33 > 0:40:37public to try and get an identification,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40but they say the police were initially reluctant.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41When they were saying things like,
0:40:41 > 0:40:45"Because it's non-suspicious, we don't normally release footage,"
0:40:45 > 0:40:48it really upset us, because this is our brother.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51And not only that, this is a person.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53You know, this is a human being.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58So me and Jen said, "Well, we want it released,
0:40:58 > 0:41:01"because we want to know who this man is."
0:41:01 > 0:41:07You know, he's with our brother and we want to know, who is he?
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Because he would know what had happened to our Jack. He could know.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19They eventually released the footage of Jack meeting the man at Barking
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Station and two days later, a man was arrested.
0:41:27 > 0:41:33On the 15th of October 2015, 16 months after the death of his first
0:41:33 > 0:41:38victim, Stephen Port was finally arrested for the murders of four young men.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47The Met Police moved the case from Barking and Dagenham to a specialist homicide unit.
0:41:53 > 0:41:59A year later, the families of the victims finally saw Stephen Port brought to justice.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Port was found guilty of murdering four young men and of drugging
0:42:05 > 0:42:07or sexually assaulting a further seven.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12He was ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20The loved ones of Port's victims have been left to deal with the catalogue of police failings.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Stephen Port, he is a liar.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28And yet, the police continually believed him.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32It made me furious, absolutely furious.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34They didn't want to investigate it
0:42:34 > 0:42:36and it was just easy enough to believe him.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Perverting the course of justice - job done. Case closed.
0:42:45 > 0:42:51I truly do believe that the Barking and Dagenham Police that investigated
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Anthony's death and the others are homophobic.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59I genuinely believe if Anthony had been a girl, left outside, like trash
0:42:59 > 0:43:02that they would've put more effort into it.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04A lot more effort into it.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08But as they were all young gay boys, they didn't.
0:43:08 > 0:43:09They did nothing.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Stephen Port took Jack's life.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24But they let that happen.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29As far as we're concerned, they're just as guilty as him.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32They should be held accountable for his death,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34because they could have prevented it
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and we have to live with that for the rest of our lives.
0:43:43 > 0:43:45I don't think they cared at all.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47They couldn't have.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51For 15 months we believed Daniel had taken his own life.
0:43:51 > 0:43:57We were going to suicide organisations for help.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03And then...suddenly, you're told...
0:44:03 > 0:44:05quite matter-of-factly...
0:44:05 > 0:44:08it appears to be a murder.
0:44:08 > 0:44:16How can I put into words how let down I feel by an establishment...
0:44:16 > 0:44:19that is there to protect the community?
0:44:21 > 0:44:22I can't.