19/03/2018 London News

Newsnight's about to begin over

on BBC Two in a few moments.

Good evening and welcome

to BBC London News,

with me, Louisa Preston.

The families of the men

murdered by serial killer

Stephen Port have learnt

of "multiple failures"

and "missed opportunities"

by the Met.

Port drugged and raped four young

men and dumped their bodies

in a graveyard near his

home in Barking.

He was given a life

sentence for their murders.

The families of the victims say

they are frustrated about how slow

the report into the police

investigation has been.

Frankie McCamley has the details.

The graveyard in Barking

where Stephen Port dumped three

of his four victims' bodies.

He invited them to his home

using dating apps before killing

them with a lethal dose of

the date rape drug GHB.

Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari,

Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor -

all young adults with their futures

ahead of them, all murdered

by Stephen Port within

the space of 15 months.

Police were asked multiple times

whether they thought the deaths had

been connected but officers missed

all signs that there was in fact

a serial killer at work.

Today the victims' families say

they've been told a report

into the Met's initial response

to the four murders will be damning.

Well, in general terms we've been

told the that report is highly

likely to be critical

of the Metropolitan Police

and a good number of officers

employed by the Met.

There were 17 officers been

interviewed and as I understand,

a fair number of them remain under

the microscope for some

quite damning failings.

The force has refused to comment

but the Independent Office

for Police Conduct launched

the inquiry after families

raised their concerns.

If they'd done what they were

supposed to, lives would have

definitely been saved and obviously

certain people wouldn't

have been raped and gone

through what they've gone through,

so to us, they need

to be held accountable.

It's as simple as that.

Anthony Walgate's mother accused

the force of ignoring the deaths

simply because the men were gay.

It was homophobic.

I really do think that.

And they just refused

to investigate anything.

Didn't matter what you said to them.

All we got all the time

it was "nothing to investigate".

The former chef was eventually

given a whole life sentence

in 2016 despite a catalogue

of errors by police.

But questions still remain.

Why did it take so long

for police to take notice,

and what can be done to stop

it happening again?

Frankie joins us now.

You spoke to the lawyer working

with the victims families today.

How are they feeling?

As you saw from my report, the

families have spoken to the BBC on a

number of occasions, saying how

frustrated they are continuously

with the police. Since their meeting

with the independent office for

police conduct, from what I have

been told, that is still very much

the case, especially as they are not

as far down the line as they thought

they would be. This is an extremely

complex enquiries, not only looking

at a dozen police officers, but

also, unfortunately, looking at the

deaths of four young men. The family

solicitor does say that they all do

understand this and appreciate how

complex this is and really their

focus now is to find out exactly

what happened in that police

investigation and they know they

need to be patient for that.

Is

there any indication of when they

will find out more?

The enquiry

findings will be handed to the

Metropolitan Police by May. That

doesn't mean the media will find

out, the families will find out

then, and that might be further down

the line when the details are made

public. What we know is 17

Metropolitan Police officers are

being investigated, seven of whom

could be sacked if found guilty of

gross misconduct. Speaking to the

Metropolitan Police, they say it is

not suitable for them to comment at

the moment.

Thank you for that

update.

Some homeless people who have been

squatting in a Central London

building during the cold weather say

they don't know where they will

sleep tonight, after leaving ahead

of a court deadline.

More than 150 people were staying

in the Great Portland Street site

and left voluntarily.

But many were worried

about where they would end up,

as Helen Drew reports.

Midday today - the deadline

for around 150 homeless people

to leave this building.

They waited for the bailiffs,

who didn't show up.

But they left anyway.

Nearly all without a plan.

Brandon, where are

you going to go now?

Well, this is the thing,

we don't know.

We haven't got a clue at the moment.

We could be heading back

to the streets, to doorways,

to corners, with rubbish.

We could be eating out of bins.

We don't know.

We don't know what's

going to happen tonight.

They've had somewhere to sleep

since the beginning of the month,

when activists took over

this four-storey building

on Great Portland Street

because of the cold weather.

The primary object of this

building was to try and beat

the Beast from the East,

to try to raise awareness

of empty buildings,

to try to save people's lives.

I've been speaking to volunteers

here, who've told me stories

of the amazing generosity

they've experienced from strangers.

They tell me supermarket shops

delivered straight to the door here.

And one lady told me that

when she gave a man a pair of socks,

he cried and said it was the first

time he'd had a pair

of socks for years.

But there are local residents

who say they've seen people

urinating outside and are

worried about aggressive and

drunken behaviour.

Last week, the building's landlord

went to court saying these people

had no right to be here,

and the judge backed

their eviction order.

Westminster Council tells us they're

aware of the situation and have been

offering support to those

with a genuine housing need.

They say they offer

over 400 bed spaces every night

through local partners.

And the Mayor of London

says his team have spoken

to Westminster Council

and made sure help is at hand.

But most of the people we met

didn't have a bed for tonight

and volunteers feel frustrated.

They will have food

in their bellies, they would have

had a hot cup of coffee.

That's the best we can do.

We'll keep in touch

with them as best as we can.

It is absolutely terrible.

People are going to go out

on the streets to die, basically.

With all the buildings

spare in this country,

I don't understand what's going on,

to be honest.

I think it's disgusting.

After we spoke to Andrew,

he headed out to Bexley

for a meeting with

a charity about a place to stay,

but they have nothing just yet

so tonight he's come back

to Central London.

He may well rejoin the group.

It's unconfirmed, but many told us

they had found another

building just down the road.

But they wouldn't say where.

In May, Londoners will be

heading to the polls

for the local council elections.

Today a campaign to crack down

on voter fraud was launched.

One of the measures being trialled

in some parts of the capital

will require people

to show ID to vote.

But as Marc Ashdown reports,

some are questioning whether it

will make a difference.

Your vote belongs to you...

"Your voice, your vote" -

that's the message behind this

new campaign to tackle voter fraud.

Three areas in London

will be running a pilot

at the local elections

and voters will have to present

photo ID in order

to cast their ballot.

But it's prompted a group of 40

charities, campaign groups

and academics to write

to the Government

outlining their concerns.

The letter effectively says

this is like using a sledgehammer

to crack a nut and notes according

to official figures there were 44

allegations of voter impersonation

in 2016 compared to 3.5 million

potential voters in the UK

who don't have access to photo ID.

There's concern, then,

that that 7.5% of the electorate

might be put off

even trying to vote.

I think this is an unfounded concern

and I think actually it rather risks

scaremongering amongst people.

People have said it, though -

the Electoral Reform Society,

Age UK - lots of organisations

saying there's a lot

of people out there who don't

have access to photo ID.

The key point is this -

the authorities who've taken part

in the pilots are making sure

that everybody can have an

alternative method.

If you're listening to this

programme and you're concerned

you might not have voter ID,

you don't need to worry.

Speak to your council

if they're part of this pilot,

and they'll help make sure

you have an alternative method.

In Tower Hamlets

they're focusing on postal ballots

after the 2014 fraud scandal.

Now, there'll be more

checks and home visits

where multiple people

are registered to vote.

The real challenge, though,

may be getting people engaged.

Will you vote in

the local elections?

Yeah.

Do you know when they are?

I don't know anything.

I'm not interested in

votings and politics.

Nah, probably not.

No? Why's that?

I don't know how to vote.

There's lots of fraud

going on still.

Would it put you off

if you had to show ID?

No, it wouldn't.

You'd still vote?

Yes.

This is really a solution looking

for a problem and people should

focus on getting the turnout up

and not creating new barriers

to people when they get

to the polling station.

Turnout in local elections can be

as low as 40% or lower.

We should be focusing on people

exercising their democratic right.

Ministers say this is keeping

democracy safe and are urging anyone

with concerns to report them

to the police.

That's it for now from me, so I'll

say goodnight and hand you over

to Chris Fawkes for the weather.

Are we in for warmer weather?

Are we in for warmer weather? It

couldn't get much colder,

temperatures have been moving in the

right direction. Over the weekend,

temperatures of 1 degrees, so today

was the warmest day since the mini

beast arrived on our shores, 4

degrees, warm is the wrong word. We

had those bitter easterly winds, but

a beautiful end to the day with

barely a cloud in the sky over the

City of London School is to there

will be cloud in the sky tomorrow.

Looking at this area of cloud across

the north-east of England, just

moving southwards, knocking on our

doorstep towards the end of the

night. We will lose clear skies we

have. A frost is forming, a risk of

icy stretches for a time, but it

will cloud over at the end of the

night and the cloud will be thick

enough for one or two showers. They

will be there or thereabouts in the

morning, a few showers, a

bittersweet or snow, but nothing

significant. The cloud will clear

southwards quickly on Tuesday

morning, leaving us with sparkling

sunshine to look forward to.

Temperatures, four today, doubling

that and a bit more, nine in the

centre of London. The wind still

quite brisk, so feeling on the cool

side, but better news as we head

into the next few days, look at the

trend in temperatures. For Wednesday

and Thursday, cloud, but

temperatures will build, a few

brighter spells. Milder through the

weekend, and into next week,

temperatures as high as 15. That's