Port's fourth and final murder victim
After Jack Taylor was found dead by St Margaret's Churchyard on 15 September 2015, his death was declared unexplained but non-suspicious by Inspector Jason O'Donohue, who was leading the investigation.
The senior officer was joined at the scene by two detectives who had been involved in the investigations into the deaths of Gabriel and Daniel.
But Mr O'Donohue said neither detective told him that the deaths all involved young men, found in close proximity, with drug paraphernalia present, and with their mobile phones missing.
The inquest heard that Detective Sergeant Peter Sweetman wrongly suspected Jack and Gabriel might be drug addicts due to their physical appearances.
But the family of Jack, who worked as a forklift truck driver and was an aspiring police officer, insisted he was anti-drugs.
Turning detective, Jack's sisters Donna and Jenny set out to find out what happened to their brother.
They trawled through his Facebook and came across an online article about two other men - Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth - being found dead in the church grounds in Barking.
Donna said she gave police all the information they needed to link the deaths but was met with a "closed-minded attitude".
It was 10 days after they were first told of Jack's death that PC Jon Taylor, a parks officer who was first on scene, went to see the family.
The family explained to the officer that Jack was anti-drugs, and they believed he had no reason to be in Barking.
The police constable – who had no prior experience on investigatory work – then began contacting those who last saw Jack alive.
It led him to look for CCTV in Barking train station which showed Jack met an unidentified tall man, who weeks later was identified as Port.
Finally on 15 October 2015, Port was arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths of all four of his victims by administering poison.
Jack 's father Colin believes his son's life "could have been saved" if police had only listened.
He told the inquest: "We think because the police treated Jack as a drug addict the police didn't look any further.
"If they had done something from the start… Port could have been stopped.
"If the police had listened to all those people from the first murder... this would not have happened.
"They should have listened, just listened to people."
Ex-detectives on the police mistakes
Former Met Police detective Stuart Gibbon told Sky News it was "troubling" that the four deaths were not initially linked, saying he suspected the failure may have been due to a "lack of training and a lack of awareness".
He said the officers who failed to connect the deaths would have felt "horrendous" when they realised they were linked.
"That's one of the worst feelings for a detective, or a police officer in general, because your job is to solve things and to catch people who have been responsible," Mr Gibbon told Sky News.
"The big thing about any death, particularly murder cases - you can't turn the clock back.
"You can go back and revisit but you've lost potential evidence."
Former Met Police detective Clive Driscoll, who worked as a senior investigator on Stephen Lawrence's murder, believes comparisons can be drawn from the force's failures in that case and the Port killings.
One of the biggest criticisms in the Macpherson report in 1999 – which branded the Met Police "institutionally racist" – was that the force had "made assumptions", he said.
In the investigations into the deaths of Port's victims, the Met Police made "massive assumptions", Mr Driscoll added.
The former detective also believes the families of Port's victims "feel the same as Baroness Lawrence (Stephen's mother) did in 1993".
"You've got families in this case who feel alienated by the investigation and not part of the investigation," he told Sky News.
The Met Police's apology
A Met Police chief told the victims' families he was "deeply sorry" there were a number of opportunities missed to arrest Port.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, who led a review of the investigations into the deaths of Port's murder victims, said it was "quite astonishing" that some officers did not follow instructions to get evidence in the case.
"Every single one of you absolutely had a right to expect a professional investigation to the standards all of us expected," he said.
"It's fair to say those standards weren't met."
Mr Cundy said the victims' family members "should not have been ignored" and there was a "clear possibility that Stephen Port could have been identified and arrested sooner than he was".
The inquest heard evidence that the local policing team was overworked as a result of cuts following the 2010 government spending review, and it did not have the specialist officers to investigate homicides.
It also emerged that a report from a Met advisory group in 2007 had warned that the investigation into serial killer Colin Ireland, who tortured five gay men to death in 1993, was hampered because police failed to identify links between the deaths.
Mr Cundy said officers were now better trained over LGBT+ issues and claimed there had been a lack of awareness about GHB in 2014.
Addressing the victims' loved ones, Mr Cundy said: "I can't imagine putting myself in your shoes.
"I am deeply sorry – personally and on behalf of the (Metropolitan Police Service) – that we didn’t conduct the initial investigations to the standard you expected and the standard you deserved."
Credits:
Words and digital production: David Mercer, home affairs reporter
Graphics: Pippa Oakley, designer
Pictures: PA, Shutterstock
