Stephen Port is interviewed by police (Met Police/PA)
(Picture: PA Media)A senior police officer has denied responsibility for failings by the investigation into the death of serial killer Stephen Port’s first victim.
Port murdered 23-year-old fashion student Anthony Walgate with an overdose of drug GHB before dumping the body outside the flats where he lived in Barking, east London.
Amid a dispute over who should lead the death investigation, police officers failed to carry out intelligence checks on Port or find vital clues which were on the killer’s laptop.
The investigation into Mr Walgate’s death was ultimately closed without being taken over by homicide detectives, and Port went on to kill a further three young men.
However the intelligence from the Police National Computer was not passed to investigating officers until nearly a week later.
Giving evidence in the inquests into the victims’ deaths, Mr Ewing – who has now retired – was asked about an entry in his personal notebook, showing he was aware of the past incident.
“I cannot comment on where the information came from”, he told the hearing, accepting: “That information should have been included in any assessment of the situation at an early stage.”
In the days after Mr Walgate’s death, in June 2014, acting Detective Chief Inspector Tony Kirk messaged Mr Ewing to appeal for the case to be taken over by murder detectives.
Describing the investigation as “increasingly suspicious circumstances”, DCI Kirk concluded: “On the balance of probability, Anthony died at the hands of another”.
Mr Ewing wrote in an email: “My position on this is that we push for a PIP3 accredited SIO (senior investigating officer) whenever there is any possibility of a homicide – not just ask for advice. We do not have such detectives on Borough.”
He told jurors at the inquest he could not remember why he wrote that email, and did not know until recently that two of his officers had discussed referring the case back to the homicide team after Mr Walgate’s toxicology results came back, but neither did.
“You were at the top of the tree. We see the requirement being placed on you to ensure a functional effective CID unit was in place”, said counsel to the coroner Andrew O’Connor.
“That failing – or apparent failing – together with others does suggest there was not a functioning CID unit in place at the time.”
Mr Ewing replied: “I accept there were errors that were made but I am struggling to see how that is a systemic failure which was part of my responsibility and statement of expectation.”
Port was jailed for perverting the course of justice over lies he told about the death of Mr Walgate. But it was not until a year later, when he had gone on to murder Daniel Whitworth, Gabriel Kovari and Jack Taylor, that he was identified as a killer.
Henrietta Hill QC, representing families of the victims, suggested there had been “serious mistakes on the borough” when Mr Walgate’s death was under investigation.
“There were failures of leadership, failures to direct and support the investigation and failures to resource the borough-led investigation”, she said.
But under questioning about his own responsibility for what happened, Mr Ewing said: “Having reflected on this for many years and having looked at the material available to me, I believed the actions I took at the time were appropriate.”
The inquests continue.
