Stephen Port: Met Police officer regrets inaction over serial killer's laptop

Anthony Walgate, pictured with his friend China Dunning

A police officer "regretted" not sending serial killer Stephen Port's laptop for analysis straight after he murdered his first victim.

Det Con David Parish told an inquest that since Anthony Walgate, 23, died in June 2014, he had been going over his actions regarding the computer.

Data eventually showed Port had searched for drug-rape videos shortly before arranging to meet the student.

Stephen Port was jailed for life for the rape and murder of four men.

The inquest jury was told Port contacted Mr Walgate, offering him £800 for an overnight stay.

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In another message on the FitLads website, before he met Mr Walgate, Port bragged about previously having had sex with a man who was on drugs and was like "a ragdoll".

However, Det Con Parish did not spot the material and reported only on selfies, sex videos and dating site messages on the laptop, relating to Port's "lifestyle".

The police officer apologised for his actions as he gave evidence at the inquest at Barking Town Hall in east London, yards from where Port fatally drugged four young men with GHB over a 16-month period.

Mr Walgate was found dead by medics outside Stephen Port's flat in Cooke Street

The officer was asked by inquest jurors whether he felt "personally responsible for the failings".

"In terms of the laptop - for the last seven and a half years, I wish I could have done that [differently]," he said.

"And that is something I have to deal with."

The hearings are looking at whether the victims' lives could have been saved had police acted differently.

Mr Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, were all found dead near Port's flat in Barking.

Port, now 46, was found guilty at the Old Bailey in 2016 of the four murders and sentenced to a whole-life order.