Stephen Port: Met detective failed to probe Facebook profile used by killer

Stephen Port was given a whole-life prison term for the murders of four young men

A detective failed to investigate a fake Facebook profile that was used by serial killer Stephen Port to spread rumours about his crimes, a jury heard.

Met officer Yinka Adeyemo-Phillips had instead asked a victim's ex-partner to message the user, named "Jon Luck".

Port killed four young men between 2014 and 2015. The deaths were not treated as suspicious until the final murder.

Inquests are examining whether the Met Police's investigations into the four murders were adequate.

Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor, who were all in their early 20s, were killed by overdoses of GHB administered by Port. He dumped their bodies near his flat in Barking, east London.

(L - R) Daniel Whitworth, Jack Taylor, Anthony Walgate and Gabriel Kovari

Ms Adeyemo-Phillips was sent a Facebook account which used the name "Jon Luck", by Mr Kovari's ex-boyfriend, the inquests at Barking Town Hall heard.

The user claimed to have knowledge about the last days of Mr Kovari.

The court was shown an email from Ms Adeyemo-Phillips, telling other detectives that some Facebook messages alluded to a "special party that Gabriel was attending at a secret location in Barking with another friend called Dan".

It came after a fake suicide note was found in Daniel Whitworth's hand which claimed Mr Whitworth had accidentally killed Mr Kovari and was taking his own life in response.

Police accepted the note at face value. The fact it had been written by Port was only discovered by the later homicide investigation.

Ms Adeyemo-Phillips accepted it was important to trace the person behind the false account, but that no steps had been taken other than running the username through a police database.

The officer did not request copies of the messages.

"I don't know why I didn't ask", she told the court.

St Margaret's churchyard in Barking where the bodies of Gabriel Kovari, 22, and Daniel Whitworth, 21, were found

Instead, she had emailed Mr Kovari's former partner, Thierry Amodio, asking if he had contacted "Jon Luck".

Tom Stoate, for the bereaved families, said it was "simply not adequate policing" to get a "member of the public" to message someone with such important information.

The inquests continue.