Met Police officer ‘sent picture of Stephen Port murder victim’s body to WhatsApp group’
AN officer on the Stephen Port murder inquiry sent a picture of one of his victims to a police WhatsApp group, an insider claims.
The image of Daniel Whitworth lying dead in a graveyard was allegedly circulated the morning he was found to a group called Hunters and Gatherers.
The whistleblower said. “Daniel’s body was wrapped in a sheet and in a graveyard.
“It was an appalling thing to do. There was a mixture of disbelief and disgust when phones started to ping with the picture.”
The revelation emerged days after the Met Police was labelled institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic in a damning report.
It also follows claims the Met inquiry into Port, 48, who was jailed for life for drugging and murdering four men in East London in 2014 and 2015 was bungled and tainted by homophobia.
The deaths were not treated as suspicious until after the final murder.
The body of chef Mr Whitworth, his third victim, was found propped against a church wall in Barking.
He was clutching a faked suicide note confessing to killing another of Port’s victims found in the same graveyard three weeks earlier.
The whistleblower said as the picture of his body was sent, the scene was quickly being shut down and his death dismissed as suicide.
They added: “The whole investigation suffered because of appalling attitudes. Homophobia played a part.”
Victims’ families are considering a fresh complaint to police after we alerted them to the WhatsApp claims.
Met Commander Jon Savell said: “We have worked hard to ensure the service we provide is better while understanding we have more to do.”