The mother of the first victim of Stephen Port has said history could repeat itself amid the “shambles” in the Metropolitan Police.
Anthony Walgate, 23, who left Hull to study fashion in London, was fatally drugged in the serial killer’s flat in June 2014 after they met online.
Police refused to treat his death as suspicious, despite his mother Sarah Sak’s concerns, and three more young gay men were killed before the deaths were linked.
In 2016, Port was jailed at the Old Bailey for life for the four murders.
In December, an inquest jury concluded that a string of failings by police probably contributed to three of the deaths.
The murders came to increased prominence in the BBC’s drama Four Lives, in which Ms Sak, an Asda facilities manager, was played by Sheridan Smith.
The case was one of a series of scandals that led to the resignation last week of Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.
Ms Sak has now published a book on her long fight for justice, entitled A Life Stolen: The Tragic True Story Of My Son’s Murder.
She said: “At the moment I think history could repeat itself because the Metropolitan Police is a shambles.
“And it’s such a shame for the dedicated professional officers that work for them.
“It must be soul destroying to try and go in and do a fantastic job every day and put your heart and soul into it and you’ve got all these other officers, they must know some of them, that could not care less.”
Ms Sak said of the resignation of Dame Cressida, Britain’s most senior police officer, that it was “about time”.
She added: “Somebody needs to come in and not be a political puppet. They need to come in and wield the stick.
“Get rid of the rubbish officers: the bigoted, the homophobic officers, that are in the Met and just let the good ones get on with it.”
Ms Sak met Dame Cressida after the inquest but came away thinking it was a “PR exercise”, adding: “I was not encouraged. She doesn’t command a presence. She was quiet, softly spoken.”
On the need for top-down cultural change, Ms Sak said: “The chief inspectors, the superintendents, they need to clamp down straight away on this behavior and not let it slide. And I really don’t think it’s going to happen in my lifetime.”
Ms Sak, from Hull, was moved to publish her account in the wake of Four Lives, which brought the case to a wider audience.
She said Sheridan Smith did a “fantastic job” in the drama, getting her mannerisms down to a tee.
A Life Stolen: The Tragic True Story Of My Son’s Murder is published by Seven Dials today.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
