The families of Stephen Port's murder victims have been "reassured" as their "long fight for justice continues" after it was confirmed their inquests will be overseen by a judge.

The chief coroner has confirmed a judge will be appointed to conduct the inquests into the deaths of the victims, including a man from Gravesend.

Hudgell Solicitors, which have been instructed by the four families of Port’s victims including Daniel Whitworth's relatives, asked the current coroner for the area, Dr Shirley Radcliffe, to allow the inquests to be held in a different area or to step aside in favour of a judge.

Dr Radcliffe requested permission from the chief coroner to appoint a judge citing the potential complexity of the case, volume of material to be reviewed and the considerable public interest.

A judge will now be appointed by the local authority, Waltham Forest, and a pre-inquest review planned to be held at Walthamstow Coroners Court in November has been postponed.

An inquest date has yet to be set.

Civil liberties and police action specialist Andrew Petherbridge of Hudgell Solicitors said: "We’re very grateful to the coroner for her intervention. There is real public interest in these inquests and in particular into the actions of the Metropolitan Police.

"The long fight for justice continues for the families but they are reassured by the decision to appoint a judge to lead these inquests.”

Two of the victims’ inquests, including Mr Whitworth's, were quashed last year after Port was found guilty of their murders.

The body of Mr Whitworth, 21, of Nine Elms Road, Gravesend, was dumped in a churchyard in Barking, Essex, by Port after he had drugged and raped him in 2014.

At the inquest in June 2015 it was ruled Mr Whitworth, a former Dartford Grammar School pupil and Gabriel Kovari, who was found in the same spot a month before, died after overdosing on GHB and methadone.

The initial inquests in June 2015 recorded an open conclusion into their deaths.

However, these conclusions were reached before the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) had made the link between the death of Anthony Walgate, who died the year before Gabriel and Mr Whitworth's deaths, and before Port’s fourth known murder victim, Jack Taylor, was killed in September 2015.

In a note to Hudgell Solicitors, Dr Radcliffe also confirmed that the IOPC’s (Independent Office for Police Conduct) completed report into the MPS’s (Metropolitan Police Service) initial response to the four deaths is currently being reviewed by the force to allow it to make any redactions relating to sensitive operational matters.

Once this has been completed, it will be made available to the families.

Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Mr Whitworth and Jack Taylor, were murdered by Port between 2014 and 2015.

Their families started a fundraising initiative to be able to instruct civil liberties and police action specialists Neil Hudgell and Andrew Petherbridge of Hudgell Solicitors and Leslie Thomas QC, Emma Favata and Paul Clark of Garden Court Chambers, to represent their loved ones during the inquests.

Port was jailed for life in 2016 for the killings.