Met Police made ‘homophobic assumptions’ in ‘botched investigation’ into son’s death, family claims

Edward Cornes was found dead in a hotel room in King’s Cross, with the Met Police accused of a series of investigation failures

Edward Cornes was found dead in a hotel room in King's Cross, two days after being dropped off at university (Supplied)

The Metropolitan Police have been accused of a series of failures and making “homophobic assumptions” during the investigation of a teenager’s death in a London hotel four years ago.

Edward Cornes’ mother still has questions over how he died and has accused police officers of focusing on his sexuality, losing crucial evidence, and failing to interview witnesses in the days after he was discovered dead in a King’s Cross Hotel.

Popular, bright and widely-liked, Edward had been delighted to discover he had been accepted into the prestigious history course at University College London in the summer of 2021.

When Miriam Blythe and Robert Cornes dropped their son off at his halls on 11 October, all seemed well in the life of their 19-year-old son, who had hopes of potentially becoming a barrister.

Just 48 hours later, Edward was discovered dead in the basement room of the Goodwood Hotel.

A post-mortem examination found large amounts of alcohol, GHB, commonly known as the “date-rape” drug, and crystal meth in his system. Two men in their fifties were arrested on suspicion of murder, before the case was dropped.

Edward Cornes’ parents, Miriam Blythe and Robert Cornes, have been left with unanswered questions and have accused the Met Police of a botched investigation (Supplied)

The circumstances of Edward’s death remain a mystery with his parents accusing the Met Police of a botched investigation. On 19 October, six days after his death, they claim the force lost the forensic evidence. The also say that the remaining evidence was lost in January of the following year, which included CCTV and crucial evidence such as bed sheets and blood samples.

The family have also accused the force of taking a homophobic approach to the case which allegedly included telling his parents “with man on man sex anything can happen” and repeatedly questioning his drug use.

Edward’s parents were also left appalled when a senior police officer, without warning and with what they described as questionable evidence, told his inquest in October 2025 that Edward was a drug dealer who had regularly met up with older men.

The evidence for this were two text messages sent years previously, in which he said he did not like ‘chemsex drugs’ and had previously done drugs at parties when he was 17 years old, but “felt so bad I gave it up”.

While the coroner ruled that she would not take this into evidence given his family had not been given prior disclosure, the inquest concluded that Edward’s death had been alcohol and drug related, and was not an unlawful killing.

For Ms Blythe, the first indication that something was amiss came on the morning of 13 October, when Edward’s grandmother said she had received a pocket-dial from him at 3.30am in which he sounded “very drunk”.

Edward’s cause of death was given as alcohol and drugs related (Supplied)

After failing to get hold of Edward, who always answered his phone, she contacted the university halls for a welfare check. Just an hour later, she received a knock on the door from junior officers who informed her that he had been found dead in a hotel.

At 11pm, they received another phone call from detectives, who informed them that two men had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

It emerged that while paramedics had been called shortly before 11am, rigor mortis had already set in and it is believed he died several hours previously. Both men gave differing accounts as to what happened.

Meanwhile, witness evidence and CCTV, which the police later lost, showed that Edward had been “staggeringly drunk” at the time of meeting the men.

Ms Blythe first began to feel the police weren’t taking the investigation seriously after she informed them of the voicemail her mother had received from Edward during the early hours before his death. She claims that upon suggesting that they retrieve the recording, the two homicide detectives said: “We haven’t got the resources to send a car to Bedfordshire.”

Over the course of the investigation, she and her husband claim they were asked if they knew their son was gay, that he consumed drugs, questioned “why did you send him to King’s Cross” and asked why he had money in his bank account – which had formed part of his inheritance from a recently deceased uncle.

After the murder investigation was dropped, they claim two CID officers told them that “gays always take trays of drugs” and “smuggle boys through fire escapes”.

Edward's parents were asked if they knew he took drugs, was gay and why he had a large sum of money in his bank account (Supplied)

After complaining to the Met Police, the Professional Standards Unit found that the language used “was not of a homophobic nature but of agreed wording which features within the chemsex training” and found that there was no case to be answered.

In her landmark 2023 report, Baroness Casey found the Met Police to be institutionally homophobic, while an inquest into the four men murdered by serial killer Stephen Port found that police failings had contributed to their deaths.

A serious case review was undertaken in 2023 upon complaints being made by the family, with 27 failings recognised. His parents know little more of its contents, as the force has refused to release the review in full.

“The first two years I barely left the house, I had panic attacks and couldn’t face speaking to people,” Ms Blythe said. “I couldn’t cope with the sympathy. My husband ran a rental business and was basically having a breakdown so we lost the business. I was a university lecturer and no way could I teach people of a similar age to my son.

“In the first two years, I thought I was having a heart attack and got rushed to hospital, it had a huge emotional toll. I was aware of things, but I was staggering around in a state of disbelief.”

Commander Stephen Clayman said: “It’s difficult to hear how the handling of our investigation into Edward’s death has added to the family’s pain.

“The extensive investigation, which was subsequently reviewed, ruled out third-party involvement in Edward’s death and this conclusion was later reinforced at the inquest.

“But we accept that aspects of the way in which the case was handled did not meet the high standards we expect. While this did not affect the outcome of the investigation, we apologise to Edward’s family and friends for any further distress this caused.”