Stephen Port

Stephen Port (born 1975)^[1] is a convicted British serial killer responsible for murdering at least four men and for committing multiple rapes. Port's crimes have generated public debate about the danger of online dating apps used by gay men, as well as potential police failings in properly investigating suspicious deaths involving young gay men. Port's case has also brought public attention to the dangers of chem sex and the drug GHB. Port received a life sentence with a whole life order (without the possibility of parole) on 25 November 2016.^[2] Police announced they are now investigating at least 58 GHB-related deaths in response to the Port case.^[3]

Early life

Port was born in Southend-on-Sea. When he was a year old, he moved to Dagenham, where he grew up and his parents still live. He came out as gay in the mid-2000s.^[1] He lived alone in a flat in Barking, London and worked as a chef at a Stagecoach bus depot in West Ham.^[4]

Victims

Port met his victims via online gay social networks.^[1] He used gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a date rape drug, adding it to drinks given to his victims, raped them, and murdered four of them in his flat in Barking.^[5] The prosecution said "postmortem examinations on the four young men who died revealed that each had died from a drug overdose featuring high levels of GHB", but Port surreptitiously used other drugs on his victims: amyl nitrite (poppers), Viagra, mephedrone (meow meow) and methamphetamine (crystal meth).^[6] At his trial, the Judge accepted that Port's intention was only to cause really serious harm and not death, but made the point that Port must have foreseen that there was a high risk of death, especially after the death of his first victim.^[2] This was sufficient for him to be convicted of murder in English law.

The graveyard of St Margaret's Church, Barking: The bodies of three of the four murder victims were found here.

His first murder victim, Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student originally from Hull, who on occasion worked as an escort, was contacted by Port on 17 June 2014 pretending to be a client and offered £800 for his services; they later met at Barking station. On 19 June 2014, Walgate was pronounced dead shortly before 8 am after Port himself anonymously called the emergency services reporting that a young boy was "collapsed or had had a seizure or was drunk" on the street outside his flat.^[6] Evidence linking Port to Walgate's death was missed at this time. Port was convicted of perverting the course of justice in March 2015 because his account of the death to the police varied. He was imprisoned for eight months, but released the following June and electronically tagged.

Between August 2014 and September 2015 Port murdered at least three more men: Gabriel Kovari, 22, who had moved to London from Slovakia; Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend in Kent, who worked as a chef; and Jack Taylor, 25, who lived with his parents in Dagenham, East London, and worked as a forklift truck driver.^[7] The bodies of the last three of the four murder victims were found in the graveyard of the church of St Margaret of Antioch in Barking.^[1] Port had planted a fake suicide note alongside the body of Whitworth that suggested he was responsible for the death of one of the other victims, Kovari, and that he had killed himself out of guilt.^[1][8]

Inquests

The inquests on the deaths returned open verdicts. Nadia Persaud, the coroner, however, said she had "some concerns surrounding Daniel's death which have not been answered by the police investigation". Her statement continued: "most concerning are the findings by the pathologist of manual handling prior to his death" and noted that "the bed sheet that he was found wrapped in was not forensically analysed, and the bottle of GBL which was found near him was also not tested for fingerprints or DNA". A detective was asked why the bed sheet had not been tested.^[1]

Conviction and life sentence

On 23 November 2016, he was convicted of the assaults by penetration, rapes and murders of Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21 and Jack Taylor, 25, as well as the rapes of three other men he drugged, and ten counts of administering a substance with intent, and four sexual assaults.^[3] He was found guilty on all counts.^[5] In total, eleven men were victims of Port's crimes.^[9]

Commenting on the case, Malcolm McHaffie, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said: "Over a period of three years the defendant committed a series of murders and serious sexual offences against young men. Port manipulated and controlled these men through the chilling and calculated use of the drug GHB, which he administered without their permission.... This was a technically challenging case, complicated by a significant amount of evidence taken from the numerous social media sites Port used."^[10]

On 25 November, Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Port to life imprisonment with a whole life order.^[9]

Questions over the Met investigation

Although the bodies of the four men were found in the vicinity of Port's flat in just over a year from late summer 2014, Walgate (the first) outside his front door, and the other three in a graveyard, the Metropolitan Police neglected to link the deaths.^[1][11] The first three victims (Kovari and Whitworth being the others) were initially thought not to have died in suspicious circumstances,^[1] and despite the PinkNews website and the force's LGBT independent advisory group correctly believing there was a serial murderer at large, the police had told them the crimes were not linked.^[5] The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is now investigating whether 17 police officers in the Met should face disciplinary action.^[11]

See also

• List of prisoners with whole-life tariffs

References