Serial killer Stephen Port managed to stay several steps ahead of the police for months when embarking on his terrifying spree of rapes and murders of young men in East London
Evil Stephen Port will remain caged for life for murdering four men and committing multiple sexual offences against other male victims. The killer, whose modus operandi was poisoning men he met on dating app Grindr with the date-rape drug GHB, had managed to escape justice for far too long, with an inquest ruling failures by the Met Police had contributed to three of his victims’ deaths.
Port, 50, murdered Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, in east London between June 2014 and September 2015. Their bodies were all found dumped in or near a graveyard close to the monster’s Barking home.
At the serial killer’s sentencing at the Old Bailey in November 2016, the judge Mr Justice Openshaw said: “It is not for me to say whether the seeming bizarre coincidence of these three gay young men being found dead so close together might have given rise to suspicions that these deaths were not the result of ordinary self-administered drug overdoses. The competence and adequacy of the investigation will later be examined by others.”
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Five years later, the case was branded “one of the most widespread institutional failings in modern history” by the men’s families in a nine-week long inquest into the The Metropolitan Police’s conduct. Among the widespread failings highlighted were a failure to carry out basic checks, to send evidence to be forensically examined or to exercise enough “professional curiosity”.
Neil Hudgell, a solicitor representing the victims, said: “Our firmly held belief is that the Metropolitan Police’s actions were, in part, driven by homophobia”. Police had refused to treat Ricky Waumsley, who lived and shared a bank account with his partner Daniel Whitworth, as the victim’s next of kin. Ricky insisted he would have been dealt with different if he was a “straight, white woman”.
Port fooled the authorities far too easily, drugging and raping victims before he murdered his first victim Anthony Walgate. Anthony’s body was found outside the killer’s flat with Port making a 999 call claiming he had found his victim slumped outside his front door when he come home at 4am after a night shift.
The killer claimed he had failed to rouse the young man he had never met, before propping him against a wall and going inside his flat to sleep. But police later found the fashion student had been inside Port’s flat and he was arrested and bailed for perverting the course of justice. Crucially, a homicide assessment team was consulted but the possibility of murder – which the killer carried out on June 17, 2014, was not further explored.
That August, Port targeted his next two victims just weeks apart. The bodies of Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth were found in an east London churchyard 500m from Port’s home by the same woman walking her dog. They were both in their 20s, of similar build and propped up in the same position, in the same spot.
Just like Anthony, Gabriel and Daniel were gay and had died of a drug overdose but despite the remarkable coincidences when it came to their deaths, police decided Gabriel and Daniel’s passings were not suspicious. Dogwalker Barbara Denham said of coming across the killer’s third victim by chance just two weeks after the second: “When I looked and saw another young boy sitting in exactly the same position in exactly the same place, it was a bit like deja vu,” she told the BBC. “I thought I don’t believe it”.
After murdering his third victim Daniel, Port had even written a suicide purporting to be from Gabriel, saying he had killed his second victim. “I am sorry to everyone, mainly my family, but I can’t go on anymore,” the faked note read. “I took the life of my friend Gabriel Kline. We was (sic) just having some fun at a mate’s place and I got carried away and I gave him another shot of G.”
“Please do not blame the guy I was with last night,” said the serial killer, who somehow managed to stay one step ahead of the police. “I have taken what G I had left with sleeping pills, so if does kill me it is what I deserve.” Gabriel’s body was found with his clothing pulled up to reveal his midriff, just like Port’s first victim Anthony.
Officers had sought the advice of a homicide assessment team at the time, who once more deemed the death non-suspicious. The note was accepted at face value, another terrible error that failed to stop Port in his murderous quest.
Tracing the author of the note which would surely not have been difficult, for Port’s DNA present on a sleeve it was found in, Daniel’s body and a blue bed sheet. And it was already on the police database.
Gabriel’s devastated loved ones, meanwhile, found a local news article about Anthony’s death and asked the police if it could be related. “The news on the Barking and Dagenham Post is nothing about Gabriel or Daniel,” replied the detective.
A year later, Jack Taylor’s body was found in similar circumstances, with the same cause of death. He was found propped up on the other side of the graveyard wall from where Gabriel and Daniel were found. His midriff was exposed and he syringe was in one pocket and a small brown bottle in another. Despite Port killing his four victim in similar circumstances, police initially suspected Jack had taken an overdose intentionally.
At the 2021 inquest, the Met Police’s deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy, who led a review of the investigation into the case, said he was “deeply sorry” about the missed opportunities to arrest the serial killer. The senior officer, who was not with the Met when the predator committed the murders, called it “quite astonishing” that some officers didn’t follow instructions to secure vital evidence.
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