NOTE: Our True Crime Tuesday series will highlight the stories of serial killers and other criminals, with potentially triggering and offensive detail discussed. Proceed with caution.
This week, we’ll be delving into the case of Stephen Port, also known as The Grindr Killer. Responsible for murdering at least four men and committing a series of rapes, he’s a British serial killer who has been put behind bars for life. The story is a brutal one, and ultimately, extremely fascinating. Welcome back to True Crime Tuesday.
An introduction
Stephen Port was born in Southend-on-Sea. At just a year old, he moved with his parents to Dagenham in East London, where he grew up and lived out his younger years. As is often the case in a story like this, Port was described as being a “loner” at school, whilst neighbours have said in his adult years, he had a childlike personality. But Port was no Peter Pan. Instead, he had murder in mind, targeting fellow users of online gay social networks, such as Grindr.
Those he did kill were spiked with gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a date rape drug which Port added to drinks he gave them inside his flat, in Barking. After they were left defenceless, he would rape them, before murdering them inside the home. Prosecution argued that “post-mortem examinations of the four young men who died revealed that each had died from a drug overdose featuring high levels of GHB”, and it was also discovered that Port had used other drugs on his victims, including amyl nitrite (aka poppers), Viagra, mephedrone and methamphetamine (aka crystal meth).
The murder victims
23-year-old Anthony Walgate was a fashion student from Hull, who would work as an escort from time to time, to make some extra cash. He was contacted by Port on June 17th, 2014, who pretended to be a client and offered £800 for his services. They met on the same day at Barking station, and just two days later, Walgate was pronounced dead after Port anonymously called emergency services, reporting a young boy “collapsed or had had a seizure or was drunk” outside his flat. Port would later be jailed for eight months for perverting the court of justice following his account of the death, after being convicted in March 2015, before being released the following June and slapped with an electronic tag.
Between August 2014 and September 2015 however, Port would murder at least three more men.
22-year-old Gabriel Kovari was one of the victims – a man who had moved from Slovakia to London, and briefly lived with the killer. 21-year-old chef Daniel Whitworth, from Gravesend in Kent, was another victim, whilst 25-year-old Jack Taylor, who worked as a forklift truck driver and lived with his parents in Dagenham, is the final named victim.
Each of these victims’ bodies was found in the graveyard of the church of St Margaret of Antioch in Barking, with the same woman finding two of the bodies on separate occasions whilst walking her dog. A fake suicide note was planted by Port with Whitworth’s body, suggesting he was responsible for killing one of the other victims, before taking his own life out of guilt.
Other victims and Port’s conviction
Between 2012 and 2015, another eight men at least were attacked by Port, having been administered with drugs during sexual encounters with the killer, which he claimed was lubrication.
On November 23rd, 2016, Port was convicted of the assaults by penetrations, rapes and murders of Walgate, Kovari, Whitworth and Taylor, as well as the rapes of three other men he had drugged, and 10 counts of administering a substance with intent, and four sexual assaults. He was found guilty on all counts, with a total of 11 men named as victims of his crimes.
Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, Malcolm McHaffie commented on the case, saying: “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.”
Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Port to life imprisonment without the chance of release (a whole life order) at the Old Bailey, on November 25th, 2016.
An investigation into the authorities
Families of the murder victims spoke out following Port’s conviction, slamming the police force as “homophobic” for failing to link the deaths of the four young men who had passed. Speaking with the BBC, one of Walgate’s relatives said: “I totally believe that the Barking and Dagenham police that investigated Anthony’s death and the others are homophobic.
“I genuinely believe that if Anthony had been a girl left outside like trash they would’ve put a lot more effort into it, a lot more effort. As they were all young boys, they did nothing.”
A police watchdog investigation into the murders was completed in mid-2018, with their findings handed over to the victims’ families before a full inquest was opened. As far as we’re away, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is still investigating whether or not the 17 police officers in the Met involved in the case, should face disciplinary action.
The families of the victims have also opened a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police.
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