Police took at face value a fake suicide note found clutched in the hand of one of four young male victims of alleged serial murderer Stephen Port, the Old Bailey has heard.
Port, 41, who allegedly had a fetish for sex with young unconscious males whom he drugged by spiking their drinks with the “date-rape” drug GHB, wrote the note as part of a “wicked” attempt to frame his third victim for killing his second victim, prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC claimed.
The note was found on the body of Daniel Whitworth, 21, a chef, whose propped up body was discovered by a dog walker at a churchyard near Port’s flat in Barking, east London. He was found to have died from an overdose of GHB – or G – and a sedative drug.
It referred to the death of Gabriel Kovari, 22, whose body, “extraordinarily” said Rees, had been found by the same dog walker in the same position and location three weeks earlier, and who also had suffered an overdose of GHB.
In the note, Whitworth appeared to confess that he had injected Kovari with GHB during sex, and had not noticed he was not breathing, and was now taking his own life in remorse. The note added: “BTW please do not blame the guy I was with last night, we only had sex and then I left, he knows nothing of what I have done.”
Rees said: “The note was written to give the impression that Daniel Whitworth had deliberately taken an overdose of G, together with sleeping pills, to kill himself because he blamed himself for giving a fatal dose to Gabriel Kovari.”
The prosecution said a “cruel and manipulative” Port had written the note. Port had had sex with Whitworth, and was “clearly referring to himself”.
Rees said: “The police at that stage accepted the apparent suicide note at face value and did not investigate further. In particular, Daniel’s movements prior to his death were not checked and no attempt was made to trace the person referred to in the note as ‘the guy I was with last night’.”
Port, a former male escort, denies 29 offences against 12 men, including four murders, seven rapes, four sexual assaults and administering a substance with intent.
The court has heard he was “turned on” by having sex with unconscious young boyish-type men who were drugged, and watched drug-rape pornography.
The first young man to die was Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student and male escort, whom Port allegedly offered £800 for an “overnight” at his one-bedroom flat in June 2014. His body was found propped up in front of the communal entrance to Port’s flat. The cause of death was given as GHB intoxication.
Two months after Walgate’s death and five days after meeting Port, Kovari was found dead, the court heard. Kovari, who was originally from Slovakia, was looking for accommodation and told friends he had found a room in Barking, which was in the defendant’s flat, it was claimed.
Port described Kovari to friends as his “new Slovakian twink flatmate” saying he was “22, quite cute, tall and skinny”. Three days after Kovari moved in, Port told friends he had moved out and “gone to stay with another local guy … some soldier guy he had been chatting to online”.
Kovari’s body was found propped up in St Margaret’s churchyard – 500 metres from Port’s flat – by the dog walker on 28 August 2014, the court heard. His death was treated as “non-suspicious but unexplained” and caused by GHB intoxication.
Whitworth’s body was found on 20 September 2014. As in other cases a small bottle, containing liquid GHB was found, planted, said the prosecution, by Port.
Jurors were told that shortly before Kovari’s body was found, Port had told his sister there was a body in his bed. Rees said he told her they had been taking drugs and that he could not wake the other man and realised he was dead. His sister told him to go to police, and he later claimed to her he had done so and been held for 20 hours before being bailed, which was not true, said Rees.
The prosecution alleges Port knew the dangers of being in a drug-induced coma. “The death of Walgate must have brought that home to him – and yet, if the prosecution allegation is correct, he took that risk again with Mr Kovari’s life for his own sexual gratification.”
After police discovered Port had hired Walgate as an escort, he gave conflicting witness statements over the events before the death, said Rees. He was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice and released on an electronic tag in June 2015, having served half his sentence, jurors were told.
The fourth and last man to die was Jack Taylor, 25, whose body was found by a refuse collector on 14 September 2015, propped up against a wall in the same churchyard as two earlier alleged victims in 2014.
“Despite this being the third body of a young male found in the same location, the death of Jack Taylor was initially treated as non-suspicious based on the fact that there were no obvious marks or wounds on the body. The body was in full view of the public and there were signs of possible drug abuse,” said Rees.
After making contact on Grindr, Taylor had gone to Port’s flat in the early hours of 13 September 2015, jurors were told. The prosecution claims he died shortly afterwards because four-and-a-half hours later Port blocked Taylor on Grindr, thus wiping out the communication string between them.
A routine postmortem examination concluded Taylor, a forklift driver, had died from a mixed drug and alcohol overdose and had high levels of GHB as well as other drugs in his system. As in the other cases, said Rees, a small bottle containing GHB had been “planted” near his body and his mobile phone was missing. The bottle bore Port’s DNA, the lawyer said.
Port was arrested on 15 October 2015 after he was identified on CCTV meeting Taylor at Barking station shortly before his death. He was arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths of the four men by administering poison.
Explaining why Port was facing murder and manslaughter charges in relation to the four deaths, Rees said in order to prove murder the prosecution had to prove the men were unlawfully killed and that at the time Port did the act that killed them he intended to do them “some really serious bodily harm” or kill them.
Rees said the prosecution did not allege Port intended to kill Walgate, “but we do contend that he intended to cause him some really serious bodily harm by putting him in a drug-induced coma – a deep state of unconsciousness” .
If the prosecution failed to prove Port intended really serious bodily harm, they could convict on manslaughter if it were proved that Walgate was killed by an unlawful and dangerous act.
The case continues on Monday.
