Case 345: The Barking Murders

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, drug use, suicide, homophobia *** Over a 16-month period between 2014 and 2015, four young men—Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor—each died under unusual circumstances in the East London suburb of Barking. While the police initially palmed the deaths off as isolated incidents, the families of the four men believed something suspicious was at play. All of the men had been found near or in a churchyard, all had died from dangerously high levels of GHB, and none had a reason to be in the area. When CCTV footage forced detectives to revisit the evidence, what they uncovered was shocking. --- Narration – Anonymous Host https://www.instagram.com/caseys.snaps/ Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas http://mikemigas.com/ Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/casefile-true-crime/id998568017?ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=casefile_podcastsSpotify Premium https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/9gSwcv7USsbPatreon https://www.patreon.com/casefileFor all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-345-the-barking-murders Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  From journalist Olivia LaVoix, the creator of the hit investigative series The Bakersfield 3, comes the new Casefile Presents series Ada. In 2011, the body of a woman was discovered in a California vineyard. For more than a decade, she was known only as Jane Doe. Then detectives finally discovered her name. But identifying her was only the beginning. Listen to Ada wherever you get your podcasts.

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  Twenty-three-year-old Anthony Walgate lived and breathed fashion. It was his dream to be a famous designer, and in 2010, he took the first steps to make that happen. Anthony left his hometown of Hull in north-eastern England to study fashion in London. With his clever intellect, natural talent and sense of humour, it didn't take him long to settle into life in the big city and develop some solid friendships. Free to be himself, his mother described the move as transforming Anthony from a sicknet to a swan. Although he was committed to achieving his career goals, finances were an ongoing issue for Anthony.

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  He mostly survived off his government-backed student loan. While this helped cover the basics, it didn't stretch very far, and Anthony found himself looking for other ways to make ends meet.

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  By 2014, Anthony, who was openly gay, started turning to occasional escort work. He was picky about his clientele, most of whom were older, well-off men he met online and who treated him with respect. Anthony was also very safety-conscious. When organising a date with a new client, he always asked them for a photograph and an address ahead of time. He'd then send this information to a close friend so that someone always knew where he was going and with whom. He typically organised to meet his clients in a public place before joining them at their home or a hotel, looping his friends in on his movements as he went.

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  He also carried a pair of scissors or a small knife as a form of protection.

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  By June 2014, Anthony was busy with exams and down to his last forty pounds. He logged into his account on Sleepy Boy, an online directory for male escorts and sex workers, and responded to a message from a man named Joe Dean. Joe offered to pay Anthony eight hundred pounds for a full night of his services. Anthony was a little suspicious. He typically charged between two hundred and four hundred pounds for two hours, so he was unsure why Joe Dean had offered such a high rate without even trying to negotiate. Joe also said he lived in Barking, a riverside town in east London that is considered the

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  least prosperous area in the entire capital and has some of the highest poverty rates in the UK. It didn't make much sense to Anthony that someone who lived in Barking would offer to pay so much.

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  Thinking it sounded too good to be true, Anthony asked Joe Dean how he could afford such an offer. Joe explained that he was simply house-sitting for a friend who was overseas. Satisfied with that explanation, Anthony asked Joe to send through his photo, address, and date of birth. The two then arranged to meet at Barking Station on the evening of Tuesday, June 17.

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  Anthony texted all of the details through to a friend, followed quickly by another text that explained: "In case I get killed."

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  Ten weeks later, on the morning of Thursday, August 28, 2014, a woman named Barbara Dannam was walking her dog through the historic St Margaret's Churchyard in central Barking. The churchyard stands on the side of the ancient Barking Abbey ruins and is one of the oldest Christian sites in England. It features monuments from medieval times, as well as the graves of many prominent residents who lived in the area between the 17th and 19th centuries. It was a route Barbara took often as she enjoyed the peace and quiet of its weaving pathways and surrounding greenery. But as Barbara made her way through the back of the churchyard at around nine o'clock that morning,

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  she noticed something out of the ordinary. Sitting up against the wall was a young man. He was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, but they weren't on properly and his legs were stretched out straight, with one leg draped over the other. At first, Barbara thought the man must have had a big night and was sleeping it off. She'd walked her dog through the same area the previous evening and he hadn't been there then. But something about the way he was positioned didn't seem right to Barbara. If the man had passed out, surely he would be lying on the ground instead of sitting in such a way. Barbara approached the man

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  and noticed that his clothes looked slightly disheveled. She reached out to touch him. His skin was cold.

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  Barbara called emergency services and the police. Paramedics promptly arrived at the scene, declaring the man to be deceased. A search of his body didn't immediately indicate a cause of death. There were no visible injuries, and the officers didn't think he looked like a typical drug user. With him were two black bags containing various possessions, including toiletries, medication, paperwork, and an empty bottle of vodka. He was also carrying a wallet which identified him as a 22-year-old Slovakian citizen named Gabriel Kovari.

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  Although Gabriel wasn't in possession of a mobile phone, the fact that he had other items of value with him indicated to the police that he hadn't died as a result of assault or robbery. They declared his death to be unexplained, but not suspicious. His body was sent to be autopsied while the police examined the paperwork in Gabriel's bag. They discovered that he had only arrived in England around six weeks earlier, and there was only one name and address they could link him to.

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  35-year-old John Pepe was working from home at his flat in South London when the police knocked on his door and announced that Gabriel Kovari had been found dead in a barking cemetery. John was flabbergasted. He had met Gabriel on a gay networking site only weeks earlier. Knowing Gabriel was new to the country and looking for a place to live, John had offered his spare room while he found his feet. Gabriel warmly accepted, with the intention of staying just a couple of weeks.

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  During that time, the two got along well. They went for drinks at the local pub and watched DVDs at home. John found Gabriel to be sweet-natured and intelligent. A recent university graduate who spoke fluent English and was learning Arabic, Gabriel hoped to work as an interpreter for the UK's National Health Service, or the police.

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  In the meantime, he accepted a job in a shop and John helped him set up a bank account so he could receive pay.

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  The two-week stay quickly turned into six, but John's flat was small and undergoing building work, so Gabriel started looking for somewhere else to live. On Thursday, August 21, 2014, he suddenly announced that he'd found a flat share in Barking and would be moving out the next day. John was a little taken aback, but he didn't pry. The two had a farewell drink together and Gabriel moved out on Friday, August 22, with John letting him know he was welcome back if things didn't work out at the new place. After he left, Gabriel sent John a friendly text message from an unknown number.

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  Three days later, on Tuesday, August 26, John messaged Gabriel to see how he was settling in. There was no reply.

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  John Papé couldn't tell the police much about Gabriel. He knew that he'd previously lived in Spain with his boyfriend and that his Facebook account was under the slightly different name of Gabriel Klein, but John couldn't shed any light on how Gabriel might have died. He still had a key to John's flat, which made it unlikely that he died of exposure. Besides, it was still summer and the weather had been warm. And as far as John was aware, Gabriel wasn't suicidal and he didn't use drugs.

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  After the police left, John struggled to wrap his head around Gabriel's death. Feeling unsettled and wanting to know what had happened, he sent a text to the unknown phone number that Gabriel contacted him from shortly after moving out and asked the recipient to call him back. The owner of the phone was a man named Cosmo. He called John and explained that he'd met Gabriel online a couple of years earlier and that the two had caught up a few times after Gabriel moved to the UK. When John broke the news that Gabriel was dead, Cosmo sounded genuinely shocked and upset.

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  He said he'd last seen Gabriel after he left John's place, dropping him off in Upton Park so he could travel on to his new flat in Barking. Cosmo didn't know where exactly Gabriel had moved to or with whom, but he did recall that Gabriel used his phone to send a message to his new flatmate. Cosmo checked his phone but couldn't find the message, concluding that Gabriel must have deleted it. Sharing John's concerns, Cosmo contacted his phone provider and obtained the number that Gabriel had texted.

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  John then messaged it, asking the recipient to contact him regarding Gabriel. He never heard back.

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  On Wednesday, September 10, a message appeared on Gabriel's Facebook page from someone called John Luck. According to Luck's profile, he was a 21-year-old former porn actor from Los Angeles who was currently living in the next town over from Barking. Gabriel's ex-boyfriend, Thierry, who lived in Spain, saw the post from John Luck and messaged him privately to let him know that Gabriel had died. "I'm so, so sorry," Luck responded. He was such a nice guy.

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  Luck told Thierry that he was the person Gabriel had gone to stay with after moving out of John Papé's place on August 22. He said they'd gotten along well and had slept together, but that Gabriel spent a lot of time on the gay dating app Grindr. He began talking to an older man named Tony, who seemed desperate for Gabriel to go and stay with him, even offering him money to do so. Luck said that on the morning of Sunday, August 24, he was getting ready to leave for uni when Tony arrived at his place. Tony and Gabriel went for a walk, and when they returned 45 minutes later, Tony started

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  packing Gabriel's things into his car, and they then left together. John Luck didn't know much about Tony, other than the fact that he drove a green Toyota, had white hair, and spoke with an Irish accent. He told Thierry he'd try and find out some more details about him.

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  Meanwhile, Gabriel's post-mortem examination indicated that his death was caused by a drug overdose. There was no evidence of bruising, wounds, or any other injuries. Samples were taken for toxicological testing, and the results confirmed that Gabriel had taken a fatal dose of gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB. GHB is an illegal and potent central nervous system depressant used primarily as a recreational drug. Known for its euphoric and sedative effects, it is also considered to be a date rape drug due to being hard to detect if slipped into a drink.

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  There is a very fine line between what constitutes a recreational dose of GHB and a potentially fatal one, especially if mixed with alcohol or other drugs, as it was in Gabriel's case. Testing had also revealed a low blood alcohol reading, as well as high levels of methadone, a synthetic stimulant that is often described as being like a mix between speed, ecstasy, and cocaine.

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  Based on those findings, the police declared Gabriel’s death to be from a mixed drug overdose. The Barking area had a high incidence of drug use and drug-related deaths weren’t uncommon. Plus, in the police’s view, Gabriel was essentially unhoused and therefore more vulnerable. But, what was initially considered to be a fairly open-and-shut case soon became something else entirely.

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  Just after 11 o’clock on the morning of Saturday, September 20, 2014, Barking resident Barbara Denham took her dog on their usual walk through St. Margaret’s churchyard. Undeterred by the grisly discovery of Gabriel Kovari's body just 23 days earlier, Barbara once again followed the paths that weaved through the back of the churchyard. But, when she got to the spot against the wall where Gabriel’s body had been found, she froze. “I don’t believe this,” Barbara thought. “This can’t be.” Sitting in the same L-shaped position as Gabriel was another young man.

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  Barbara approached the man. He was tall and thin with short, dark hair. A blue bedsheet was draped over him and there was a black table mat underneath his legs. He was cold to the touch and it was obvious that he’d been dead for some time. On his chest was a plastic envelope with a messy, handwritten note inside. “I am sorry to everyone, mainly my family,” it read. “But, I can’t go on anymore. I took the life of my friend, Gabriel. We were just having some fun at a mate’s place and I got carried away and gave him another shot of G.

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  I didn’t notice while we were having sex that he had stopped breathing. I tried everything to get him to breathe again, but it was too late. It was an accident, but I blame myself for what happened and I didn’t tell my family I went out. I know I would go to prison if I go to police and I can’t do that to my family. At least this way, I can be with Gabriel again. I hope he will forgive me.”

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  Please do not blame the guy I was with last night. We only had sex, then I left. He knows nothing of what I have done. I have taken what G I had left with sleeping pills. Feeling dizzy now, so hoping you understand my writing. I dropped my phone on way here, so should be in grass somewhere. Sorry to everyone. Love always, Daniel, P dot W.

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  Barbara called the police and they promptly arrived at the scene. In Daniel's pockets, they found a small brown bottle containing GHB, as well as some white powder, an unused syringe, and a tourniquet. There was no visible cause of death, but based on the evidence at hand, the police assumed they were dealing with an intentional overdose. While Daniel's body was taken away to be autopsied, the police got to work tracking down his family to deliver the news.

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  Adam Whitworth was at home when the police knocked on his door to tell him that his son had died.

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  Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. Twenty-three-year-old Daniel was his only child, and the two had an incredibly tight bond. Adam had raised Daniel as a single parent, and he'd always been the apple of his father's eye. Six years earlier, Adam met his partner Amanda, and she too fell in love with Daniel, proudly taking on the role of stepmother. The idea that Daniel could have taken his own life was unbelievable to Adam and Amanda. Although Daniel had struggled a bit growing up and had some ongoing issues with his mental health, life had been going well for him recently. He was in a stable, long-term relationship with his live-in boyfriend,

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  was close to his family, and had a talent for cooking that had led to a career as a chef. Having worked for a catering company for some time, Daniel had recently been offered a position working at a spa resort in Kent, which was much closer to where he lived, and he was looking forward to the shorter commute. He and his boyfriend had plans to move, and had even been talking about marriage.

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  Adam told the police that Daniel had a very reserved personality and that while he could sometimes go overboard with alcohol, he never touched drugs. He also had no connection to barking, and Adam couldn't think of any reason for him to be there.

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  The police didn't tell Daniel's parents about the contents of his purported suicide note. Instead, they emailed through a copy of the bottom of the note, which contained his final goodbye, and asked if they recognised the handwriting.

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  Adam and Amanda couldn't be sure. The sample was only short, and the digital copy wasn't very clear. Also, the vast majority of their recent written communication with Daniel had been via text. Without seeing more of the letter, they couldn't make an accurate judgement as to whether or not the writing was his. The police told them not to worry. They would have a handwriting expert analyse the letter against some birthday cards from Daniel that the Whitworths had provided. As for the letter, the police said that only Adam could see it in its entirety, and only in due course.

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  Meanwhile, Daniel's autopsy provided no clear cause of death until toxicological testing confirmed what investigators presumed from the get-go. Like Gabriel Kovari before him, Daniel Whitworth had died from a fatal overdose of GHB.

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  Daniel's parents were desperate to see the note for themselves, not to ascertain whether or not he had written it, but to see if it offered any clues as to why he'd taken his life. No matter which way they looked at it, they just couldn't believe that Daniel would ever kill himself.

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  The police eventually told them how Daniel had said that he was riddled with guilt after accidentally killing someone, but his parents didn't believe that either. Just days before Daniel's death, the Whitworths held a small family gathering at their place. Daniel had been his usual self, showing no signs of distress or upset. Daniel's parents knew him to be a caring person. If he'd been responsible for someone's death, he wouldn't have been able to keep that hidden. Likewise, Daniel's boyfriend hadn't noticed anything about his behaviour to indicate that something was wrong, nor could he think of a time when Daniel's whereabouts were unaccounted for for long enough to have committed the alleged crime.

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  Weeks later, the police took the Whitworths to see the spot where Daniel was found. Standing in St Margaret's churchyard, they found themselves asking even more questions. Daniel wasn't religious, so if he was going to kill himself, why do it in a churchyard? And why in barking of all places? Daniel had a slight build. How then, his parents wondered, had he physically carried a grown man out of a mate's house, as the letter claimed, and all the way to this spot without raising any alarms?

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  After visiting the site, Adam and Amanda were finally shown the full suicide note. They prepared themselves for an emotional onslaught, but were instead surprised to find that the note was oddly cold and clinical. Nothing about it sounded like Daniel's voice, and it seemed strange that he hadn't mentioned any specific family members. They were also struck by the strangeness of the line, "I didn't tell my family I went out." Daniel hadn't lived at home for years, and his parents had no idea of his daily comings and goings. So why write that? And who was the man he said he'd been with on the night that he died?

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  The Whitworths shared their concerns with the police, who told them to remember that Daniel had been under the influence of drugs, which could have affected how he wrote. As for the man he'd been with, they didn't know who that was, and said they probably never would.

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  While all this was going on, Gabriel Kovari's ex-boyfriend Thierry received another Facebook message from John Luck, the man who claimed Gabriel had mysteriously gone off with someone he'd met on Grindr in the days before he died. "Hey mate", Luck wrote, "have managed to find the guy Gab left with. His name is Tony Ferry. He lives in Kilburn Park." Luck explained that he'd messaged Tony to ask what had happened to Gabriel. Tony told him that Gabriel only spent one night with him. During that time, he said Gabriel had been chatting to a young guy named Dan on Grindr.

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  Dan invited Gabriel to a sex party in Barking, and Gabriel agreed to go. Dan went to Tony's house, and the three had a drink together and chatted for a while, before Gabriel grabbed all his stuff and left for the party with Dan. When Luck told Tony that Gabriel was dead, Tony told him to leave him alone, saying that he wanted nothing to do with it.

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  Over time, John Luck managed to obtain some further information, which he also shared on Facebook. Apparently, the party Gabriel had gone to was what was known as a chemsex party, a gathering where guests use drugs to facilitate and enhance long sexual sessions with multiple partners. These sessions can last for days and often involve unprotected, high-risk sexual activity.

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  Luck said that during these parties, older men were known to ply the younger ones with the drugs and then take advantage of them once they passed out. "They gave them shots with the dope inside", he wrote. "And coke. All kinds of shit."

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  Thierry shared everything he knew with Gabriel's former flatmate, John Pappe, who was still struggling to make sense of Gabriel's death. Unsatisfied with the police version of events, and convinced there was more to Gabriel's overdose than met the eye, John sat at his computer in the days following Gabriel's death and tried to find some answers. Into a search engine, he typed “unexplained deaths embarking”. As he scrolled through the most recent links, a newspaper article from just two months earlier left him stunned.

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  It was 4:05 on the morning of Thursday, June 19, 2014, when a call came through to 999, the UK's National Emergency Services Line, requesting an ambulance on Cook Street in Barking. "There's a young boy", the male caller said. "Looks like he's collapsed outside. I don't know. Looks like he's collapsed or had a seizure or something, or he's just drunk." The operator asked the man for the phone number he was calling from. The man mumbled something about having to get into his car before the call abruptly disconnected.

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  An ambulance quickly arrived on Cook Street, a short stretch of road housing several blocks of multi-storey flats and parking spaces, but was unable to locate the collapsed individual.

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  The 999 operator traced the number and called the man back, asking him to confirm the incident's location. "Oh, I've just driven away now", the man said, adding that he'd only seen the collapsed person while driving past, but that he'd looked about 20 years old. He didn't know if he was still breathing or not.

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  Eventually, at 4:18 a.m., the ambulance officer located the individual sitting on the ground outside a block of flats at 62 Cook Street. He was propped up against the wall with his t-shirts scrunch up, as though he'd been pulled along. He was extremely cold to the touch, and the officer could tell that he'd been deceased for quite some time. The ambulance officer covered the man's body with a blanket and phoned the police.

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  The first two attending police officers searched the man's belongings and identified him as twenty-three-year-old Anthony Walgate, a fashion design student from Golders Green in northwest London. Anthony was in possession of a small carryall, his bank card, his public transport card, several prescription medications, and a small brown bottle containing white powdery residue. He had no mobile phone, and the fly on his jeans was undone and broken. The officers also noticed what looked like a footprint on Anthony's chest. Coupled with the positioning of his body, and the fact that the caller who reported

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  finding him had been described as being unsure and apprehensive, they wondered if they were dealing with a suspicious death. The police inquired as to whether there were any CCTV cameras in the area, but no relevant footage was found. They traced the phone number of the 999 caller and identified him as thirty-nine-year-old Stephen Port. They also discovered that he lived in the very building that Anthony's body was found in front of. Police knocked on his door, but there was no answer. A forensic medical examiner arrived on the scene and declared that Anthony had likely

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  been dead for around eight hours, possibly longer, with rigor mortis having already set in. However, they dismissed the apparent footprint on his chest, identifying it as hypostasis, a natural part of the decomposition process where blood or fluid accumulates in the body. They also noted that epilepsy should be looked into as a possible cause of death, and deemed that whatever had happened to Anthony, it didn't look suspicious.

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  But the crime scene manager was concerned about the positioning of Anthony's body, as the location where he was found didn't seem like a place where somebody would be sitting. She also noted that his underwear was on backwards and inside out, and the t-shirt he was wearing looked much too big for his slender frame. Finding no obvious wounds or signs of trauma, she arranged for his body to undergo a special post-mortem. She suspected they were likely dealing with a drug-related death, but couldn't rule out the possibility of third-party involvement. Meanwhile, the flatmate of Stephen Port, the man who had called 999,

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  came home and let the police inside. They found Port asleep in bed and woke him up. Port explained to the police that he'd arrived home at around 4am after working a night shift to find the young man lying on the ground, blocking the communal entrance to the building. In an attempt to wake him up, Port slapped the man in the face. This caused him to make a gurgling sound, but it didn't wake him up. Port then dragged the man by the armpits and propped him up against the wall before going inside, calling an ambulance, and going straight to sleep.

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  Port's account that Anthony had made a gurgling sound at around 4am was at odds with the medical examiner's finding that Anthony was already deceased hours before the discovery of his body. But Port's dragging of Anthony did explain why his t-shirt was tucked up and why the special post-mortem conductor the next day found signs of bruising.

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  Anthony's cause of death couldn't be ascertained, but the findings were consistent with a drug overdose. Samples were sent away for further toxicological testing.

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  With the results not expected back for a couple of months, the police spoke to some of Anthony's friends and learned that the fashion student moonlighted as an occasional escort. They were also told that on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, Anthony had left to spend the night embarking with a client named Joe Dean. According to a friend of Anthony's named China, Anthony had taken some poppers with him on this visit, short-acting recreational drugs which are inhaled to give the user a mild euphoric rush and enhance sexual experience. But China was adamant that beyond the use of poppers, Anthony didn't take any drugs and would never do so with a client.

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  If he had died of an overdose, she insisted that his drink must have been spiked or something else untoward had happened.

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  Anthony had shown China a photo of Joe Dean and later sent her his birth date and address, which he gave as being on St Anne's Road, just metres from the Cook Street flat where Anthony was found. Although Joe Dean's date of birth made him nine years younger than Stephen Port, the police were still suspicious about Port's version of events.

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  They showed China a photo of Stephen Port. She said she was 97% sure that he and Joe Dean were one and the same.

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  While all of this had been going on, Anthony's mother Sarah was holidaying overseas with her phone switched off, rendering her uncontactable. Three days after Anthony's body was found, she turned her phone back on and discovered the tragic news of her son's death. Sarah immediately rushed back to England and was horrified to discover that the police believed Anthony had died of a drug overdose. To Sarah, that was simply not possible. She and Anthony had always been close and she was certain he would never take illegal drugs. She was flummoxed as to why the police weren't making a bigger deal about him not being in possession of his phone,

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  which she told them Anthony was practically glued to. He'd also been mugged somewhat recently and had been incredibly safety-conscious ever since.

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  Sarah was convinced that Anthony had fallen victim to foul play. She asked the police to track his phone or check his laptop's activity, but according to her, they said that was too expensive. However, they did run a background check on Stephen Port and discovered that he had previously been accused of rape. On New Year's Day of 2013, a young man called Jacob Flynn, not his real name, phoned the police to report that Port, his on-and-off boyfriend of two years, had plied him with alcohol and poppers, then raped him once he was incapacitated. According to Jacob,

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  it wasn't the first time that Port used drugs and alcohol to take advantage of him. Jacob was homeless at the time, having gone through a bad breakup and was described as being acutely vulnerable.

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  Port was arrested that same day, but Jacob quickly withdrew his complaint. While he maintained that the sex was non-consensual and he was uncomfortable about the amount of substances Port had given him, Jacob said he'd been too scared to tell Port this, writing in his statement: "Stephen would not have known that I did not want to do these sexual acts, as I never said anything to indicate this." The police took a sample of Port's DNA, but didn't press charges or pursue further action.

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  On Thursday, June 26, one week after Anthony Walgate's body was found, the police arrested Stephen Port for lying to them, and he agreed to be interviewed. Port gave the police two more bogus stories before admitting that he had invited Anthony over to his place for paid sex on the night of Tuesday, June 17, 2014. He said that the two had slept for most of the next day and that he then left Anthony alone in his flat while he went to work a night shift.

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  Port said that when he came home at around 3:45 the next morning, he found Anthony in his bed, naked and unconscious, but still alive from what he assumed to be a self-administered drug overdose.

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  In a state of panic and fearing that the police might mistakenly think he had something to do with it, Port said that he dressed Anthony's body and then dragged him outside before calling 999. When asked by one of the interviewing officers why he didn't just leave Anthony in bed before calling for help, Port replied that he thought it would “look suspicious like last time”.

• 39:57Speaker 00

  The police formally charged Port with attempting to pervert the course of justice, but Anthony's death was still officially considered unexplained and no charges were laid against Port in that regard. He was released on bail while the investigation into Anthony's unexplained death continued. A little over two months after Anthony's death, the results of his toxicological tests came back, confirming that Anthony had died from a fatal overdose of GHB. The powder in the bottle found in his pockets was also confirmed to be GHB.

• 40:37Speaker 00

  By this point, Gabriel Kovari's former housemate, John Pepe, was still trying to make sense of Gabriel's death.

• 40:46Speaker 00

  When an online search for other unexplained deaths embarking took him to an article about Anthony Walgate's death two months earlier, John couldn't believe what he was reading. He typed the Cook Street address where Anthony was found into Google Maps and was stunned to find that it was just a couple of blocks away from St Margaret's Churchyard, a mere five or six-minute walk.

• 41:11Speaker 00

  For John, the similarities between Gabriel and Anthony's deaths were too striking to be ignored. Here were two young gay men of similar age, both found dead in similar circumstances, just 400 metres from one another.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  The day that Anthony's toxicology results came back was the same day that Daniel Whitworth's body was found in St Margaret's Churchyard.

• 41:39Speaker 00

  John Pepe was aware that a man called John Luck had been telling stories on Facebook about Gabriel going to a cam sex party with a man named Dan.

• 41:50Speaker 00

  Thinking this information could be helpful to the investigation, John Pepe went to the police to tell them everything he knew. However, he was surprised to find that the police seemed more or less uninterested. An officer said that someone would get back to him, but they never did.

• 42:10Speaker 00

  Unsure what to do next, John reached out to two organisations that he knew had close links with the police. One, a news site focusing on LGBTQ+ issues, and the other, a support group for LGBTQ+ survivors and victims of abuse. Both organisations contacted the police to relay the information John had provided and to let them know that he was willing to help if needed. Police said that wouldn't be necessary, because none of the deaths were being treated as suspicious. But John's initial curiosity had turned to genuine concern.

• 42:51Speaker 00

  As he later told a documentary released by the BBC, with the death count rising to three men, he was worried that his connection to Gabriel could mean his own life was in danger.

• 43:05Speaker 00

  John called the police and told them about his safety concerns, demanding, “If this is murder, you have to tell me.”

• 43:14Speaker 00

  The police told him not to worry. What they were dealing with was unusual, but it wasn't homicide.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  Just under a year later, in June 2015, an inquest was held to examine the circumstances of Daniel Whitworth's death. During their dealings with the police, Daniel's family had been clear that they couldn't be certain that the handwriting on the supposed suicide note was Daniel's. The police had assured them that the writing would be examined by an expert. They were therefore shocked to learn during the inquest that this expert assessment had never taken place. Yet, the police said that the handwriting had been positively identified as Daniel's by comparing it to writing from his diary.

• 44:06Speaker 00

  This wasn't the only detail that Daniel's family was now hearing about for the first time. They were told that bruising had been found on Daniel's chest as well as under his armpits, which the pathologist attributed to him being moved prior to his death. While the police acknowledged this possibility, they reasoned that the bruising could have been caused during consensual rough sex, citing Daniel's reference in his suicide note to spending the night with another man. One officer claimed that Daniel clearly led a double life that his partner knew nothing of. The police told the coroner that attempts had been made to find the man mentioned in

• 44:49Speaker 00

  Daniel's suicide note with no success. It was also the first time that Daniel's family heard his body had been found on a blue bed sheet. The detective told the coroner that the sheet hadn't been tested for DNA because they didn't think an external party was involved in Daniel's death. The bottle of GHB found in Daniel's pockets wasn't tested for fingerprints for the same reason. The coroner was critical of these decisions, saying that the failure to test these items or identify the man Daniel mentioned in his note meant there were many aspects of his death that hadn't been answered by the police investigation.

• 45:33Speaker 00

  She ultimately recorded an open verdict, concluding that she couldn't rule out the possibility of third-party involvement.

• 45:42Speaker 00

  This didn't mean that the police were required to reopen the investigation. As far as they were concerned, the open finding essentially was a conclusion. Daniel's parents were bitterly disappointed by this, in addition to being unsettled by the new information that had come to light. They did their best to move forward. Still struggling with the idea that Daniel could have taken his own life, they sought help from suicide support organisations to accept the unacceptable.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  Two months after the inquest, on Monday, September 14, 2015, the family of 25-year-old Jack Taylor was starting to worry.

• 46:32Speaker 00

  Jack, a forklift driver and warehouse operative for a champagne company, lived with his parents in Dagnam, the neighbouring suburb to Barking.

• 46:42Speaker 00

  That Saturday night, he had gone out drinking with some friends before returning home at around 1am. He chatted briefly with his dad and then went to bed, or so his parents thought. When they woke up the next morning, Jack wasn't there, and he didn't return home for their regular Sunday lunch. Although Jack had had girlfriends in the past, his parents suspected he might be gay or bisexual. They convinced themselves he had likely gone to meet up with someone and would reappear at any moment. But when there still wasn't any word from him by Monday afternoon, their anxiety spiked.

• 47:26Speaker 00

  Jack was a caring and considerate young man who always looked out for his family. It was completely out of character for him to stay away this long without letting someone know what he was up to. Just as Jack's mum was phoning one of his sisters to see if she had heard anything, the police knocked on her door.

• 47:47Speaker 00

  Without so much as asking her to sit down, one of the officers announced that Jack was dead.

• 47:54Speaker 00

  Several hours earlier, a groundskeeper had been walking through St Margaret's churchyard in Barking when they found his body propped up against a wall. Police had found Jack to be in possession of an unused syringe, a small brown bottle, and some white powder. With no obvious signs of injury, their presumption was that Jack had died of a drug overdose. He had his wallet with him, but no mobile phone. Jack's parents were beside themselves. Nothing about what they were hearing made any sense. Jack was not into drugs, and due to his job as a forklift operator, he was subject to regular drug testing at work.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  He'd never once come back with a positive result. He was also in the process of obtaining a security licence and wouldn't do anything to jeopardise his ambitions. But the subsequent autopsy revealed a needle mark in his right arm, supporting the theory that Jack had died of a drug overdose. A further search of his clothing also revealed that he was carrying a tourniquet and antiseptic wipes. Samples were sent for toxicological testing, along with the bottle and powder found at the scene. Jack's two sisters, Jenny and Donna, were highly suspicious of the police version of events.

• 49:24Speaker 00

  Although Jack was the youngest of the three siblings, he had always looked out for Jenny and Donna as though he was the oldest. Funny, caring, and considerate, he was considered the life and soul of the Taylor family, and in their view, there was simply no way that he could have died of a voluntary drug overdose. Setting aside the fact that Jack was opposed to drugs, there was a notable problem with the autopsy findings. Jack was right-handed, and the needle mark was found on the same side. If he'd really injected himself, it stood to reason that the needle mark should have been in his left arm. Furthermore, Jack always carried his wallet in his right pocket.

• 50:08Speaker 00

  When his body was found, it was in his left. The fact that he didn't have his phone with him was also suspicious. Jack had never went anywhere without it and even carried a separate charging case around so that he never ran out of battery.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Ten days passed with the Taylor family hearing nothing else from the police. On the eleventh day, Jenny and Donna called the police themselves to see what was going on. They were shocked to learn that no further investigation was being conducted. The sisters couldn't believe it. They had been conducting their own research online and it hadn't taken them long to discover that the bodies of Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth had also been found in St Margaret's churchyard just one year earlier, in the abbey on the opposite side of the wall from where Jack was found.

• 51:06Speaker 00

  According to their research, the area had a reputation for being a gay beat, a place where men could meet for anonymous sexual encounters. With three young men in their early twenties, all dying of drug overdose within metres of one another, Jenny and Donna brought the information they'd found to the police and asked if there could be a connection between the three deaths. The answer was a firm no. Daniel, they were told, died by suicide, while Gabriel had been homeless and killed by accident.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  Undeterred, the Taylor sisters continued with their own investigation, staying up late into the night to see what they could piece together. When they learned about Anthony Walgate's death on nearby Cook Street, their suspicions only grew.

• 51:59Speaker 00

  They discovered that Gabriel Kovari had been using Grindr in the lead-up to his death, and wondered if Jack could have met up with someone using the same dating app. Jenny had seen Jack using an app with a yellow icon like Grindr had, and she suggested this possibility to the police. They palmed it off, saying the app was likely Snapchat, which had a yellow icon too.

• 52:28Speaker 00

  The Taylor sisters continued to raise questions, so the police eventually agreed to take them to the site where Jack's body was found. Upon seeing it for themselves, Jenny and Donna were more convinced than ever that Jack, who was an impeccably neat and tidy person, would never have ventured to such a dirty area alone. Much to their surprise, the police then told them that they had found CCTV footage from the early morning hours of Sunday, September 13, that confirmed Jack had met up with an unidentified man. The pair met at Barking Station before walking down the street together, then parted ways once they reached Barking Town Square.

• 53:13Speaker 00

  The police said that after that, Jack was captured in the footage alone, heading towards the churchyard where his body was later found. Jenny and Donna found this hard to believe. In their view, it made much more sense that Jack had met up with the unidentified man for sex and the two had gone off somewhere together. Wondering if the man seen walking into the churchyard could have been someone else entirely, they pushed for the CCTV footage to be reviewed. Eventually, the police relented. Upon closer inspection, they realised that the Taylor sisters were right.

• 53:55Speaker 00

  The man walking towards the churchyard wasn't Jack Taylor, and Jack never parted company with the unidentified man he'd met at Barking Station. At around the same time, the preliminary results of Jack's toxicological testing came back, confirming that he had died of an overdose of GHB. The Taylors were convinced that the man Jack met up with had played a role in his death, but when they saw the CCTV footage for themselves, they couldn't identify him. Although the police were initially hesitant to release an image of the man to the public, eventually, they agreed to do so.

• 54:37Speaker 00

  On Wednesday, October 14, 2015, one month after Jack Taylor's death, an officer had the CCTV footage up on his computer.

• 54:48Speaker 00

  A detective who happened to be walking past caught a glimpse of the screen.

• 54:54Speaker 00

  What he saw gave him goosebumps.

• 54:58Speaker 00

  He had worked on Anthony Wollgate's case and he recognised the man right away. It was Stephen Port.

• 55:14Speaker 00

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• 56:42Speaker 00

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• 56:58Speaker 00

  As soon as Stephen Port was identified as the last person seen with Jack Taylor, the police realised the gravity of the situation. The detectives who'd led the investigations into the deaths of Anthony Wollgate, Gabriel Cavari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor were all called into an urgent meeting. Each of the files were compared and the suspiciously similar circumstances were laid out in detail. By the end of the meeting, the police had no doubt: they were dealing with a serial killer. By Stephen Port's admission, they already knew that Anthony had died in his flat.

• 57:38Speaker 00

  With CCTV footage now confirming that Port was the last man seen with Jack Taylor, police had concrete evidence linking him to two of the four victims. While there was nothing connecting him to Gabriel or Daniel, the fact that their bodies were found just metres away from where Jack was discovered, and that they'd both died from GHB overdoses, left police with little doubt that Port was behind those deaths too. On Thursday, October 15, Stephen Port was brought to the police station for questioning over the four deaths. The 40-year-old had lived in East London for most of his life, having moved out of his parents' house and into the flat on Cook Street eight years earlier.

• 58:24Speaker 00

  He'd been bullied at school and dropped out early to study art, before working as a chef when art school proved too expensive. Like many of his dating profiles proclaimed, Port was tall and athletic. But while his profile pictures showed him with a head of strawberry blonde hair, Port was actually bald. The blonde hair was a toupee that he typically wore when out in public. His hair wasn't the only thing he lied about on the apps. Some of Port's profiles claimed that he was a TV chef. While Port had appeared in a single episode of the popular reality cooking show Celebrity

• 59:06Speaker 00

  MasterChef, in reality, he worked in the kitchen of a bus depot. He also commonly lied about his age in a bid to appeal to young men. Port was open about the fact that he preferred "twinks", a slang word used by the gay community to describe men in their teens or twenties who were typically slim, young-looking, and somewhat effeminate. He described the type of man he typically went for to the police, and said he sometimes invited these young men to parties where guests participated in group sex. He admitted that Gabriel Kovari stayed at his flat for a couple of days back in late August 2014 after they met online.

• 59:51Speaker 00

  During this time, he'd taken him to one such party, and that was the last he saw of him.

• 59:58Speaker 00

  Port outright denied that he'd given Gabriel any drugs, but said there was a person at the party who had. While Port didn't know the man personally, he said his name was Daniel.

• 1:00:12Speaker 00

  The police asked where this party had been held. Port said he didn't remember, nor did he know whose house it was.

• 1:00:22Speaker 00

  Asked if he'd ever gone into the abbey behind St Margaret's Church, Port said that he'd been to the church itself one Christmas, but never explored its surrounding grounds. He was then told that three of the four men whose deaths police were investigating were found propped up against the wall in the graveyard.

• 1:00:43Speaker 00

  Port began looking increasingly uncomfortable, and said he hadn't been aware of that. "Steven, this is really serious", the detective said. "It's really important that you tell us the absolute truth." Port fiddled nervously with his hands and fixed his gaze downward.

• 1:01:05Speaker 00

  When shown a picture of Jack Taylor, Port studied it intently before saying he didn't recognise Jack and had never met him. In fact, Port said Jack wasn't really his type, as he looked older than the man he typically went for. The interviewing detective asked Port outright if he had anything to do with the Jack Taylor's death, or if he'd administered him with any drugs. "I did not, no", Port replied. "Definitely not, no."

• 1:01:40Speaker 00

  Not buying his story for a second, police arrested Port on suspicion of four counts of murder, while a full-scale investigation titled "Operation Leford" began. In comparison to the previous investigations, which were overseen by local police teams, "Operation Leford" was led by specialist homicide detectives, and described as swift, painstaking and thorough.

• 1:02:05Speaker 00

  Experienced officers reviewed the available evidence and began looking into Port, starting with a review of his computer and phone records. What they found quickly painted a harrowing picture.

• 1:02:19Speaker 00

  Anthony Walgate was Port's first suspected victim. On June 13, 2014, just days before the pair met, Port texted a friend to say that he'd recently had sex with a man who was high on GHB, and that it had been "like fucking a ragdoll".

• 1:02:39Speaker 00

  Seemingly inspired by this, Port had spent the day conducting online searches for terms including sleeping pills, drugs, date rape drug porn, boys being fucked on G, and to gay boys, drug fucked sleeping. That night, he logged into his Sleepy Boy account using his Joe Dean profile, and reached out to eight different male escorts, one of whom was Anthony Walgate.

• 1:03:06Speaker 00

  Port asked each of the men for photos and queried whether they would be available to spend that coming Tuesday night in Barking.

• 1:03:15Speaker 00

  By June fourteen, he was exchanging messages with Anthony while simultaneously searching for pornography that showed young men being drugged and raped. This carried on until the evening of June seventeen, when Anthony arrived for the overnighter as planned. Port, posing as Joe Dean, had offered Anthony eight hundred pounds for one night of his services. Police checked Port's financial records and discovered that he didn't have anywhere near that much money in his account at the time, which suggested he never had any intention of paying. Anthony last used his phone at around ten PM on Tuesday, June seventeen, when he met Port at Barking Station.

• 1:04:00Speaker 00

  By two fifty-seven AM on Thursday, June nineteen, Port disconnected his laptop from the internet, and then, one hour later, called 999 to report Anthony's death.

• 1:04:13Speaker 00

  This was where the police made their first big mistake. A forensic examiner on the scene had declared that Anthony had been dead for around eight hours, possibly longer. This completely contradicted Port's account that he'd found Anthony unconscious but alive in his bed upon his return from work. However, this information hadn't been passed on to the attending detective, and therefore didn't trigger further investigation.

• 1:04:43Speaker 00

  Reviewing the evidence of Operation Lilford, investigators believed that Port had likely administered an overdose of GHB to Anthony sometime on Wednesday, June eighteen, with the intention of raping him while he was unconscious. Whether intentionally or not, Anthony died as a result. Port then went to work before calling 999 upon his return and fabricating the story about finding Anthony unconscious from a self-administered overdose.

• 1:05:14Speaker 00

  Then came the next big mistake for Barking Police. In the UK, there are two distinct information systems used by law enforcement. The first is the Police National Computer, or PNC, a real-time system that features records on convictions, cautions, reprimands, warnings and arrests. The other is the Police National Database, which keeps a record of soft local police intelligence, such as the details of allegations or investigations that didn't lead to any further action or arrests.

• 1:05:51Speaker 00

  When Stephen Port spoke to the police in the wake of Anthony Walgate's death, a check of the PNC revealed the recent allegation from Port's ex-boyfriend Jacob Flynn, in which he claimed that he'd been drugged and raped by Port. Not only did the police not speak to Jacob in the wake of Anthony's death, if they had run a more thorough check on Port using the PND, they would have found that Jacob wasn't the only one who had accused him of drugging and sexual assault.

• 1:06:25Speaker 00

  On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, two weeks before Anthony died, Transport Police responded to a call that a young man was being assaulted at Barking Station. They arrived to find 20-year-old Ashton, not his real name, violently ill and in a distressed state. He was incoherent, disoriented, unsteady on his feet and vomiting green liquid. But Ashton wasn't alone. Stephen Port was with him, rifling through his bag. Port explained to the Transport Police that he knew Ashton from an online dating site. He said they'd met up a couple of times before,

• 1:07:09Speaker 00

  but on this particular night, he'd arrived home to find Ashton standing outside of his flat under the influence of GHB. Port said that he'd taken Ashton to the station to try and get him home safe and explained that he was going through his bag in an attempt to find his phone.

• 1:07:28Speaker 00

  According to Ashton, this wasn't the case at all. He said that after meeting Port online, the two hung out a few times, and Ashton found Port to be a very nice guy. But, on this occasion, everything had changed. Ashton told the police he'd been at Port's flat when Port gave him what he believed to be poppers to inhale. After that, Ashton said he fell asleep for several hours. Upon waking, Port gave him something to drink that was clear and had a harsh taste. It knocked Ashton out immediately.

• 1:08:07Speaker 00

  Ashton said that when he woke up, he was naked on the floor with an erection and no memory of what had transpired. He said he needed to get home, which was when Port helped him to the station. Ashton didn't press any charges because he was worried that his parents would find out, but the incident was recorded on the Police National Database. Had the police bothered to run a PND check on Port after they found Anthony Walgate's body outside of his flat, they would have seen that he had a clear recent history of drugging and sexually assaulting young men. Interestingly, they had run such a check on Anthony, but not on Port.

• 1:08:51Speaker 00

  Even after they charged Port with attempting to pervert the course of justice for the initial lies he told about Anthony, he still wasn't investigated further when it came to Anthony's death. Police had confiscated Port's computer as part of their investigation into his charge of perverting the course of justice, but this was ten months after Anthony's death, and even then, the report submitted was lacking in relevant detail.

• 1:09:19Speaker 00

  Had a full-scale search been conducted when Anthony's body was found, Port's online history would have revealed his disturbing and dangerous obsession, and, as many later pointed out, three lives could have been saved.

• 1:09:37Speaker 00

  When it comes to unexplained deaths, it is a foundational principle of forensic science and criminal investigation that the case should be investigated as a homicide until the evidence proves otherwise. It quickly became apparent to Operation Lillford detectives that this hadn't been followed when it came to any of the Barking deaths.

• 1:09:58Speaker 00

  If the local police hadn't been so quick to dismiss Gabriel Kovari as homeless and vulnerable, they might have discovered what Operation Lillford investigators did. That shortly after moving out of John Pepe's flat, Gabriel texted a friend to say that he'd moved into a new place in Barking. He shared a pin drop to Port's address on Cook Street, as well as some photos of the inside of Port's flat.

• 1:10:25Speaker 00

  Port had even introduced Gabriel to one of his neighbours, a man named Ryan, texting him to come over and meet his “new Slovakian twink flatmate”. Ryan liked Gabriel and later texted Port to see how things were going. Port responded suggestively: “I am taking good care of him. Hee-hee.”

• 1:10:50Speaker 00

  Ryan had known Stephen Port for years and described him to the BBC as having an insatiable thirst for young men. Ryan lived across the street from Port and often saw men come and go from Port's flat, one after the other.

• 1:11:07Speaker 00

  The last message sent from Gabriel's phone had been on the morning of August 25, when he texted a friend to say “I am fine”, accompanied by a smiley face emoji. The next day, Port changed his phone number and sent Ryan a message saying that Gabriel had moved out to stay with some soldier guy who we'd been chatting with online. Port wrote: “Shame, as I really liked him.” A few days later, after Gabriel's body had already been found in the churchyard, he texted Ryan again, asking if he'd seen Gabriel around, saying that his phone had been off for the past few days. “Miss him”, Port wrote.

• 1:11:51Speaker 00

  “Shame he went off with other guy.”

• 1:11:55Speaker 00

  As the days went by, Port added to this story, telling Ryan that Gabriel had apparently gone back to Spain to be with his boyfriend. As Gabriel's death was initially treated as a drug overdose, Ryan never heard anything about it in the news or through the grapevine, and therefore never had the opportunity to go to the police with this information. Eventually, Port sent him a text that read:

• 1:12:23Speaker 00

  "I've got some really sad news, neighbour. Gabriel has gone back home and has picked up a mysterious illness and he's died. Whatever you do, don't mention this on Facebook to the friends and family, because obviously they're upset enough as it is."

• 1:12:41Speaker 00

  Meanwhile, Port used a fake Facebook profile under the name of John Luck to contact Gabriel's boyfriend in Spain.

• 1:12:50Speaker 00

  He drip-fed him information about Gabriel going off with an Irishman named Tony Ferry, and later said he'd gone to a sex party in Barking with a man called Dan whom he'd met on Grindr. Investigators confirmed that John Luck account belonged to Port by matching the IP address used and comparing the grammar and spelling in Luck's messages to that of Port's. This was information John Pepe took to local police shortly after Gabriel died, which raised questions about how different the outcomes might have been if police had taken his concerns seriously. Investigators also discovered that just one week after Gabriel died, Port began chatting

• 1:13:34Speaker 00

  with Daniel Whitworth on a gay dating site called FitLads. He invited Daniel for dinner at his flat, saying they should meet for a drink first, quote, "So you know I'm not some psycho."

• 1:13:49Speaker 00

  The two continued chatting back and forth until eventually deciding to meet on the afternoon of September 18. Daniel left work early and sent his boyfriend a message to say that he'd be home late, marking the last contact he'd had with anyone. At 10:30 the next morning, Port deleted his FitLads account. Investigators concluded that Daniel was likely already dead at this point, and that Port later carried his body to the churchyard under the cover of darkness. An expert compared Port's handwriting to the purported suicide note found on Daniel's body, and confirmed without a doubt that the note had been written by Stephen Port.

• 1:14:35Speaker 00

  It was clear that he'd fabricated a connection between Gabriel and Daniel to deflect attention from himself, and it had worked. Barking Police had never so much as looked at a possible connection between Daniel and any other local man, despite the note explicitly saying: “Please do not blame the guy I was with last night.”

• 1:15:01Speaker 00

  Four months after Daniel's death, Stephen Port pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in relation to the initial lies he told about finding Anthony Walgate's body.

• 1:15:13Speaker 00

  On Monday, March 23, 2015, he was sentenced to four months in prison, but was released on licence just two months later, on Saturday, June 4. He immediately got back on the dating apps, and within three months, he met Jack Taylor.

• 1:15:31Speaker 00

  Operation Lilford Detectives discovered that shortly after Jack returned home from a night out with friends in the early morning hours of Sunday, September 13, he went online and started chatting to Stephen Port on Grindr. At around 2:30 AM, the two agreed to meet at Barking Station.

• 1:15:51Speaker 00

  Jack set up the Find My iPhone feature on his phone, called a cab, and arrived at their meeting place at 2:48am. CCTV cameras then tracked the two men as they walked towards Cook Street, before disappearing from view. This was the last confirmed sighting of Jack Taylor, and he had no further contact with anyone else from that point on. Thirty-five hours later, his body was found in St Margaret's churchyard. When detectives checked Stephen Port's phone and computer, they discovered that at 7:30am on Sunday, September 13, he blocked Jack Taylor's account on Grindr,

• 1:16:34Speaker 00

  effectively deleting the series of messages they'd exchanged. Later that morning, Port deleted his Grindr account entirely, then texted his flatmate, who was out at the time, discouraging him from returning home. Based on this series of events, the police believed that Port killed Jack shortly after they'd arrived at his flat. He likely kept his body there all day, before taking him to the churchyard that night, planting the GHB and other supplies in his pockets to make it look like Jack overdosed while on his own. He then disposed of Jack's phone to destroy any evidence of contact between them, just as he'd done with the three men before.

• 1:17:23Speaker 00

  Based on the information gathered by Operation Lilford, Stephen Port was promptly charged with the murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor. But the investigation was far from over. Police were convinced that Port likely had other victims who hadn't been identified. On his mobile phone, they'd found 83 homemade sex videos, six of which showed him engaged in sexual activity with young men who appeared unconscious. They reviewed hundreds of previously reported attacks for connections to Port, and partnered with LGBTQ+ charities and support groups, appealing for any survivors of his abuse to come forward.

• 1:18:10Speaker 00

  Toby Irwin, not his real name, had never forgotten something that happened to him back in 2012, when he was nineteen. Toby had been chatting with Stephen Port on Grindr and accepted an invitation to visit his flat. At first, everything seemed totally normal. Port was polite and friendly, and nothing raised any red flags. He gave Toby a glass of red wine, and by the time Toby finished it, he noticed that there was congealed powder in the bottom of the glass. Suspecting his drink had been spiked, Toby began feeling dizzy and disoriented. Unable to think straight and barely conscious,

• 1:18:52Speaker 00

  he realised he was being moved into the bedroom, but was powerless to do anything about it. Port then undressed and raped him. Afterwards, Toby confided in a friend and sought medical advice, but didn't report the incident to the police.

• 1:19:11Speaker 00

  A twenty-two-year-old man who was suffering long-term effects of a head injury caused by a criminal assault told the police that he'd visited Port's flat in January 2015, around the time that Port was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The man said that Port had spiked his drink, rendering him unconscious. The next day, Port showed him a video of what had happened while he was blacked out. The man had been raped.

• 1:19:43Speaker 00

  Shortly after Port was released from prison, he met Eric, not his real name, on Grindr. Eric went to Port's flat for consensual sex, but made it clear that he was not interested in using any type of drug. He agreed to let Port apply some lubricant inside his anus using a syringe-type device which Port called an applicator. But as soon as the applicator was inserted, Eric felt a burning sensation, followed by numbing. He suspected that whatever Port had inserted hadn't been a lubricant, but some type of drug.

• 1:20:19Speaker 00

  Another man told the police a strikingly similar story, saying that he’d eventually lost consciousness from whatever Port had inserted, and that he’d been penetrated while in this condition. Another man, who was also subject to the lubrication ruse, told police he’d felt drunk, but managed to keep his bearings and leave before anything further took place. Police read a series of text messages sent between Port and one of his long-term partners. Their exchanges made it clear that around the time all of this was going on, Port was experimenting with administering GHB anally, claiming it led to quicker absorption time.

• 1:21:02Speaker 00

  Jacob Flynn, Port’s ex-boyfriend, who’d previously reported him for sexual assault, told the police that Port had once injected something into his anus under the pretence of applying lubrication. Whatever it was rendered him unconscious, at which point Port then penetrated him without his consent.

• 1:21:24Speaker 00

  These reports, coupled with Port’s sinister online search history, painted a clear picture about what had likely happened to the four deceased men. After meeting each of them online and luring them to his flat, he plied them with the GHB, likely without their consent, to fulfil his own desire of having sex with them while they were unconscious.

• 1:21:48Speaker 00

  Whether he intended to kill the men or not, Port knew the risks involved, especially after Anthony’s death, yet continued to offend in the same way.

• 1:21:59Speaker 00

  Operation Lilford detectives were able to ascertain this information in a timely manner and with relative ease, which raised serious questions about what the barking police missed along the way. It appeared that the only death that had been investigated with any real vigour was Anthony Walgate's, and even that was peppered with failures from the get-go. Along with failing to run a proper background check on Port, not conducting a thorough search of his online history, or double-checking the story he gave against Anthony’s post-mortem findings, there were other missed opportunities too.

• 1:22:36Speaker 00

  Anthony's mother had insisted that Anthony never went anywhere without his mobile phone. Convinced that he had been murdered, she'd encouraged the police to check Anthony's computer and retrieve his phone data, but her insistence was seemingly ignored.

• 1:22:54Speaker 00

  Gabriel Kovari's body was found ten weeks later, and the police barely looked into his death, despite the many similarities between what had happened to him and Anthony Walgate.

• 1:23:06Speaker 00

  When Daniel Whitworth's body was found two weeks after that, the staged suicide note claiming responsibility for Gabriel's overdose seems to satisfy the police. They dismissed the insistence of Daniel's family that none of it added up, and Daniel would never take his own life.

• 1:23:26Speaker 00

  The police hadn't even bothered to confirm whether or not Gabriel and Daniel knew one another. Inquiries made as part of Operation Lillford indicated there wasn't a single piece of evidence suggesting the two men had ever met. Furthermore, on the night that Gabriel was believed to have been killed, phone records confirmed that Daniel brought some cakes home to his boyfriend before going to the pub. He was nowhere near barking at the time. Had the police interviewed his boyfriend after Daniel's body was found, they would have discovered this discrepancy right away.

• 1:24:05Speaker 00

  During the request into Daniel's death, the police told the coroner that unsuccessful attempts were made to find the man mentioned in Daniel's suicide note. This was actually false. No such attempts had been made. Various people involved with the investigation claimed to have recommended that the bed sheet found with Daniel be checked for DNA and the bottle of GHB be tested for fingerprints. But, no such checks were ever made, despite these being basic, routine steps in any investigation. Stephen Port's DNA was already in the police database at the time, and had these items been tested, they would have revealed an immediate connection.

• 1:24:51Speaker 00

  Tests made as part of Operation Lilford confirmed that Port's DNA and fingerprints were on the bed sheet, the suicide note, and the bottle of GHB planted on Daniel. The bottle was almost identical to the one found on Anthony Walgate. Despite the fact that some of the same officers worked on several of the Barking cases, none of these similarities were ever raised. When the families of the four deceased men learnt of all these missed opportunities, they believed prejudice and institutional homophobia was to blame. In their view, the police made an assumption about the gay community that impacted their

• 1:25:34Speaker 00

  judgement of the victims and their lifestyles. This allowed the police to accept their deaths at face value. Peter Tatchell is a human rights activist, best known for his work with the LGBTQ+ community. He publicly condemned the police handling of the case, calling it appalling that the four deaths were labelled unusual but not suspicious. If they'd been properly investigated, then a public alert could have been issued to the gay community warning that a serial killer might be on the loose. The police appeal for public information came in October 2015, a year too late, Tatchell stated.

• 1:26:18Speaker 00

  Four young men were already dead. This appeal should have been made in August 2014, after the first two killings. If the police had done this, further deaths may have been prevented. Two of these men might still be alive. Tatchell said such investigative failures echoed those of other serial killings of gay men, including the crimes of Dennis Nielsen, as covered in episode 144 of Case File. In an article for The Guardian, Tatchell said: Although police relations with the LGBT community are vastly better than two decades

• 1:26:58Speaker 00

  ago, this case is a wake-up call regarding the continued inadequate attitudes and behaviour of some officers.

• 1:27:09Speaker 00

  By the time Stephen Port's trial commenced at London's Old Bailey in October 2016, the 41-year-old faced a total of 29 charges. In addition to the four murder charges for Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor, he also faced seven counts of rape, four counts of assault by penetration, and 10 counts of administering GHB to stupify her for a sexual purpose. Port pleaded not guilty to all charges, maintaining that all sexual activity between him and the complainants was entirely consensual, and that any drug was done voluntarily and without his administration.

• 1:27:54Speaker 00

  Port took the stand in his own defence, telling the jury that on August 26, 2014, he had taken Gabriel to a party where they'd met Daniel Whitworth. He claimed that Gabriel and Daniel then had sex together in front of around 11 other people before deciding they wanted some privacy. Port told them they could go back to his flat, and it was from there that the two had gone to the nearby churchyard to have sex. Port claimed he had no idea what happened after that, until two weeks later, when Daniel confessed to him that he'd accidentally administered a fatal drug overdose to Gabriel.

• 1:28:35Speaker 00

  Daniel was allegedly worried that he'd be caught by his DNA. Port said he encouraged Daniel to go to the police with the truth, but suggested they have some fun first by taking drugs and having sex. It was after that, unbeknownst to him, that Daniel went to the churchyard and took his own life.

• 1:28:58Speaker 00

  The prosecution told Port that it was confirmed that Daniel had been at a pub with friends on the night that Gabrielle was thought to have died. They asked how it was possible that he could have been in two places at once. Port replied: "I've no idea, I just know it was as I remember it." When the prosecution pointed out that the handwriting expert had proven beyond doubt that Port had written a suicide note, Port eventually conceded that he had written it, but claimed he'd only done so at Daniel's request. He said, he added the line "Do not blame the guy I was with last night",

• 1:29:40Speaker 00

  after joking that he might be blamed himself. Backtracking on his previous claim that he'd never met Jack Taylor, Port admitted that he had invited Jack to his flat, and said that they had then gone to the churchyard to have sex. He claimed that Jack had administered drugs to himself, and Port then left him alone, at which point he had been alive and well. Several of the men Port had been accused of drugging and raping also bravely took the stand, or provided victim impact statements. Jacob Flynn said he couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for the deaths of the four men, as he believed he could have done something to stop Port.

• 1:30:24Speaker 00

  The trial ran for seven weeks before the jury delivered their verdict. For the murders of Anthony, Gabrielle, Daniel and Jack, the outcome was the same: guilty on all counts. All up, Port was convicted of 22 offences against 11 men. In handing down his sentence, the judge was scathing of Port's version of events. He said that the stories Port fabricated about Daniel being responsible for Gabrielle's death were wicked and monstrous lies, which must have caused immense distress to Daniel's family.

• 1:31:02Speaker 00

  While the judge accepted that Port had likely only intended to harm his victims rather than cause death, he pointed out that Port must have realised there was a high risk of death, particularly after Anthony Walgate died. Besides, his intention to “only cause harm” didn’t mitigate the severity of what he’d done, both to his victims and their bereaved loved ones. The judge added that it wasn’t up to him to assess the competency and adequacy of the police investigations, saying “that was a matter to be examined by others”. Sentencing Stephen Port to life in prison, the judge stated:

• 1:31:42Speaker 00

  “The defendant has been convicted of the murders of four young men. Each murder was committed in the course of satisfying his lust for penetrating young men whom he had rendered unconscious by the surreptitious administration of drugs. I have no doubt that the seriousness of the offending is so exceptionally high that the whole life order is justified, indeed it is required. I decline to set a minimum term. The result is a whole life sentence, and the defendant will die in prison.” Cheers and applause erupted from the relatives of Port’s victims.

• 1:32:24Speaker 00

  From the public gallery, someone shouted: “I hope you die a long, slow death, you piece of shit!” Investigators were pleased with the outcome, with one senior officer describing Port as “one of the most dangerous individuals he’d encountered in almost thirty years on the job. Life in prison was the only appropriate punishment.” Outside court, Jack Taylor’s sister, Donna, who had been instrumental in unveiling Port as a serial killer, told reporters: “We finally have justice for Jack and the other boys. A sick and twisted scumbag will never be able to hurt or destroy any other family’s life.”

• 1:33:11Speaker 00

  While Stephen Port's conviction was welcome news for his victims' loved ones, the indisputable evidence against him raised serious questions about how the police had missed the connections between the four deaths. Before Port's sentence was even handed down, London's Metropolitan Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over potential vulnerabilities in its response to the deaths. All up, seventeen officers were examined for potential misconduct. While the Commission identified systemic failings within the Metropolitan Police, it confirmed that none of the highlighted officers were found to have breached professional

• 1:33:52Speaker 00

  standards, and therefore none would be disciplined for their handling of the case. The loved ones of Port's victims were outraged, but hoped that upcoming inquests would shed further light. Coronial inquests had already been conducted into the deaths of Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth, and after Port's conviction, the High Court ordered that these conclusions be quashed and fresh inquests held to examine each of the deaths and highlight any police failings. Five years after Port's trial, the inquests finally went ahead in October 2021, with evidential hearings running for eight weeks at the Barking Town Hall.

• 1:34:35Speaker 00

  During this time, the missed opportunities to catch Stephen Port were laid out in full. Numerous friends and family members of the victims also came forward to express their disappointment in the police handling of the case, as well as the way they were treated as next of kin. The inquests heard that the Met Police failed to carry out basic checks, send evidence for forensic examination, and exercise professional curiosity. The jury found that all of the four men had been unlawfully killed, and fundamental failures by the Met Police allowed Stephen Port to continue his killing spree over a 16-month period.

• 1:35:18Speaker 00

  While the judge accepted that insufficient leadership and workload pressures contributed to a complete breakdown of investigational oversight, she concluded that the failings had probably contributed to the deaths of Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor. She said that she would be preparing a “prevention of future deaths” report. A statement released on the family’s behalf read: “We welcome today’s conclusions. The jury has obviously taken great care and considerable time to return these clear failings. We feel thoroughly vindicated by their findings. The inadequate investigations by the Metropolitan Police into the deaths should be on public

• 1:36:03Speaker 00

  record as one of the most widespread institutional failures in modern history.” The family said that if the police had done their job properly from the start, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack wouldn’t have been killed and other young men wouldn’t have been drugged and raped. While the law prevented the jury from considering whether homophobia, prejudice or discrimination were factors in the mishandled investigations, the families were resolute. Their statement continued: “Our position remains unchanged. Based on the treatment we received, our firmly held belief is that the Metropolitan Police’s actions were in part driven by homophobia.

• 1:36:48Speaker 00

  Had four white heterosexual girls been found dead in the same manner as Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel and Jack, then the police’s actions and the likely outcomes would have been different.” Human rights advocate Peter Tatchell was much more blunt in his assessment of the inquest findings, stating: “Evidence given at the Stephen Port inquest revealed the police to be incompetent, negligent, unprofessional and homophobic. Every gay person who expressed concerns about the deaths was ignored, dismissed and treated with contempt, even the partner of one of the victims. That’s institutional homophobia. The officers involved must face disciplinary action.”

• 1:37:38Speaker 00

  By this point, seven of the 17 police officers who had been investigated as part of the 2019 inquiry by the Independent Office for Police Conduct had been promoted.

• 1:37:51Speaker 00

  The IOPC said they would consider reopening their findings in light of the inquest, and in November 2023, it was announced that eight former and current Met police officers were being investigated for gross misconduct regarding their failures in the investigations into the four deaths. While this was welcome news for the victims' families, they were told that disciplinary proceedings wouldn't automatically follow. A spokesperson for the Met Police gave their heartfelt apologies for the mistakes made in the case, while a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: "It is vital that London's LGBTQ+ community has confidence in our police, and the Met

• 1:38:36Speaker 00

  are able to gain the trust and confidence of all the communities it serves, so that every Londoner, regardless of background or postcode, can feel safe, protected, and served."

• 1:38:49Speaker 00

  It has not been publicly revealed if any of those eight individuals faced disciplinary proceedings.

• 1:38:57Speaker 00

  In 2022, the Met announced they had settled compensation claims with several of the victims' families, but further details about these payouts have not been released. A lawyer for the families stated that the police had blood on their hands for their mishandling of the case, and many agree.

• 1:39:17Speaker 00

  Gabriel Kovari's former flatmate, John Pape, who'd tried to raise his concerns to the police, told The Guardian he wishes he'd listened to his instincts more, instead of trusting the police were doing a good job. Anthony Walgate's mother told a documentary for the BBC she believes that the police who investigated the deaths were homophobic. She said: "I genuinely believe, had Anthony been a girl left outside to like trash, they would have put more effort into it. As they were young gay boys, the police did nothing."

• 1:39:55Speaker 00

  Jack Taylor’s sisters agreed, telling the documentary that in their view, the police were just as guilty as Stephen Port. Donna stated: “They should be held accountable for Jack’s death because they could have prevented it, and we have to live with that for the rest of our lives.” As far as Daniel Whitworth’s parents were concerned, the police hadn’t cared about Daniel at all. Daniel’s stepmother told the BBC: “How can I put into words how let down I feel by an establishment that is there to protect the community? I can’t.”

• 1:40:36Speaker 00

  While the entire ordeal was incredibly painful for the families involved, the police’ failings were just one aspect. More than anything, they grieved for their loved ones and their promising lives that were cut short.

• 1:40:52Speaker 00

  In their joint statement following the inquest, the families concluded: “Finally, but most importantly, we want to say to Anthony, Gabrielle, Daniel and Jack that you will never be forgotten. We feel your loss every minute of every day. We will forever wonder how your lives would have turned out. But you live on strongly in our cherished memories.”