Grindr killed the gay bar
Stephen Port went on a six-month killing spree starting in June Inthe year-old was found guilty of the four murders. Since then, the victims' families have continued to campaign for answers as to why Port was not stopped sooner. News reporter LaraKeay.
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More than seven the after Stephen Port committed murder for the first time, an inquest has begun into the deaths of his four victims. Grindr, 46, is one of just 60 prisoners in the UK serving a whole-life sentencewhich means he will die behind bars. Between June and Septemberthe former chef lured four young men to his flat in Barking, east Londonplied them with drugs, raped and murdered them.
Police initially failed to make any connection between the deaths, bar the Met forced to apologise to the victims' families and several officers investigated for gross misconduct over alleged failings in trying to catch Port before he killed again. The inquest is taking place just yards away from where he killed out his crimes.
It will last around 10 weeks and examine whether police missed opportunities to stop the serial killer sooner. In court, he denied all 22 charges against him, but was found guilty of the murders of Anthony Walgate, 23, Jack Taylor, 25, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Gabriel Kovari, Port, also known as 'The Grindr Killer' for the way he scouted his victims, was also convicted of four rapes, four sexual assaults and 10 counts of administering a substance in relation to seven other men.
His father worked as a cleaner for Barking and Dagenham Council and his mother worked at a bar checkout. Gay went to art school at 16, but his family were unable to afford his studies, so he changed direction and trained as a chef for two years instead. The came out as gay in his mid-twenties. He worked in catering at various places gay his local area and was working as a chef for Stagecoach at their bus depot in West Ham when he committed his crimes.
Men he had been in relationships with before the murders told police he regularly used the party drug GHB, which is often referred to as a 'date rape' drug. Previous partners told investigators he would regularly cheat on them, work as a male escort or act as their pimp. Anthony Walgate was 23 when he was found dead outside Stephen Port's block of flats in the early hours of 19 June He was studying fashion at Middlesex University and living in rented accommodation in Golders Green, 17 miles away from Barking, in north London.
Living away from his family home in Hull, he occasionally worked as an escort through a website called Sleepyboys to earn some extra money. Mr Walgate told a friend he had received an escort booking in Barking, but was not convinced it was genuine, so gave them the details "in case I get killed".
He also told the kill he was going to take a pair of scissors with him should he need to defend himself. Nobody heard anything from Mr Walgate until Port called an ambulance at 4. When paramedics arrived along with the police they found Mr Walgate slumped against a wall outside Port's apartment block in Cooke Street - dead.
Port told police he had come back from a night shift at around 4am to find a man "lying in front of my door". He claimed to have tried to wake him up by slapping him in the face, grindr when that failed he called an ambulance and left him outside. A week later, police discovered Mr Walgate had worked as an escort, and Port had accessed his profile and arranged to meet up with him.