Stephen Port
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Stephen Port (born 22nd February 1975) is a British serial killer known as The Grindr Killer.
Biography edit
Port was born in Southend-On-Sea, Essex, in 1975, moving to Dagenham when he was one year old. He was described as a loner at school, and was thought of as odd even as an adult. Port came out in the mid-2000s, and worked as a chef.
On 17th June 2014, Port contacted male prostitute Anthony Walgate and requested his services. On the 19th of June, Walgate was in Port's flat when Port drugged him with GHB, raped him, and administered a fatal overdose of GHB. He then called the police to report Walgate had collapsed outside his flat. Although the metropolitan police believed Walgate had simply overdosed on drugs, they discovered Port had misled them about information regarding the death, and he was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for perverting the course of justice.
After his release, Port killed three other men, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor, in the same way. After each murder, Port dumped the bodies of his victims in the graveyard of St Margaret's Church. He also drugged and raped seven men without killing them. The metropolitan police failed to link the deaths, with the exception of Kovari and Whitworth, as Port forged a suicide note suggesting that Whitworth had killed Kovari and later committed suicide out of guilt. The metropolitan police even withheld CCTV footage showing Port entering the graveyard with Taylor, and allegedly failed to attempt to identify Port.
Eventually, Taylor's sisters discovered the existence of the CCTV tape, and forced the police to make it public, resulting in Port being identified and arrested on suspicion of murder. Crucial witnesses who had been overlooked in the investigations into the deaths were finally questioned, confirming Port was guilty of various other crimes. Forensic evidence that was ignored was also now discovered, and on the 23rd of November 2016, Port was found guilty of four counts of murder, three counts of rape, four counts of sexual assault, and four counts of administering a substance with intent and received a sentence of life imprisonment with a whole-life term, meaning he will never be released.
Trivia edit
- The fact that Port met all his victims with the exception of Walgate on the gay sex site Grindr earned him the nickname "The Grindr Killer".
- The metropolitan police is currently being sued for criminal malpractice relating to the case.
- Port's drug dealer Gerald Matvou has since been convicted of a similar murder.