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More than seven years after Stephen Port committed murder for the first time, an inquest has begun into the deaths of his four victims.

Port, 46, is one of just 60 prisoners in the UK serving a whole-life sentence, which means he will die behind bars.

Between June 2014 and September 2015, the former chef lured four young men to his flat in Barking, east London, plied them with drugs, raped and murdered them.

Police initially failed to make any connection between the deaths, with 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 carried out his crimes.

It will last around 10 weeks and examine whether police missed opportunities to stop the serial killer sooner.

Here Sky News looks back at what we know:

Stephen Port

Stephen Port was found guilty of killing four young men
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Stephen Port is pictured during his trial. Pic: Met Police

Port, 46, was given a whole-life prison sentence on 25 November 2016.

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, 22.

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.

He was cleared of three other counts of rape.

Stephen Port found guilty of murdering four men
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Port wore a blond hairpiece to make himself appear younger

Port is behind bars at HMP Belmarsh in south London.

He was born in Southend, Essex in 1975, before his parents moved to Dagenham, east London.

His father worked as a cleaner for Barking and Dagenham Council and his mother worked at a supermarket checkout.

Port 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. He came out as gay in his mid-twenties.

He worked in catering at various places in his local area and was working as a chef for Stagecoach at their bus depot in West Ham when he committed his crimes.

Stephen Port
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Port had lived in Barking since 2006

Port moved to his own flat in Cooke Street, Barking in 2006.

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.

Searches of his computer also revealed he regularly watched ‘drug rape’ pornography.

Previous partners told investigators he would regularly cheat on them, work as a male escort or act as their pimp.

He used dating sites to meet men who were younger than him.

At the age of 32, Port had a two-year relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

Anthony Walgate

Anthony Walgate

Anthony Walgate was 23 when he was found dead outside Stephen Port’s block of flats in the early hours of 19 June 2014.

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.

It was there he was contacted by Port, who offered him £800 for an overnight job.

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 friend 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 4.18am claiming: “There’s a young boy, looks like he’s collapsed outside… he could have had a seizure or something, or just drunk.”

When paramedics arrived along with the police they found Mr Walgate slumped against a wall outside Port’s apartment block in Cooke Street – dead.

 The entrance to Stephen Port's flat in Barking, east London
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The entrance to Stephen Port’s flat in Barking, east London

He had a black bag next to him with a bottle of liquid inside, but no mobile phone.

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, but 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.

They arrested him on 26 June on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after he lied about discovering him out of the blue.

Port changed his story, admitting he found Mr Walgate online and met up with him in the middle of the night at Barking station.

Stephen Port's flat in Barking, east London,
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Inside Port’s flat

He claimed his victim had taken drugs from a bottle and they had sex twice, but when Mr Walgate was about to leave, he had become very tired, so he stayed the night.

Port left for work before Mr Walgate woke up, he told detectives, and came back to find him still sleeping.

He claimed he got into bed with him but started to panic at around 3am when he realised he was “rigid”.

Port said he dragged him outside his flat for fear of people thinking he might have been responsible for his death.

He was bailed and it wasn’t until 15 January the following year that he was charged.

Pleading guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court in February, he was sentenced to eight months in prison.

He only served four months and was released in June 2015.

Port was not investigated on suspicion of murdering Mr Walgate – as police had not searched his computer despite seizing it after his arrest.

Mr Walgate’s death was instead put down to a fatal GHB overdose after the drug was found in blood and urine samples.

Gabriel Kovari

Gabriel Kovari

Gabriel Kovari was Port’s second murder victim.

His body was found in the graveyard at St Margaret’s Church in Barking – 0.2 miles away from Port’s flat – on 28 August 2014.

At this point, Port was out on bail having been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice over the lies he told police about Anthony Walgate’s death.

Mr Kovari, 22, was originally from Slovakia, but had been living in Spain with his boyfriend Thierry Amodio, before he decided to move to London in mid-2014.

Originally he lived with a man he met on a gay dating website in south London.

But he was keen to move and in August he said he had found a place to stay in Barking.

Mr Kovari moved into Port’s Cooke Street flat on 23 August.

A view of St Margaret's Church in Barking, east London, as alleged serial killer , Stephen Port 40, of Cooke Street, Barking in east London, has appeared in Barkingside Magistrates accused of drugging and murdering four young men he met on gay websites, and dumping their bodies in and around a churchyard in east London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday October 19, 2015. The bodies of two of the men were found by a dog walker less than a month apart in the churchyard of St Margaret's Church in North Street in Barking, while another was found near the ruins of Barking Abbey. See PA story COURTS Poison. Photo credit should read: Nick Ansell/PA Wire
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Three of the victims were found in the graveyard at St Margaret’s Church, Barking

The 22-year-old had told friends Port seemed strange and that he was not attracted to him, but he was not going to charge him rent for staying on the sofa, so he was happy to live there.

But after meeting one of his Port’s neighbours the day after he moved in, Mr Kovari text him to say “Stephen is not a nice person”.

The neighbour texted Port to ask how Mr Kovari was doing, but he replied that he had “gone to stay with some soldier guy he had been chatting to online”.

On 27 August, Port rang his sister Sharon to say there was a dead body in his bedroom.

She told him to go to the police, but 24 hours later Mr Kovari’s body was found slumped against a wall in the graveyard near Port’s flat.

His midriff was exposed, as Mr Walgate’s had been. But Port was not questioned over Mr Kovari’s death.

Instead he found his boyfriend on Facebook and pretended to be a 21-year-old gay porn star from California called Jon Luck in order to get information about the police investigation.

Daniel Whitworth

Daniel Whitworth

Three weeks after she found Gabriel Kovari’s body in the Barking churchyard, on 20 September 2014 local dogwalker Barbara Denham found another in the same place.

It turned out to be Port’s third murder victim, 21-year-old Daniel Whitworth.

Mr Whitworth was in a relationship with his partner Ricky Waumsley and they lived together in Gravesend, Kent, having met on a gay dating site.

He was a chef and worked at up-market locations in London such as One Moorgate Place and Canary Warf.

Mr Whitworth was signed up to another dating site at the time called Fitlads and began talking to Port on there on 18 August.

They didn’t meet until a month later.

Items found in Stephen Port's flat in Barking, east London,
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Items found in Stephen Port’s flat

On 19 September when he failed to turn up for work, Mr Whitworth’s boyfriend reported him missing.

Port was later found to have deleted his Fitlads profile that day.

When Mr Whitworth’s body was found, it was accompanied by a fake suicide note, written by Port.

It said he had killed himself out of guilt because he had been taking GHB with Gabriel Kovari when he “didn’t notice while we was having sex that he stopped breathing”.

The note added: “BTW 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.”

The fake note said he had overdosed on sleeping pills and GHB, which were both found in his system during post-mortem examinations.

Police appeared to believe the note and neither death was treated as suspicious. Their inquests recorded open verdicts.

Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor

Jack Taylor, 25, was a forklift truck driver from Dagenham, east London.

He was Port’s final victim. His body was found on 15 September 2015 – two months after Port had been released from prison for perverting the course of justice.

Mr Taylor lived at home with his parents and he had two sisters. He was not thought to be openly gay and had a number of girlfriends in the past.

Three days before he was found dead, he went out drinking at the Trading Club in Dagenham.

When he got back in the early hours of 13 September, his father was still awake and wished him goodnight.

But soon after that he had gone back out in a taxi after matching with Port on the app Grindr.

Phone records show Port had asked his victim if he had “ever taken T”, referring to crystal meth.

CCTV captured Port and Mr Taylor meeting at Barking station in the middle of the night.

Handout CCTV image  dated 13/9/2015 issued by Metropolitan Police of Stephen Port (right) with 25-year-old Jack Taylor on their way to alleged serial killer's one-bedroom flat in Cooke Street, Barking which was shown to a jury at the Old Bailey. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday October 19, 2016. Port has pleaded not guilty to 29 offences against a total of 12 men - including four murders, seven rapes, four sex assaults and administering a substance with intent. See PA story COURTS Poison. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire..NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
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CCTV images show Port walking through Barking with Jack Taylor before he died

They walked to Port’s flat, where police believe he died shortly after.

Before his body was found without a mobile phone – in similar circumstances to Anthony Walgate – Port deleted his Grindr account.

Mr Taylor was discovered in the same spot in the church graveyard as Gabriel Kovari and Daniel Whitworth, but police made no link and put the death down to a drug overdose.

His family refused to accept this story and pursed their own inquiries.

After putting pressure on police, detectives revealed they had CCTV of Mr Taylor in the hours before he died.

Eventually the Met issued one of the CCTV images, which showed him walking near Barking station with a tall man.

Although several members of the public called about the picture, it was a local police officer in Barking and Dagenham that recognised Port from previous inquiries.

Finally on 15 October 2015, Port was arrested on suspicion of causing the deaths of all four of his victims by administering poison.

Metropolitan Police handout screengrab image dated 15/10/2015 of the police interview of serial killer Stephen Port who was found guilty at the Old Bailey, London of murdering four young gay men to fulfil his depraved sexual fantasies. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday November 23, 2016. The 41-year-old chef stalked his victims on dating websites and plied them with drinks spiked with fatal amounts of drug GHB to rape them while they were unconscious. See PA story COURTS Poison. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire..NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
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Port is pictured during a police interview on 15 October 2015. Pic: Met Police

Other victims

After a four-day police interview, searches of his home, phone and laptop, Port was charged with four counts of murder on 18 October.

The charge was reported in the media, which caused eight other men to come forward with stories they had been drugged and raped by Port at his flat after finding him online.

All the men claimed to have had similar experiences.

They said Port had either spiked their drinks or injected them with drugs without them knowing.

A CCTV picture of Stephen Port arriving at a flat in Barking to buy drugs
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The killer is pictured on CCTV buying drugs at a flat in Barking in 2015

One man, a teenage student, told his trial he met Port on Grindr at the beginning of 2012.

The pair met at Barking station and went back to Cooke Street.

At Port’s flat, the man said he put on a film and offered him a glass of red wine.

He noticed it “tasted bitter” and there was “sludge at the bottom of the glass”.

This turned out to be GHB, which made the man fall asleep. He awoke to Port raping him.

The drugs were so strong, he fell unconscious again minutes later.

In the morning, he said Port acted like nothing had happened and was too scared to tell anyone about it.

A view of 62 Cooke Street, (ground floor flat), in Barking east London, believed to be the home of alleged serial killer Stephen Port 40, who has appeared at Barkingside Magistrates accused of drugging and murdering four young men he met on gay websites, and dumping their bodies in and around a churchyard in east London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday October 19, 2015. The bodies of two of the men were found by a dog walker less than a month apart in the churchyard of St Margaret's Church in North Street in Barking, while another was found near the ruins of Barking Abbey. See PA story COURTS Poison. Photo credit should read: Nick Ansell/PA Wire
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The ground floor of Port’s flat in Cooke Street

Another man, this time a Muslim one in his twenties, said he met Port five times after they matched on the website Fitlads in mid-2014.

On the fifth meeting, Port offered him poppers, a legal party drug often used during sex.

The man did not drink alcohol or take drugs, so they caused him to fall asleep.

He claims Port offered him a glass of water when he woke up, which made him pass out again.

The man awoke to find he was not wearing underwear and began shouting and screaming.

Port took him to Barking station where the man was still in visible distress.

British Transport Police on duty at the station called an ambulance, which made Port fearful he’d be caught.

But the man was too scared to report the incident to police, as his parents were not aware of his sexuality.

Sarah Sak (second right), mother of Anthony Walgate arriving at Barking Town Hall, London, for the long-awaited inquests into the deaths of the victims of Stephen Port. Picture date: Tuesday October 5, 2021.
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Sarah Sak (second right), mother of Anthony Walgate arrives at his inquest on 5 October 2021

Police failings

There have been allegations of multiple police failings to catch Port before he committed further crimes.

And LGBTQ rights organisations have accused the Met of failing to investigate his victims’ deaths because of their sexuality.

Swearing in jurors for their inquests at Barking town hall on 5 October, Sarah Munro, assistant coroner for east London, said: “The trial did not answer the important question of whether the deaths of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor might have been prevented.

“If there appear to have been shortcomings in the way in which the police investigated these deaths, we must consider those shortcomings dispassionately and resist the temptation to look for scapegoats.”

The Met were forced to apologise to the families of the four men following Port’s trial.

Laptop found in Stephen Port's flat in Barking, east London
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A laptop found in Stephen Port’s flat

As the inquest opened, Commander Jon Savell, head of profession for investigations, said: “Our thoughts are firstly with the family and friends of those murdered by Stephen Port.

“We are offering every assistance to the coroner and welcome a full examination of all the facts surrounding the tragic deaths of these four young men.

“At the time of Port’s conviction, we apologised to the victims’ families and Daniel Whitworth’s partner for how we initially responded to the deaths, and I would like to apologise again.

“Since Port’s offences came to light we have worked hard within the Met to improve both our processes and our wider knowledge across the organisation of a range of issues associated with the murders.”

The families have launched civil action against the force and 17 officers are being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over alleged misconduct.

After Port’s sentencing, the Met said it was re-investigating 58 unexplained deaths that involved date rape drugs.

A spokesperson added: “Work since Port’s offences came to light includes adopting an MPS-wide written protocol for minimum standards of investigation for unexplained deaths.

“There has been extra training for our officers on how drugs can be used as a weapon by offenders to facilitate rape and sexual assault, as well as on issues that impact on the confidence of our LGBT+ communities.”

Read more on Stephen Port:

Inquests into deaths of serial killer’s four victims set to go ahead

Inquests will look at whether police ‘missed opportunities’ to stop him sooner

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King praises response to ‘lawless’ UK riots in Christmas message – as he gives ‘personal’ thanks to medics

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King praises response to 'lawless' UK riots in Christmas message - as he gives 'personal' thanks to medics

The King has praised the community response to the “anger and lawlessness” of this summer’s riots in towns and cities around the UK in his annual Christmas message.

Charles, 76, also used the message, filmed by Sky News at the chapel of the former Middlesex Hospital in central London, to thank doctors and nurses who cared for him and his daughter-in-law the Princess of Wales through their cancer treatment this year.

Drawing on the Nativity story’s theme of listening to others, the King said: “Through listening, we learn to respect our differences, to defeat prejudice, and to open up new possibilities.

“I felt a deep sense of pride here in the United Kingdom when, in response to anger and lawlessness in several towns this summer, communities came together, not to repeat these behaviours, but to repair.

“To repair not just buildings, but relationships. And, most importantly, to repair trust; by listening and, through understanding, deciding how to act for the good of all.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla followed by  the Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte, the Prince of Wales and Prince George attending the Christmas Day.
Pic: PA
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King Charles and Queen Camilla attend church at Sandringham on Christmas morning. Pic: PA

Read more:
Sky News behind the scenes of King’s message
King jokes he’s ‘still alive’

Almost 1,000 people were arrested during the summer riots, which came in response to misinformation around the deadly stabbing of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport in July.

The King visited the Merseyside town after the killings and the ensuing disorder, during which rioters attacked hotels housing migrants.

His final public engagement of the year was in Walthamstow, east London, where thousands gathered in a counter-protest to condemn the rioting this summer.

The King’s Christmas message spoke of the need to support one another, as “all of us go through some form of suffering at some stage in our life – be it mental or physical”.

“The degree to which we help one another – and draw support from each other, be we people of faith or of none – is a measure of our civilisation as nations,” he said.

He added that “those who dedicate their lives to helping others… continually impress me” and he is “thinking especially of the many thousands of professionals and volunteers here in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth who, with their skills and out of the goodness of their heart, care for others – often at some cost to themselves”.

Pic: PA
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The Prince and Princess of Wales with their children Louis, Charlotte and George on Christmas Day. Pic: PA

Reflecting on his cancer treatment, which will continue into next year, he gave his “special, heartfelt thanks to the selfless doctors and nurses who, this year, have supported me and other members of my family through the uncertainties and anxieties of illness, and have helped provide the strength, care and comfort we have needed”.

He also thanked members of the public for their well-wishes after he and the Princess of Wales, 42, returned to public duties in April and September respectively – following courses of cancer treatment.

They and other members of the Royal Family attended church near the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Christmas morning.

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How Sky News filmed the King’s message

Thoughts with people in ‘Middle East, central Europe and Africa’

The King began his message by recalling his visit to 80th anniversary D-Day commemorations with the Queen in June.

He described meeting “remarkable veterans” and noted that “during previous commemorations we were able to console ourselves with the thought that these tragic events seldom happen in the modern era”.

But he said: “On this Christmas Day, we cannot help but think of those for whom the devastating effects of conflict – in the Middle East, in central Europe, in Africa and elsewhere – pose a daily threat to so many people’s lives and livelihoods.”

He thanked humanitarian organisations working in conflict zones and referenced the gospels’ references to conflict and the “values with which we can overcome” them.

Signing off, he wished “you and all those you love a most joyful and peaceful Christmas”.

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Man arrested for ‘attempted murder’ after car drives into group on London pavement

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Man arrested for 'attempted murder' after car drives into group on London pavement

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car was driven on to the pavement in central London in the early hours of Christmas Day.

Four people were taken to hospital after the incident on Shaftesbury Avenue, with one said to be in a life-threatening condition.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to reports of a crash and a car driving on the wrong side of the road at 12.45am.

In a statement, police said the incident was isolated and not terror related.

A cordon is in place outside the Sondheim Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, which is the London home of the musical Les Miserables. Shaftesbury Avenue is at the heart of London‘s West End and the city’s theatre district.

Blood, a jacket, pair of shoes and a hat are visible on the pavement inside the cordon.

Read more from Sky News:
Armed police shoot and kill man on Christmas Eve
Dozens dead as plane crashes in Kazakhstan

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the force “responded quickly” and arrested a man “within minutes”.

“It’s believed that the suspect was involved in an altercation at a nightclub prior to getting in his car and mounting the pavement,” he added.

Officers are appealing for anyone with information relating to the incident to get in touch.

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Man, 39, shot dead by armed police in Redditch

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Man, 39, shot dead by armed police in Redditch

A man with a knife was shot dead by armed police in Redditch after “several hours” of negotiations on Christmas Eve, police have said.

West Mercia Police were called to a property in Fownhope Close, Redditch, at around 2pm on Christmas Eve to reports of a man with a knife.

Police negotiators arrived at the scene in Worcestershire and “attempts were made to resolve the situation by engaging the man over several hours”.

But at 7.40pm the 39 year old was shot by armed police – and he was pronounced dead just after 8pm.

No one else was inside the property at the time, the force added.

A mandatory referral to the police watchdog – the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) – has been made and an investigation been launched.

West Mercia Police’s assistant chief constable Grant Willis described it as a “tragic incident”.

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“We do not underestimate the shock and concern this may cause the local community and I want to reassure residents that we are following all appropriate procedures, this included making an immediate referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), as is mandatory and right,” he said.

“We will support their investigation, which will include providing all information we hold, including body worn camera footage.”

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