London man charged with murder of four men ‘he met on gay websites’

A man has appear in court charged with the poisoning murder of four men he allegedly met via gay hook-up websites.

Scotland Yard charged Stephen Port, 40, with four counts of murder and of “administering a poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm” in relation to the deaths of four men between June last year and September this year, The Guardian reports.

Stephen Port is accused of poisoning four men he met online.

Mr Port is accused of using party drug GHB – also known as liquid ecstasy – to poison his four victims after meeting them online, in a series of attacks spanning 14 months.

Three of the men’s bodies were found either close to the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church in Barking or the nearby Abbey Ruins. while another alleged victim was found nearby on the same street Port lived in, Cooke Street, in Barking.

Police have named the alleged victims as:

• Anthony Patrick Walgate, 23, from Barnet, who was pronounced dead on Cooke Street on 19 June 2014.
• Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Lewisham, whose body was found near the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church, North Street, Barking, on 28 August 2014.
• Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend, Kent, whose body was also found near the same churchyard on 20 September 2014.
• Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, whose body was found near the Abbey ruins close to North Street on 14 September this year.

The bodies of the four alleged victims were found between June 2014 and September this year in Barking, east London, in the area surrounding St Margaret’s Churchyard.

Police have urged the public to come forward with information about the night the last alleged victim, Jack Taylor, disappeared. Taylor was a a night duty forklift operator at a warehouse and had been out with friends on the evening of Saturday 12 September.

“He returned home but went back out again in the early hours of Sunday 13 September, having called a cab,” police said in a statement.

“We are not sure how long Jack had been at the Abbey ruins but clearly there is a period of time unaccounted for,” said Sgt. Matthew Laffan, from Barking and Dagenham police. “We are trying to piece together his last movements and the man captured on CCTV may well be the last person to talk to Jack.”

Stephen Port is scheduled to appear in custody at Barkingside magistrates court on Monday morning.