‘Homophobia blighted the Met’s inquiry into gay serial killer Port’

Life sentence: Port was convicted of murder
Metropolitan Police
Ross Lydall @RossLydall4 January 2017
WEST END FINAL

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The flatmate of a victim of gay serial killer Stephen Port claimed on Wednesday that “homophobia” had blighted the police investigation and prevented the murders being stopped before two more men were killed.

John Pape, 38, said he had made numerous failed attempts to encourage Met detectives to link the death of his former lodger Gabriel Kovari, 22, and the first of Port’s victims, Anthony Walgate, 23.

Mr Kovari’s body had been found in a Barking churchyard in August 2014 with fatal levels of the date rape drug GHB in his blood. Mr Pape was immediately suspicious and Googled “unexplained deaths in Barking”.

He found a newspaper report about Mr Walgate, 23, whose body had been found in similar circumstances two months earlier outside a block of flats in Barking — where Port lived, and close to the churchyard.

Port went on to kill Daniel Whitworth, 21, three weeks later, and Jack Taylor, 25, in September 2015 before he was caught. Both bodies were dumped in the graveyard in the same circumstances as Mr Kovari.

Port, 41, was given a whole-life term last November. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the initial police response.

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