A man accused of a spate of killings called emergency services claiming to have found his first alleged victim collapsed near his home in Barking, a court heard.
Stephen Port, 41, is accused of 29 offences against 12 men – including four murders, seven rapes, four sexual assaults and administering a substance with intent. He has pleaded not guilty on all accounts.
Jurors were told of how Mr Port killed four men in 15 months by spiking their drinks with the date rape drug GHB. They heard how the chef took his alleged victims home where he raped them before dumping their bodies near his east London flat.
The defendant was last year jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice by lying to police about the circumstances of the death of his first alleged victim, Anthony Walgate.
Mr Port met the 23-year-old fashion student through the website Sleepboys, through which Mr Waldgate reportedly agreed to visit Mr Port’s home. He was found dead by a paramedic in the communal area of the flats where Mr Port lived in the early hours of June 19 2014.
In the call to emergency services played to jurors, Mr Port told the operator: "Cooke Street, appears a young boy looks like he's collapsed outside, I don't know. Looks like he has collapsed or had a seizure or something - or just drunk."
Shortly after Mr Port hung up the phone, but the operator called back and asked if the man was awake and breathing. Mr Port said he did not know, the court heard.
Paramedic Anthony Neil arrived in Cooke Street to find that Mr Walgate was already dead and cold to the touch. He said in a statement: "On the pedestrian walkway, I saw the outline of a figure in a sitting position against something. He appeared deceased. He was not breathing and was extremely cold to the touch and he did not have a pulse." The court heard how soon after Mr Neil alerted the police to a suspicious death.
Police officers later tracked down Mr Port marking him as a “significant witness” due to his earlier call to emergency services. In a statement Mr Port made later that day he said that on finding the man on the floor he had “tried to raise him by slapping his face” and he “made a gurgling noise.”
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Mr Port said that after dialling 999, he returned to his flat and fell asleep. Pathologist Olaf Biedrzycki later confirmed the cause of death was GHB intoxication.
Additional reporting from Press Association
