Dog walker describes ‘peculiar’ discovery of two Stephen Port victims in same churchyard
Barbara Denham discovered bodies of Gabriel Kovari, 22, and Daniel Whitworth, 21, in same spot three weeks apart
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A dog walker who discovered the bodies of two of serial killer Stephen Port’s victims has said she found it “very peculiar” that she found them in almost the same spot less than a month apart.
Port, 46, was given a whole-life sentence on 25 November 2016 for murdering Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, and for a string of rapes and sexual assaults .
Over 16 months between June 2014 and September 2015, he fatally drugged the four young men with GHB, before dumping their bodies near his flat in Barking, east London.
An inquest at Barking Town Hall will determine if the police could have prevented any of these deaths by arresting Port earlier.
As part of these proceedings, Barbara Denham said she saw Kovari’s body on 28 August 2014, propped against a wall in the corner of a churchyard, a spot she was passing on her usual walking route.
Just over three weeks later, she noticed the body of Whitworth, 21, set at an identical angle beside the same stone wall in St Margaret’s Churchyard.
On both occasions, the retiree called the police after unsuccessful attempts to wake them.
Describing the second experience, Ms Denham said: “This time I phoned up and said: ‘I am the same woman that found the other body a few weeks ago.’
“And I said: ‘I have found another young boy.’
“They all came flying over there. There were lots that day.”
Ms Denham also told jurors that despite telling police it was “peculiar” that both bodies were in that spot, she was never asked by the Met Police if she thought it was more than a coincidence.
Pc Thomas Faulkner, who responded to Ms Denham’s first call, said he couldn’t say if he and his colleagues treated Kovari’s death as suspicious or unexplained.
“All I can say is there was an element we were treating the scene in a suspicious manner,” he added.
The body of Port’s first victim, Walgate, who was a fashion student, was found outside his flat on 17 June 2014.
The serial killer gave different stories to police after the murder. In the second police interview, he changed his narrative and admitted he had hired Walgate as an escort.
As a result of misleading the police, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for perverting the course of justice. Shortly after his release, he killed Taylor, whom he had met on Grindr.
Additional reporting by PA