‘Grindr killer’ planted fake suicide note on victim framing him for killing another man, inquest hears
Stephen Port was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of four men
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An inquest into the murders of four young, gay men has heard their killer planted a fake suicide note on one victim to frame him for the death of another.
Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, were murdered by Stephen Port, now 46, in east London between June 2014 and September 2015.
Port, who met his victims on dating app Grindr and poisoned them with date-rape drug GHB, was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2016 for the four murders and multiple sexual offences against other men.
The current inquest is examining the competency of the Met Police and whether they could have stopped Port sooner.
The inquest heard the killer sought to distance himself from his second murder of Mr Kovari by faking a suicide note from Mr Whitworth, his third victim.
The fake note, read to the inquest jury on Friday, said: “I am sorry to everyone, mainly my family, but I can’t go on anymore.
“I took the life of my friend Gabriel Kline,” (Mr Kovari).
“We was (sic) just having some fun at a mate’s place and I got carried away and I gave him another shot of G.” - referring to the drug, GHB.
The handwritten note continues, saying “please do not blame the guy I was with last night” and “I have taken what G I had left with sleeping pills, so if does kill me it is what I deserve.”
Police later learned that Port was responsible for the note, not Mr Whitworth, in an attempt to distance himself from the murder.
The inquest also heard from Port’s former neighbour, Ryan Edwards, on Thursday, who was concerned about Mr Kovari after meeting him in Port’s flat days before his murder.
Mr Edwards told the inquest that Mr Kovari said that Port “is not the person you think he is, he’s not a nice man”, prompting Mr Edwards to offer him shelter in his nearby home.
Mr Kovari did not respond to Mr Edward’s follow-up messages, and was found dead in a churchyard in Barking, east London days later, unbeknownst to Mr Edwards.
Mr Edward’s also described Port as having a “voracious appetite” for meeting “very young” men, a “strange” obsession with children’s toys and feared Port may have had “paedophile tendencies”.
The inquest continues.