Stephen Port and his four known victims
The families of ‘Grindr serial killer’ Stephen Port are raising money for legal costs in the inquest into police failures.
Stephen Port, from Dagenham, London, was found guilty of the cruel murders of four men – Anthony Walgate, 23, Daniel Whitworth, 21, Jack Taylor, 25 and Garbiel Kovari, 22 – last year.
The killer lured the victims in Barking and Dagenham using dating apps, where he would drug them using ‘date-rape’ drug GHB. He then raped and murdered them.
Stephen Port will never leave prison, but the families and friends of the victims are still seeking justice. They believe that the police fundamentally failed in their duty to protect the community and the victims in their response and investigation. They believe that Port should have been arrested much sooner than he was.
Mistakes were made
Four inquests are to be held together next year, which will investigate how the victims died, and and how the Metropolitan Police investigation may have allowed Port to escape justice for too long. The families are sourcing money for legal costs. Their goal is £10,000 ($12,978), but say it won’t cover it all.
On the website, they write: ‘You hear the circumstances [of the death] and you know that something’s not right. You try telling the police, but they won’t listen.
‘That’s what happened to us. They eventually listened, but it was too late.’
John Pape, friend and former landlord of Port’s second victim, Gabriel, reached out to Gay Star News. He is supporting the crowdfunder and believes the police failed the boys.
‘I was quite slow to say, ‘oh it’s homophobia.’ Part of me have wondered at times, “are they very under-resourced?” But it doesn’t take resources to see the obvious,’ John told Gay Star News.
They have seven days to raise funds
‘It didn’t require the resources of the families to just search online. It doesn’t take resources to put some points in a map and realize that strikingly similar people are all turning up dead in the same area. Especially when you’ve already arrested the guy for the first death.’
Police originally suspected the the young men had died from drug overdoses, and not that they had been murdered.. However, for many of them, it didn’t sit right. Jack Taylor’s sisters in particular didn’t believe that their younger brother died from drug misuse.
‘Do I think it’s homophobia? I don’t know for sure, I wasn’t there. But it’s so staggering their level of indifference and incompetence that, yeah, I think that must’ve had some bearing on it,’ John added.
The families have seven days before the crowdfunder ends. You can give here.
More from Gay Star News:
Met Police admits mistakes with gay rape and chemsex assault victims
You are now four times more likely to be a victim of an online hookup crime
Police, under investigation for failings in Stephen Port murders, tells dating apps to protect users
