Police charge Stephen Port, 40, with four counts of murder in relation to bodies discovered in Barking between June 2014 and September 2015

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A man has been charged with murder and the administration of a poison following the discoveries of the bodies of four young men over a period of 15 months.

On Sunday night, Scotland Yard said it had charged Stephen Port, 40, from Barking, in east London, with four counts of murder in relation to the deaths of four men between June last year and September this year.

Police said Port is also charged with four counts of “administering a poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm”. He is scheduled to appear in custody at Barkingside magistrates court on Monday morning.

The charges follow the discovery of two bodies of alleged victims close to the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church in Barking, 22 days apart. Another body, the last for which Port has been charged, was found last month at Barking Abbey ruins.



The charges relate to four men aged between 21 and 25 and the alleged murders took place between June 2014 and September 2015.

All the victims are alleged to have been found in Barking, on the London-Essex border.

Scotland Yard has named the victims. Anthony Patrick Walgate, 23, from Barnet, was pronounced dead in Barking on 19 June 2014. On 28 August 2014, the body of Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Lewisham, was discovered close to the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church, North Street, Barking. Police said another body – that of Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend, Kent – was found close to the same churchyard on 20 September.

The fourth alleged victim was Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, whose body was found near the Abbey Ruins close to North Street on 14 September this year.

Police said Taylor was a a night duty forklift operator at a warehouse and had been out with friends on the evening of Saturday 12 September.

They added: “He returned home but went back out again in the early hours of Sunday 13 September, having called a cab.”

Police scoured CCTV to establish where Taylor had been in the hours before his death and issued CCTV footage of his movements.

Making the appeal for information, Sgt Matthew Laffan, from Barking and Dagenham police, said: “We are not sure how long Jack had been at the abbey ruins but clearly there is a period of time unaccounted for. We are trying to piece together his last movements and the man captured on CCTV may well be the last person to talk to Jack.”