London - An alleged serial killer who had a fetish for sex with unconscious men murdered four by giving them overdoses of a date-rape drug, a court heard on Wednesday.
It was claimed that Stephen Port poisoned the men after watching violent porn featuring drugged, stupefied, young men and women being raped.
The 41-year-old chef and gay escort allegedly lured young men to his flat after meeting them on gay dating websites.
He allegedly spiked their drinks with GHB – a drug known as liquid ecstasy – and had sex with them while they were out cold.
Over a 15-month period, Port dumped three of the bodies next to a local church and left one outside his flat, the jury was told.
He propped three bodies up in a sitting position and planted drugs on them to make it look as if they died from accidental overdoses, it was said.
Port, who worked as a cook in a bus garage canteen, allegedly faked a suicide note found on one of the bodies.
The Old Bailey heard how he was attracted to ‘twinks’ – slightly-built, boyish men.
He killed his victims while ‘in the pursuit of nothing more than his own sexual gratification’, jurors heard.
For more than three years, he allegedly carried out sex attacks against 12 men under the age of 26, including the four who died.
Port, who described himself as 70 percent gay, faces 29 charges, including four counts of murder, four alternative counts of manslaughter, seven allegations of rape, ten of administering a substance and four sexual assaults.
Port denies all the charges against him.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said the attacks were all driven by Port’s ‘appetite for having sexual intercourse with younger, gay males while they were unconscious through drugs’.
He added: ‘That was his particular fetish, and what turned him on. The defendant’s appetite for penetrating drugged young men is reflected in the pornography he watched. Much of the pornography for which he searched and viewed fell into the category of what might be termed “drug-rape pornography”, featuring males and females apparently being raped while unconscious or stupefied through drugs.’
Rees said one of the videos showed a drug being slipped into the drink of an intended victim.
Port’s internet searches included phrases such as ‘gay teen knocked out and raped’ and ‘raped while sleeping or drugged or drunk’, the prosecutor said.
The court heard how he bought legal and illegal drugs to enhance his sexual experience and stupefy his targets, and filmed himself raping some of his victims.
The first young man he is accused of murdering is Anthony Walgate, a 23-year-old university student and gay prostitute.
Port looked at pictures and videos of Walgate hours after viewing porn images of ‘young males being raped while apparently asleep, drugged and unconscious’, it was said.
He allegedly looked at articles about rape, including two about men who had been charged with the rape of unconscious boys.
Rees added: ‘Not only did he derive sexual gratification from viewing images concerning this sexual practice, but he actually practised it himself and was concerned about the consequences of getting caught.’
Walgate became suspicious when Port agreed to pay £800 for his services without trying to negotiate the price down. He sent a friend details of the job in June 2014 ‘in case I get killed’.
Two days later Port made an anonymous 999 call, claiming a man had collapsed in the street in the early hours.
As part of the investigation, Port was questioned and said he found the body by a block of flats. But Walgate’s body was found with his top pulled up, suggesting he was dragged there.
The defendant, from Barking in east London, was convicted of perverting the course of justice for making a false statement.
The second alleged victim was Slovakian Gabriel Kovari, 22, who died in August 2014.
Port is also accused of murdering chef Daniel Whitworth, 21, the next month and forklift driver Jack Taylor, 25, a year later.
His first alledged rape victim was 19 when Port allegedly spiked his wine and assaulted him while he was unconscious in February 2012. He only went to police after Port was arrested for murder.
The trial continues.
Daily Mail