Jury sworn in for inquests into victims of serial killer Stephen Port

A jury has been sworn in for the long-awaited inquests into the deaths of Stephen Port’s victims – just yards from where their bodies were found.

Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, were killed by the serial killer between June 2014 and September 2015.

Port, 46, had given them fatal overdoses of date rape drug GHB before dumping their bodies near to his flat in Barking, east London.

On Friday, a jury was sworn in to hear inquests for all four victims at Barking Town Hall.

Sarah Munro, assistant coroner for the East London area, told them: “On Tuesday of next week we will commence hearing inquests into the deaths of four young men who were murdered by a man called Stephen Port in 2014 and 2015.

“They were killed by him with overdoses of a date rape drug called GHB and their bodies were discarded by him yards from where we are sitting now.”

She said the inquests would be high profile and were likely to be covered in detail by the media.

The assistant coroner also warned jurors not to discuss the case or try to find out any information about it, saying: “Concentrate on what you see in this courtroom and nothing else.”

Ms Munro, who also sits as a judge at the Old Bailey, sent the jurors away until Tuesday morning.

The inquests, which were postponed due to the pandemic, are expected to go on for up to 10 weeks.