A serial killer who was hiding in plain sight
EASY KILLS By Sebastian Murphy-Bates (Mirror Books £8.99)
IT IS essential, first of all, to make a leap of the imagination. Put yourself in the position of a devastated family member who has discovered that a loved one has been found dead in the strangest, acutely distressing — and most obviously suspicious — circumstance.
Imagine that . . . then add to the grief, shock and agonised confusion you feel by realising that the police officers investigating the death don’t so much as take a single note when you communicate your suspicions — in fact, they don’t seem to give a damn.
That was the experience (between June 2014 and September 2015) of the family and friends of Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student, Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Slovakia, Daniel Whitworth, 21, a chef, and Jack Taylor, 25, who worked in a bonded warehouse.
What did the four men have in common? They were all homosexual — and each one died as a result of a fatal dose of the ‘date rape’ drug GHB, administered by the serial killer and rapist Stephen Port.
Each young man’s body was dumped near Port’s flat in Barking, East London — but the police failed to link the deaths, despite striking similarities. The catalogue of incompetence was incredible.
A recent BBC drama, Four Lives, about the same case (starring Stephen Merchant and Sheridan Smith) focused on the families’ fight for justice. And this week the BBC has already aired the first of a new documentary series, The Nilsen Files, looking afresh at the notorious murders of 12 young males by serial killer Dennis Nilsen, with a particular focus on the lives and personalities of his victims.
Therefore the publication of Sebastian Murphy-Bates’s passionate, forensic examination of the Stephen Port murders could not have come at a better time.
It tells the story behind the headlines in devastating detail.
Quite apart from uncovering many layers of police incompetence, this grimly engrossing book displays exemplary empathy towards the victims and their families, provides a useful history of similar cases, asks vital questions about on-going allegations of systemic homophobia within the Metropolitan Police — and also incidentally offers valuable insights into local journalism itself.
Murphy-Bates was a reporter on the Barking and Dagenham Post and was living in Barking when Port was arrested. He reveals the frustrations of underresourced local journalists whose hands are tied — yet who sense something is very wrong.
There can be no mistaking the crusading anger of this comment: ‘The people who live in Barking and Dagenham don’t just deserve a voice. They deserve authorities that will listen to that voice.’
But the police did not listen to the grieving families — even though Jack Taylor’s brave, angry sisters Donna and
Jenny especially worked tirelessly for justice. It now seems incredible that the local branch of the Met failed to link the four deaths, despite obvious parallels and the fact that three of the men were found in St Margaret’s churchyard, Barking, yards from Port’s home, while the other was actually found outside his flat — the police were alerted to it by a highly suspicious phone call from Port, pretending to be a concerned member of the public.
Murphy-Bates leaves us in no doubt about his own views: ‘This is the story of a serial killer whose crimes were so blatant and mindnumbingly inadequate that to place him in the category of criminal genius would be frankly insulting to hard-working psychopaths.’
That tone of wry irony we hear all through the pages of Easy Kills brilliantly leavens the real anger underpinning a shocking story of ‘a police force who not only failed to perform their duties, but actually decided against doing so despite the plea of devastated mothers and sisters begging them to display even a cursory form of care.’ Even the most reasonable supporter of the police (and I am one) will find it impossible to finish this book and even begin to comprehend the failings of Barking and Dagenham Police — who were investigated (unsatisfactorily) by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Think of the extent of modern forensic and technological knowledge — then wonder why officers neglected to check Port’s electronic devices when the first overdosed body turned up outside his flat in June 2014.Was it because the dead men were all gay? Was it because the police did not understand — or maybe approve of — their lifestyle?
Officers of the Metropolitan Police ‘took the knee’ at a Black lives Matter demonstration (or should that be, near-riot?) in an unforgettable display of excruciatingly embarrassing and inappropriate ‘virtue’.
They’ve also been spotted making sure Insulate Britain protesters were comfortable, and sporting rainbow badges at Pride marches.
Murphy-Bates comments acidly that ‘in 2015, while they were refusing to investigate the death of Jack Taylor, having already refused to investigate the three previous deaths, they arrested 857 people for offensive social media posts.’ What?
His compelling book is far more than an addition to the ‘true crime’ genre. It should be essential reading for anyone concerned with police accountability — and the disturbing way certain groups of usually vulnerable people fall beneath the radar.
Easy Kills is a call for action.