Stephen Port

In 2019, Gerald Matovu who was known to have supplied Port with the GHB used in the killings was arrested and sentenced to 31 years in prison for the murder of actor and businessman Eric Michels. Using similar methods to Port, Matovu had targeted Michels on Grindr and given him a fatal dose of GHB.

A BBC One documentary broadcast in March 2017 suggested a "catalogue of police failings" in the Met's response to the deaths. Crucial witnesses were not questioned; for example, Port's neighbour who had witnessed Port in a dazed state, with a large container full of white powder and bottles of clear liquid, when he made an unexpected visit to his home, and also reported receiving suspicious text messages from Port regarding Kovari.

Following Port's conviction, the Independent Police Complaints Commission opened an investigation into whether 17 police officers should face disciplinary action. As of November 2017, this was expected to be completed in Spring 2018, but not made public until after a verdict in a new joint inquest on all four deaths; the inquests on Kovari and Whitworth were later quashed. The families have also opened a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police.

In 2017, the BBC aired the documentary How Police Missed the Grindr Killer which examined the botched investigation into Port's murders. In 2019, it was announced the BBC would produce a drama thriller titled The Barking Murders written by Neil McKay which will be based on the investigation led by the families of Port's victims. Stephen Merchant will portray Port while Sheridan Smith and Jamie Winstone will feature in supporting roles.

On 23 November 2016, Port was convicted of the assaults by penetration, rapes and murders of Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, as well as the rapes of three other men he drugged, and ten counts of administering a substance with intent, and four sexual assaults. He was found guilty on all counts. In total, eleven men were known victims of Port's crimes.

At the Old Bailey on 25 November 2016, Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Port to life imprisonment with a whole life order.

The Metropolitan Police also reported in 2016 that they were re-examining 58 unexplained deaths involving date-rape drugs, although a spokeswoman said there was nothing to suggest that Port was linked to any of them.

His first murder victim, Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student originally from Hull, who on occasion worked as an escort, was contacted by Port on 17 June 2014 pretending to be a client and offered £800 for his services; they later met at Barking station. On 19 June 2014, Walgate was pronounced dead shortly before 8 am after Port himself anonymously called the emergency services reporting that a young boy was "collapsed or had had a seizure or was drunk" on the street outside his flat. Evidence linking Port to Walgate's death was missed at this time. Port was convicted of perverting the course of justice in March 2015 because his account of the death to the police varied. He was imprisoned for eight months, but released the following June and electronically tagged.

Between August 2014 and September 2015 Port murdered at least three more men: Gabriel Kovari, 22, who had moved to London from Slovakia and had briefly lived with Port; Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend in Kent, who worked as a chef; and Jack Taylor, 25, who lived with his parents in Dagenham, and worked as a forklift truck driver. The bodies of the last three of the four murder victims were found in the graveyard of the church of St Margaret of Antioch in Barking, two of which were found by the same woman on separate occasions walking her dog. Port had planted a fake suicide note alongside the body of Whitworth that suggested he was responsible for the death of one of the other victims, Kovari, and that he had killed himself out of guilt.

The bodies of the four men were found in the vicinity of Port's flat in just over a year from late Summer 2014: Walgate (the first) outside his front door and the other three in a nearby graveyard. The Metropolitan Police, however, neglected to link the deaths. The first three victims were initially thought not to have died in suspicious circumstances, and despite the PinkNews website and the force's LGBT independent advisory group correctly believing there was a serial murderer at large, the police had told them the crimes were not linked.

Stephen Port (born 22 February 1975) is a British convicted serial rapist and serial killer. He is responsible for murdering at least four men and for committing multiple rapes. Port received a life sentence with a whole life order on 25 November 2016, meaning he will not become eligible for parole and is unlikely to ever be released from prison.