Stephen Port Denies Everything: Metropolitan Police Interviews, October 2015

Name: Stephen Port Denies Everything: Metropolitan Police Interviews, October 2015
Uploaded: 2016-11-24
Duration: 11 min 32 s
Description: Arrested for four murders, Stephen Port blamed another man, claimed he never went near the churchyard where three bodies were found, and denied writing a fake suicide note.

Arrested for four murders, Stephen Port blamed another man, claimed he never went near the churchyard where three bodies were found, and denied writing a fake suicide note.

Subject: Stephen Port
Interviewer: Metropolitan Police detectives (not named)
Recorded: October 2015
Runtime: 11:32

Content warning: Concerns the drugging and deaths of four young men.

The Interview

Stephen Port was arrested at his flat in Barking, east London, on October 15, 2015, on suspicion of the murders of four young men. That evening and the next day Metropolitan Police detectives interviewed him under caution. This eleven-minute edit of those interviews, released after his conviction, shows him denying any part in the deaths. He suggests another man, "Daniel", handed out drugs at parties; says he does not recognise a photograph of Jack Taylor; says he never went into the grounds of the old Abbey near his home; and denies writing a letter found with one of the bodies.

Historical Context

Between June 2014 and September 2015, Port met young gay and bisexual men through dating apps and websites, drugged them with GHB at his flat, and raped them. Four died: Anthony Walgate, 23; Gabriel Kovari, 22; Daniel Whitworth, 21; and Jack Taylor, 25. Walgate was found outside Port's flat. The other three were found in or near the churchyard of St Margaret's, Barking, close to the Abbey ruins. Police at first treated the deaths as unconnected and not suspicious, even when a "suicide note" left with Daniel Whitworth's body claimed he had accidentally killed Gabriel Kovari. That note was later shown to have been written by Port.

Circumstances of the Interview

Port had already been jailed in 2015 for perverting the course of justice over Walgate's death. After Jack Taylor's death in September 2015, detectives linked the four cases. Port was charged with the four murders and appeared in court on October 19, 2015. In the interviews shown here detectives put the maps, photographs and the letter to him. When asked about "Daniel", Port says he thinks the man's surname was Whitworth, the name of one of the dead men.

What the Interview Covers

The detectives ask about Gabriel Kovari, about a man Port knew as Daniel, about the parties he says he took young men to, and about Jack Taylor. They show him a map of his home, St Margaret's church and the Abbey grounds. They then set out the evidence: four young men, all found with fatal amounts of GHB, all close to his home. Port denies everything, says he has "told you the truth", and appears to say he knows nothing about how three of the men came to be where they were found.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The interview shows the story Port told when the police finally treated the deaths as murder. At his trial the prosecution showed that he had written the note blaming Daniel Whitworth for Gabriel Kovari's death. He was convicted at the Old Bailey on November 23, 2016, of the four murders and of offences against eleven men in all, and was sentenced to a whole life order.

Archival Importance

The case became one of the most damaging for the Metropolitan Police in recent years. New inquests in 2021 found that all four men were unlawfully killed and that police failings "probably" contributed to the deaths of Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor. This recording preserves Port's own account at the moment the police finally confronted him.

Important Caveats

Everything Port says in the clip is his denial; the jury rejected it. The surviving men he drugged and assaulted are not named. The clip is an edit of longer interviews; the on-screen counters jump between sessions. One of Port's final replies is quiet and only partly audible, so it is given here as a paraphrase, not a quotation.

Detective: So did you have any involvement in the death of the male that we spoke about a short while ago, Gabriel Kovari, or Gabriel [unclear: "Klein" / "Cline"]?

Stephen Port: No, I don't.

Detective: So were you involved in administering any drugs or poisons or noxious substances to him?

Stephen Port: No. I don't administer drugs to anyone or give drugs to anyone. That's done at the party. [Unclear: "boy",] someone, the name I recognised at one of the parties mentioned before, was the one, he normally, at the party, deals with administrating drugs.

Detective: Who is that, sorry?

Stephen Port: Daniel. I recognise him. Sometimes he deals, he hands out the drugs to the guests.

Detective: Daniel, this is the male that we spoke of earlier.

Stephen Port: He might not be the same guy. I really don't know. But he's the only Daniel I know. I mean, I spoke to him a couple of times at the party. [Unclear: "Remember his name."] But, um, he does like I did. Scott would ask him to pick up guys, take them to the party.

Detective (attribution inferred): Mm-hmm.

Stephen Port: And he would, but he would stay. But I would, he would stay and [unclear: "administer" / "minister"], or dole out, hand out, you know, drugs, whatever. But I would leave, or he would stay.

Detective: And did you go with Daniel to meet people?

Stephen Port: No, no. I knew he was doing the same as I was. I've seen him at the party and had a brief conversation with him about it, but I've never actually engaged with him outside of the place.

Detective: Outside of a party. And which parties were these?

Stephen Port: Frat parties. Scott's parties. The frat parties. Frat party. F-R-A-T. Frat parties.

Detective: So when was the first occasion that you met the person that you're talking of, someone that you know as Daniel?

Stephen Port: Um, that's on the first few occasions I was there. First time I [unclear: "brought a guy for Scott" / "photographed Scott"], and Daniel was there. Um, I don't even know if it's the same Daniel I'm talking about, but he's the only Daniel I can recall as such. Um, I think his name was Whitworth. Rings a bell.

Detective: You think his name was Whitworth?

Stephen Port: Yeah. He's almost as tall as me, brown hair.

Detective: Might help if I show you a picture. I'll call this CRT2. This is Jack Taylor. Do you recognise that male?

Stephen Port: I don't pay full attention to the guys' faces when I [unclear: "have to take part in these" / "change the parties"]. Um, but I don't recognise his face.

Detective: So you don't recognise his face?

Stephen Port: I don't, no.

Detective: And, I mean, that's Jack Taylor. So you don't recognise Jack Taylor?

Stephen Port: No, I don't.

Detective: Jack Taylor?

Stephen Port: No.

Detective: So have you ever slept with this male? Had sexual intercourse with him?

Stephen Port: He doesn't look like the type I'd go for myself.

Detective: He's not the sort of person you'd go for?

Stephen Port: No. I tend to, more, he's more, younger, [unclear: "drinky"] boys, more younger boys. But [unclear], he looks older. He could be similar to the type I've taken to parties, but I don't recognise him as being one of them.

Detective: So you don't recognise him as being one of them?

Stephen Port: No. No.

Detective: Okay. And Jack again was found dead. It was on the 14th of September, 2015. Stephen, did you have any involvement in his death?

Stephen Port: I did not, no.

Detective: Did you kill Jack Taylor?

Stephen Port: I did not, no.

Detective: Did you administer any drugs or noxious substances to him with the intention of causing him harm?

Stephen Port: No. Definitely not, no. No.

Detective: And you say you've never seen him before, is that right?

Stephen Port: That's right. That's right.

Detective: Okay. I've got another map here, CRT8. I'm just trying to show you as many maps of the area, because it's not easy to get it all on one piece of paper, just so that we're clear, really. And again, it shows your home address, and it shows the church, St Margaret's, and then behind it you've got the Abbey and the primary school, in particular the area around the walls of the Abbey. Have you ever had any reason to go into that area?

Stephen Port: No.

Detective: Have you ever been through into the Abbey?

Stephen Port: Uh, no, I haven't, no. No. Don't go to such areas. I once went to that church with my ex, Denny. Went to the church on a Christmas Day. Went into the church, but that's as far as I got, as far as I...

Detective: You've not been into the grounds behind it, where you've got the old Abbey walls?

Stephen Port: No. Don't go there. Looks a spooky sight. Won't go there.

Detective: You've never been in there?

Stephen Port: No.

Detective: In all the eight years that you've lived across the road from the park?

Stephen Port: I thought it was all private, [I don't] go there. I think it's a private area, the church.

Detective: It's fairly open, isn't it, when you go past? Would you agree with that or not?

Stephen Port: The field, yeah, the field is, but the church bit behind the walls, [I wouldn't] go past there.

Detective: Because three of the four people that have been found dead were found slumped up against the wall here of the Abbey.

Stephen Port: Pardon?

Detective (attribution inferred): [Repeats the point; partly inaudible.]

Stephen Port: I didn't know that.

Detective: You didn't know that? So that's news to you, is it? Did you put them there?

Stephen Port: No.

Detective: So obviously Anthony was found slumped outside your address with a large amount of GHB in his system. The other three men we've been discussing were all found over by the wall area of the Abbey, as you can see on the map. Again, all of them were slumped against the wall with a large amount of GHB in their body. Can you account for that at all?

Stephen Port: No, I can't.

Detective: And Stephen, did you write this letter? [Exhibit] CRT11.

Stephen Port: No, I didn't.

Detective: The [letter] that was found with Daniel?

Stephen Port: No.

Detective: [Unclear.] Are you telling us the truth, Stephen?

Stephen Port: I'm telling you the truth, yes.

Detective: About the letter?

Stephen Port: Yes.

Detective: About all of these boys?

Stephen Port: Yeah.

Detective: Young boys. In the early stages of their youth, really, in terms of, in their early twenties. All found dead. Stephen?

Stephen Port: I understand.

Detective: Close to your house. One of them had been in your house, either just before or at the time when he died, and was found to have large quantities of a drug in his system. The other three were all found just over the road in the churchyard, or just beside the churchyard, in that area that we've discussed, propped up against a wall, a short distance from your house, all again with high levels of GHB in them, enough to kill them. Highly unusual way to die, for one person. This is four, all found very close to where you live. All men, young men. The type of men that you say that you find attractive. All now dead, Stephen.

Stephen Port: [Unclear: "I said Anthony, I know about. The other three, I know nothing about how they came to be (there)."]

Detective: Stephen, this is serious.

Stephen Port: Yes. Okay.

Detective: It's really important that you tell us the absolute truth.

Stephen Port: [Unclear: "I've told you so far, it's true" / "It's always true".]