London gay dating app killer gets life in jail

Stephen Port, the London man who killed four young men he met on dating apps, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

On Friday, the Central Criminal Court in London sentenced the 41-year-old cook and occasional rent boy to life imprisonment for the murders, as well as for raping or sexually assaulting seven other men.

Port was found guilty on Wednesday of poisoning and killing Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25.

He baited his victims on gay dating apps, and then used lethal doses of the drug GHB to incapacitate and rape them.

The bodies were discovered between June 2014 and September 2015, dumped within a 500 meter radius of his east London flat.

Port, who reportedly had 18 profiles on 12 apps and dating sites, managed to elude police in part by planting a fake suicide note on the body of one of his victims.

The judge said that he was “wicked and monstrous” and had been motivated by his desire to “satisfy his lust”.

The Telegraph reports that during the sentencing a man in the public gallery yelled out at the killer: “I hope you die a long slow death you piece of shit!”

The police are alleged to have allowed their homophobia to hamper their investigations into the murders. They at first failed to link the killings, despite their proximity and close timeframe, and initially viewed them as “non-suspicious”.

Officers are also accused of dismissing concerns of foul play from the victims’ families and from within the gay community.

Seventeen officers are now under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission for misconduct in connection to the case.

Dating apps have also come under fire for not doing enough to alert their users to the possible dangers of fake profiles and of hooking up with strangers.