Did police homophobia fail serial killer's gay victims? | CNN

Contents:

• DID POLICE HOMOPHOBIA FAIL SERIAL KILLER’S GAY VICTIMS?
• STEPHEN PORT: THE HORRIFIC 'GRDR MURRER' WHO DGGED, RAPED AND KILLED MEN BARKGSTEPHEN PORT'S VILE KILLG SPREE SHOCKED THE LOL MUNY AND BEYONDGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYROBYN DARBYSHIREREPORTER07:00, 21 JUL 2019UPDATED10:30, 21 JUL 2019BOOKMARKSTEPHEN PORT MURRED FOUR YOUNG GAY MEN TO FULFIL HIS PRAVED SEXUAL FANTASI (IMAGE: PA)STORI OM URT AND THE LATT BREAKG CRIME NEWS SENT RIGHT TO YOUR BOXMORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 STORI OM URT AND THE LATT BREAKG CRIME NEWS SENT RIGHT TO YOUR BOXINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!
• DID POLICE HOMOPHOBIA ALLOW A SERIAL KILLER TO TARGET GAY MEN FOR OVER A YEAR?
• BRISH SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR MURRG FOUR GAY MEN
• STEPHEN MERCHANT HS OUT AT POLICE AFTER PLAYG GAY SERIAL KILLER STEPHEN PORT FOUR LIV
• GAY UPLE LEFT NEEDG HOSPAL TREATMENT AFTER SPECTED VLENT HATE CRIME ATTACK EAST LONDON

DID POLICE HOMOPHOBIA FAIL SERIAL KILLER’S GAY VICTIMS?

He me out as gay his worked terg at var plac his lol area and was workg as a chef for Stageach at their b pot Wt Ham when he mted his crim. Origally he lived wh a man he met on a gay datg webse south he was keen to move and Augt he said he had found a place to stay Kovari moved to Port's Cooke Street flat on 23 Augt. Instead he found his boyiend on Facebook and pretend to be a 21-year-old gay porn star om California lled Jon Luck orr to get rmatn about the police Whworth.

Three weeks after she found Gabriel Kovari's body the Barkg churchyard, on 20 September 2014 lol dogwalker Barbara Denham found another the same turned out to be Port's third murr victim, 21-year-old Daniel Whworth was a relatnship wh his partner Ricky Wmsley and they lived together Gravend, Kent, havg met on a gay datg was a chef and worked at up-market lotns London such as One Moate Place and Canary Whworth was signed up to another datg se at the time lled Flads and began talkg to Port on there on 18 didn't meet until a month later.

STEPHEN PORT: THE HORRIFIC 'GRDR MURRER' WHO DGGED, RAPED AND KILLED MEN BARKGSTEPHEN PORT'S VILE KILLG SPREE SHOCKED THE LOL MUNY AND BEYONDGETWTLONDONBOOKMARKSHARECOMMENTSNEWSBYROBYN DARBYSHIREREPORTER07:00, 21 JUL 2019UPDATED10:30, 21 JUL 2019BOOKMARKSTEPHEN PORT MURRED FOUR YOUNG GAY MEN TO FULFIL HIS PRAVED SEXUAL FANTASI (IMAGE: PA)STORI OM URT AND THE LATT BREAKG CRIME NEWS SENT RIGHT TO YOUR BOXMORE NEWSLETTERS SUBSCRIBEINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.MORE NEWSLETTERSWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!WE HAVE MORE NEWSLETTERSSHOW ME SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE SEE OURPRIVACY NOTICE&TIM;GROUP 28 STORI OM URT AND THE LATT BREAKG CRIME NEWS SENT RIGHT TO YOUR BOXINVALID EMAILSOMETHG WENT WRONG, PLEASE TRY AGA LATER.SIGN UPNO THANKS, CLOSEWE E YOUR SIGN-UP TO PROVI NTENT WAYS YOU’VE NSENTED TO AND IMPROVE OUR UNRSTANDG OF YOU. THIS MAY CLU ADVERTS OM AND THIRD PARTI BASED ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOU. MORE &TIM;GROUP 28THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBG!

He was not thought to be openly gay and had a number of girliends the days before he was found ad, he went out drkg at the Tradg Club he got back the early hours of 13 September, his father was still awake and wished him soon after that he had gone back out a taxi after matchg wh Port on the app rerds show Port had asked his victim if he had "ever taken T", referrg to crystal ptured Port and Mr Taylor meetg at Barkg statn the middle of the night.

Police unr vtigatn for handlg of the se, ncern homophobia at play. Over 15 months, Stephen Port, a 41-year-old chef om a workg class east London borough dgged, raped, and killed four gay men he met on datg apps. After drkg wh iends a lol gay club, he went home and saw his father, before hookg up wh Port on gay datg app Grdr and takg a taxi to his flat.

DID POLICE HOMOPHOBIA ALLOW A SERIAL KILLER TO TARGET GAY MEN FOR OVER A YEAR?

Leadg gay rights activist Peter Tatchell qutned whether homophobia and class played a role police nduct. “The killg of low e gay men workg class Barkg was treated very differently – police officers stand acced of class, genr and sexualy bias. Crimologist Wilson agreed that the se had “a great al to do wh the persistence of homophobia generally and wh the police.

Prosecutors said Port targeted victims on Grdr and other gay datg s and apps, then plied them wh drks laced wh fatal amounts of the dg GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, otherwise known as liquid ecstasy. Cohen believ another reason why police may have overlooked the serial killer’s volvement, was “bee of the e of the dg GHB and s prevalence among the gay muny.

“It’s que a problem the gay muny London, of people g the dgs chemsex, ” he said of the group sex ssns often anized through datg apps. He told me he was lookg to make a go of London and this ma sense, bee y, this cy attracts young gay men om other parts of the UK and Europe, 's seen as a tolerant, liberal place pared to others.

BRISH SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR MURRG FOUR GAY MEN

In most s of serial killgs, the victims are om margalized or mory muni, such as sex workers or gay men.

It is no cince that many of the most notor serial killers Bra—Jack the Ripper, the Yorkshire Ripper, Dennis Nilsen, the Gay Slayer and the Suffolk Strangler—targeted the groups. Most of the women killed were sex workers, and the film criciz the police for a slow vtigatn and failg to raise the Bra, the police's track rerd solvg serial killgs volvg gay men is as wretched as is for those of sex workers.

Dennis Nilsen, who killed 15 mostly young, gay, or homels men between 1978 and 1983 after vg the victims back to his North London home, was not ught as a rult of dited tective work, but bee his neighborg tenants uld not flh their toilets due to the multiple body parts Nilsen had disposed of down the dras. A man who survived a murr attempt by Nilsen very early on the serial killer's reer—he awoke Nilsen's home, tied to a chair while beg strangled wh his own tie—alerted police, but was ignored bee officers believed Nilsen when he told them the cint was merely "a homosexual lover's tiff.

STEPHEN MERCHANT HS OUT AT POLICE AFTER PLAYG GAY SERIAL KILLER STEPHEN PORT FOUR LIV

"Police were siarly slow to act when Michele "Michael" Lupo strangled and mutilated four gay men over an eight-week stretch 1986. The Italian-born flower shop owner om Chelsea—technilly a "spree" killer bee he murred over a perd of ls than three months—met his victims gay bars. The police were cricized after officers layed examg the body of Lupo's send victim, stallg the vtigatn, bee the ceased was HIV piful was the police rponse to the notor Gay Slayer killgs— which Col Ireland btally strangled to ath five gay men over three months 1993—that Ireland actually began leavg clu for law enforcement.

A 2007 review to the Metropolan Police's vtigatn of 10 killgs and attacks on LGBT people nclud that the police's work on such s was fluenced by stutnal homophobia.

GAY UPLE LEFT NEEDG HOSPAL TREATMENT AFTER SPECTED VLENT HATE CRIME ATTACK EAST LONDON

The review, published by the pennt police advisors LGBT Advisory Group, nmned the 1993 Gay Slayer police vtigatn as a "ser failure of policg. " It said: "The ial vtigatns seemed to to be more foced on termg promiscuy and risk takg, " addg that more should have been done to warn the fact, one of the world's foremost experts on serial killers, the Brish crimologist David Wilson, says that the gay muny receiv "at bt, a patchy service om the police.

" In his 2007 book Serial Killers: Huntg Brons and Their Victims 1960-2006, Wilson nclud that "homophobia has created the circumstanc which gay men have bee one of the prime targets of serial killers this untry. "While somewhere between one and ten percent of the UK populatn is LGBT, sce Nilsen's nvictn 1983, gay men have acunted for all or most of the victims of five out of the 14 serial killers sce active the 2015, Cha and Kiera had bee trated wh the police's approach vtigatg the ath of Walgate.

"As police ntued to ny, when qutned by victims' iends, that the aths of Walgate, Kovari and Whworth were lked, John ntacted the veteran Brish LGBT civil rights activist Peter Tatchell, who suggted John ntact Nick Duffy, edor of the onle gay newspaper, PkNews.