'HE'S HAD A SEIZURE OR SOMETHING'
999 call made by ‘gay serial killer’ after he ‘drugged and raped young victim’
A GAY serial killer accused of drugging his victims made a chilling 999 call claiming his date had collapsed from a seizure, a court heard.
'Grindr killer' Stephen Port told operators he found a young boy collapsed on the street who looked like he was "just drunk".
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The 23-year-old victim Anthony Walgate had met Port through website Sleepboys and agreed to go to his home for a sleepover, the court heard.
He was found dead by a paramedic in a communal area of the block of flats where Port lived in Cooke Street, Barking in the early hours of June 19 2014.
The chilling details surrounding his death have surfaced as a 999 call made by Port was played to jurors in which he told operators about a "young boy".
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Port told the operator: "Cooke Street, appears a young boy looks like he's collapsed outside, I don't know.
"Looks like he has collapsed or had a seizure or something - or just drunk."
He went on: "I'm just going to get my car. I have got to get my car, the parking."
The operator told him not to worry about that and asked what number he was calling from, but Port was gone.
The operator rang back to ask if the man was awake and breathing and the defendant said he did not know, the court heard.
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Paramedic Anthony Neil arrived at the scene to find Mr Walgate was already dead and cold to the touch.
In a witness statement, read to jurors, Port claimed to have found Mr Walgate lying at his front door at around 4am after coming back from a night shift at the Stagecoach bus station in West Ham.
Port said: "I couldn't get into my door. I tried to rouse him by slapping his face. He didn't wake up, but made a gurgling noise.
"I sat him upright. He was still in the way, so I put him against the wall by the postbox.
"He still didn't wake up."
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The four men allegedly drugged and murdered by Port would have died a slow death, jurors were told today.
Pathologist Olaf Biedrzycki told how the brain of one of the Port's alleged victim's had "increased in weight significantly" in line with a prolonged death.
Dr Biedrzycki revealed how high doses of party drug GHB, which Port is accused of using to murder his victims, slows breathing and heart rate.
It can also stop the gag reflex and cause those who have taken it to vomit in their windpipe.
He said: ";Breathing becomes slower and slower and the level of oxygen in the blood will start to drop.
"If you have taken enough of the drug you might eventually just stop breathing completely."
He also explained that a low level of oxygen in the blood caused by GHB could lead to a heart attack.
Biedrzycki, who conducted a post-mortem on fashion student Anthony Walgate he day after he was found dead outside Port's flat, said: "It probably isn't a death like 'that' but takes a certain period of time to develop whilst your breathing becomes slower and slower and slower."
He added the weight of the 23-year-old's brain had "increased significantly" and explained: "It tends to suggest it has been a slower death, in keeping with increasing respiratory depression, followed by eventual cardiac arrest."
Port also told police that Walgate made a "gurgling noise" when he slapped him after finding him collapsed outside his block of flats, the Old Bailey heard.
The 41-year-old is accused of murdering his helpless victims as he satisfied his fetish for sex with unconscious young men.
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Daniel Whitworth, 21, Jack Taylor, 25, Gabriel Kovari, and Anthony Walgate all died of an overdose of party drug GHB.
They were found dumped near his one-bedroom flat in Barking, east London, between June 2014 and September 2015, the court heard.
Port, a bus garage cook who also worked as an escort, claimed his second victim Gabriel died of 'infection' in Spain after allegedly dumping his body in a graveyard.
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The 22-year-old's body was found slumped against a wall in the grounds of St Margaret's Church by a dog walker on the morning of 28 August 2014.
But two days later, Port sent a text message to his friend and neighbour, Ryan Edwards, which said: "He's gone to stay with another local guy".
Port later messaged him to say Gabriel had gone to Spain, adding: "He died on arrival from infection. Please don't mention to anyone."
Mr Edwards told the court: "I found that text utterly shocking...20-year-old young men that she perfectly healthy don't just die, so I thought that was very, very unusual.
"I also thought it was very unusual he said please don't mention this on Facebook because as if I would go on Facebook and start talking about a dead person, so I was a bit disturbed by that message."
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The neighbour also recalled one incident when he arrived at Port's flat to find a large container of drugs on the table and the alleged killer's boyfriend looking like a "zombie".
He said: "I found Stephen's character a little bit hard work. I'm a very, very outgoing, gregarious person.
"Stephen was a very quiet person, withdrawn and would often answer my questions with one word answers."
Asked about his quirks, Mr Edwards said: "Quite quickly it was apparent Stephen had an absolute love, bordering on obsession, for Transformers."
He added: "Stephen would go to ToysRUs and buy children's versions of Transformers. That was a quirk in the character I would say."
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Port was jailed in March 2015 for perverting the course of justice after lying to the police about the circumstances of Anthony Walgate's death.
But by the time he was convicted he had gone on to kill two other men, it is claimed.
Slovakian Gabriel Kovari and chef Daniel Whitworth, from Gravesend, in Kent, were allegedly murdered within weeks of each other in August and September 2014.
Both, like Mr Walgate, had died of GHB poisoning and were found in an almost identical position in St Margaret's churchyard, in Abbey Green.
Port is said to have killed again just three months after being released from prison, in September 2015, when forklift truck driver Jack Taylor, 25, was found near the same churchyard.
The court has heard Port described himself as "70 percent more gay than straight" and was attracted to small boyish-type men known as "twinks".
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The alleged serial killer trawled social networking sites including "Grindr" and "Fitlads" to meet his young victims and buy the drugs he used to murder them, it is claimed.
Port was allegedly obsessed with "drug-rape" pornography featuring men and women being apparently raped while stupefied through drugs.
He sometimes mimicked the videos by filming himself having sex with unconscious men after spiking their drinks or injecting drugs in their backsides, a jury was told.
The former chef and catering manager is said to have committed a string of sex offences against 12 men over three-and-a-half years - four of whom died.
Port, formerly of Cooke Street, Barking, east London, denies four counts of murder, four counts of manslaughter, four counts of administering a poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm, seven counts of rape, six counts of administering a substance with intent to overpower to allow sexual activity, and four counts of sexual assault by penetration.
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