WHEN Ryan Edwards first made friends with his new neighbour, he nicknamed him the Big Friendly Giant – tall, softly spoken and harmless.
But soon, alarm bells started to ring over a ‘breadcrumb trail’ of sinister incidents involving Stephen Port, who was later unmasked as one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers.
Stephen Port is one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers[/caption]
Ryan Edwards pictured outside the flat of Port, his former neighbour[/caption]
Port stalked his victims on dating websites and plied them with drinks spiked with fatal amounts of drug GHB[/caption]
Ryan recalls how the killer, pictured on the sofa, hid behind a fake friendly persona[/caption]
The depraved monster picked up men on dating apps before drugging, raping and murdering them.
He was jailed for life in 2016 for the murders of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor as well as multiple rapes and sexual assaults. He was given a whole life order, meaning he will never be released.
For ten years Ryan was friends with evil Port, who even introduced him to one of the men he would go on to murder – before insisting he had left the country and died of a mystery illness.
Looking back now, Ryan admits that behind Port’s seemingly shy and gentle demeanour, there were warning signs.
But he says his persona as the Big Friendly Giant was so convincing that it was only when Port – whose crimes were featured in the TV drama Four Lives – was arrested for the sadistic murders did he realise his friend was actually a killer.
“I think people may have watched the TV dramas and looked at me and thought I was a bit naïve,” he explains. “But actually I think I am quite a good judge of character.
“Ultimately the profile of serial killers is that they are very good at presenting to people in a way that they want to. So looking back I think I got a version of Stephen Port that Stephen Port wanted to present.
“It probably wasn’t the real Stephen Port but the quiet, harmless, benevolent neighbour was certainly what he presented to me.”
Ryan first met Port in the summer of 2005 shortly after moving to Barking. As a gay man he was looking to make some new gay friends in the area and got chatting to Port as he walked past his garden.
“He told me he had also recently moved into the area,” he says. “That evolved into going round to have a cup of tea at each other’s apartments. It was kind of a neighbourly friendship.
“My very initial impressions were that he was very softly spoken. He didn’t give much eye contact but I thought that was because he was shy.
“He was very tall. I’m 6ft 2in but he towered over me, he must’ve been about 6ft 7in. It was a bit like he was the Big Friendly Giant – imposing in stature but ultimately harmless.”
Alarm bells ring
As time went on a few alarm bells started to ring for Ryan about Stephen – but nothing that would ever make him imagine he would become a serial killer.
Firstly, Ryan had suspicions that Stephen had started taking drugs, and secondly a few of his boyfriends started confiding in Ryan about his worrying behaviour.
“Nuggets of things would drop into place,” says Ryan. “He was dating a chap and said to me once ‘neighbour, can you child mind for me?’
“Which was really strange – he wanted to deposit the boyfriend in my care for an hour or two while he went off to do whatever he was doing.
“That boyfriend was one of the first who started to talk negatively about Stephen – ‘Stephen is controlling, he won’t let me go out of the flat without his supervision, he is manipulative’.
The Stephen Port that these boyfriends were reporting to me – shouting, confrontational, passive aggressive – it was starting to paint a very different picture
“And later boyfriends started to confide to me that there were instances of domestic violence. And it was awkward because I wasn’t witnessing any of these acts.
“In relationships it is not uncommon for one party to present the other party in a negative light. Certainly I didn’t ever see any bruises or markings of domestic violence on any of Stephen’s boyfriends.
“But I felt a bit like an agony uncle and they would moan about Stephen.
“But if I would recount some of these stories to Stephen, he would have his own alternate version of events and moan about the partner. It wasn’t my place to get involved, so I would almost be a sounding board for both parties.
“But also there was a disconnect there because he was still presenting to me as this gentle giant.
“The Stephen Port that these boyfriends were reporting to me – shouting, confrontational, passive aggressive – it was starting to paint a very different picture of what he was painting to me.”
Daniel Whitworth was murdered by Port[/caption]
Victim Jack Taylor, 25, who lived with his parents in Dagenham and worked as a forklift truck driver[/caption]
Port’s first murder victim, 23-year-old fashion student Anthony Walgate[/caption]
When Gabriel Kovari went missing, Ryan says Port appeared concerned at first[/caption]
And the young age of some of Stephen’s boyfriends was also starting to concern Ryan.
“He would regularly say to me, ‘Hey neighbour come round and see my new boy.” Quickly I realised there was very much a Stephen ‘type’,” Ryan explains.
“Sometimes I felt a bit uncomfortable. Some would come across as barely legal, barely 16. They came across as quite vulnerable types.
“He would say, ‘I’ve got a new boy living with me.’ And I would say, ‘How long have you known him? And he would say, ‘Oh, two days’.
“And Stephen would say he’s fallen out with his parents, or he’s been kicked out of home, or he isn’t in a good place financially.
I woke up in the morning and my neighbour sent me a link to a BBC news alert. My blood ran cold because I knew at that moment he was guilty
“Stephen was taking these quite vulnerable young guys and often very few of them could stand up to him in the way I could verbally.
“The picture that Stephen was painting was quite sorry tales for these boys, and when I would meet them they would paint quite equally sorry tales.
“So actually Stephen was coming across as quite benevolent, like actually he was helping these guys get out of quite unpleasant situations, helping them to get back on their feet.
“But at the same time I was thinking you are approaching 40, why have you got interest in boys so young? But in the later years it was starting to form concern in my mind.
“Some of them looked almost like sixth formers and it was starting to make me feel uncomfortable.”
First murder
In 2014 Stephen Port met his first murder victim, 23-year-old fashion student Anthony Walgate, who sometimes worked as an escort.
At Port’s flat, Anthony was drugged with GHB and raped; he died after the killer gave him a fatal overdose of the drug.
Port’s flat in Barking, East London[/caption]
Ryan had suspicions early on that Stephen had started taking drugs[/caption]
The next day, Port placed Anthony’s body outside the flat and made an anonymous call for an ambulance. Shortly before 8am, he was pronounced dead.
Evidence linking Port to the death was missed at this time, but he was convicted of perverting the course of justice in March 2015 because his account of the death to the police varied.
He was sentenced to eight months but was released in June and was electronically tagged.
Despite Ryan being prominent and vocal in the local gay community and having done an audit for the CVS about local LGBT-focused services including council, police and NHS, he said the police did not make contact with him or post on the community’s Facebook page about Anthony’s death.
He says: “I was completely unaware about poor Anthony. In fact I was unaware pretty much until police arrested Stephen.”
Killing spree
Between August 2014 and September 2015, Port murdered three more men: Gabriel Kovari, 22, who had moved to London from Slovakia and had briefly lived with Port; Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Kent who worked as a chef; and Jack Taylor, 25, who lived with his parents in Dagenham and worked as a forklift truck driver.
Out of those three men, Ryan only ever met Gabriel Kovari.
When Gabriel went missing Ryan says Port appeared concerned at first, and said he was considering going to the police, which Ryan now thinks was a ruse to throw him off the scent.
“I spoke to Stephen about how weird it was that this young man had just disappeared,” he explains.
“Text messages went back and forth between me and Stephen about Gabriel’s disappearance which didn’t sit well with me. He said Gabriel had picked up a mysterious illness and had gone home and died.
“I just didn’t buy that – a young man in his early 20s, seemingly healthy. You just don’t pick up mysterious illnesses and die.
When I was walking out of the court room I passed Stephen. He gave me a crooked half smile with his eyes looking down. It was like the look of a naughty child
“What is really frustrating is that I had what I felt was this smoking gun evidence on my phone and if the police had any sort of outreach before Gabriel, I certainly could’ve said I know this person called Stephen Port, he’s got a history of domestic violence, I could’ve told them my concerns.
“And certainly when Gabriel went missing if the police had done any outreach I could have given them my text messages.”
Despite his concerns, Ryan was put off going to the police having been frustrated with his previous dealings with them over any issues regarding the LGBT community.
“In my mind it would have needed a proper red flag before I went to the police as they appeared to be so unwelcoming to the LGBT community,” he says.
CCTV footage of Port arriving at a flat in Barking to buy drugs[/caption]
The family of victim Jack Taylor arriving at court[/caption]
But as soon as Stephen was arrested for the murders, Ryan knew instantly he was guilty.
“I will never forget it and it makes me quite emotional. The night before there had been a police helicopter circling overhead and all the neighbours had been messaging about it on our group WhatsApp.
“I woke up in the morning and my neighbour sent me a link to a BBC news alert which said Stephen Port was accused of poisoning and killing young men in Barking.
“My blood ran cold because I knew at that moment he was guilty. It was like a confirmation of all my bread crumb concerns coming together, and the cherry on the top was what I knew about Gabriel Kovari.”
Ryan went straight to the police station and told the person on the counter that he thought he had some really important evidence about some murders.
“The officer was completely disinterested,” he says. “He said they had no one available at the moment. The way he was talking to me was like I was trying to report a cat stuck up a tree.”
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
Eventually Ryan met a murder detective at a different police station who took his statement and the text messages.
Ryan had to give evidence in Port’s murder trial at the Old Bailey.
“I will never forget it,” he says. “When I was walking out of the court room I passed Stephen and we looked at each other. He gave me a crooked half smile with his eyes looking down. It was like the look of a naughty child who had been caught doing something wrong.
“I think Stephen was damaged. He was quite child-like. He was coming round to my house for a party and it was his birthday.
“I’d forgotten to get him a present but there was a child’s toy truck in the bin room so I thought that he would like that.
“What is bizarre is the party was going on all around him and he sat on the floor cross-legged, delighted pushing this toy truck around the floor just like a nine-year-old would.
“It is very difficult to put yourself in the mind of a serial killer. I have gone through various emotions over the years – was I naïve? Were there obvious red flags that I just missed? But he always had convincing stories.
“But serial killers are masters at presenting certain versions of themselves. To me he presented as the neighbour, and now I feel a bit duped. I feel deceived by him undoubtedly.”
Lucky escape
Eight former and current Met police officers are under investigation for gross misconduct regarding failings in the case.
Commander Jon Savell from the Met Police has reiterated the force’s “heartfelt” apologies for its mistakes.
Families of three of Port’s victims received compensation from the Met after settling civil claims.
Despite his friendship with Stephen Port and the many times he went to his flat, Ryan does not believe he would ever have been one of his victims.
“Like I said, Stephen Port had a type and I was too old for him,” he says.
“Thank goodness I was too old, thank goodness I came from a good home, and thank goodness I had a strong will. It was a very unlikely neighbourhood pairing.”
