Serial killer’s drug dealer escapes jail

A drug dealer who supplied serial killer Stephen Port with the same date rape narcotic he used to murder four young gay men has been spared jail.

Port was given a whole life sentence last November for the murders of Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, who were killed over a 15-month period between June 2014 and September 2015.

The 41-year-old lured them to his one-bedroom flat in Barking, east London after meeting them through gay dating apps such as Grindr before plying them with lethal doses of GHB.

Gerry Matovu, 23, admitted supplying the former bus garage cook and escort with GHB and mephedrone, which has a stupefying affect in high doses.

He was arrested after police analysed Port’s mobile phone and found Matovu was one of his contacts.

‘That is how the text messages came to light from the period of July to August, 2015, the most important of which are the messages between Mr Port and the defendant regarding the supply of those drugs to Mr Port,’ said prosecutor Eva Niculiu.

Matovu messaged Port telling him he had ‘loads of G’ – slang for GHB – and ‘asked how much he wants’.

Judi Kemish, defending, said Matovu was ‘remorseful’ and ‘no longer in a party lifestyle’.

Matovu, who has a previous conviction for possessing mephedrone, had no knowledge of or connection with Port’s crimes and that the identity of the serial killer was ‘irrelevant’.

He appeared in the dock today (Weds) wearing a blue and white striped hoody under a green jacket with a patterned bandana and jeans as Judge Andrew Goymer said: ‘This case came to light following the arrest of a man called Stephen Port and the interrogation of his mobile phone and the discovery of who had been in contact with him.

‘Stephen Port of course achieved considerable notoriety in the latter part of last year when he was convicted of four counts of murder of young men with who he had been in sexual relationships.

‘He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life term.

‘His crimes were truly dreadful.

‘I do not need to elaborate on them in any further detail.

‘When this defendant pleaded guilty before me on 28 March I said then and I will repeat it now – there is absolutely no suggestion that this defendant had any contact with those four young men who were the unfortunate victims of the terrible crimes committed by Stephen Port and anybody listening to this needs to understand that clearly.

‘It is of course true that this defendant did supply drugs to Stephen Port, but it was not with a direct view to them being administered to any of the victims.’

He added: ‘It is the pure chance that the defendant’s name appeared on Stephen Port’s mobile phone as a contact and as somebody who by this defendant’s plea of guilty had actually supplied supplied him with the drugs in question.’

The judge deemed that the identity of who Matovu was supplying was ‘largely, if not entirely irrelevant’ and considered the offences to represent ‘a straight forward case of street dealing’.

Matovu, of [96] Great Guildford Street, Southwark, admitted supplying Port mephedrone, one of supplying Port with GHB and one of offering to supply him with GHB.

He was handed a 12-month community order comprising 150 hours’ unpaid work.

Matovu must also undertake a six-month drugs rehabilitation activity requirement along with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 40 days.

Port, formerly of [62] Cooke Street, Barking, was given a whole-life tariff for four counts of murder, four rapes, four sexual assaults by penetration and ten counts of administering a substance to overpower.

ends