An alleged serial killer told his sister there was a dead man in his bedroom, a court has heard.
Stephen Port, 41, is accused of murdering four men with lethal doses of drugs after luring them to his flat.
Giving evidence for the prosecution at the Old Bailey, Sharon Port said she felt “sick” with worry when he told her about the body during a phone call.
He denies 29 charges including four counts of murder, as well as drugging, rape and sexual assault.
Ms Port, 44, told jurors her brother called on 27 August 2014, around the time of the death of Slovakian Gabriel Kovari, Mr Port’s alleged second murder victim.
She said her brother did not want to tell her what was wrong at first.
Eventually, she said, Mr Port told her a man was in his bed after staying the night, but he could not wake him up.
“He just said there was a body in his flat and I just told him to go to the police straight away. I was in a bit of a shock,” she said.
“They had taken drugs but I didn’t know what,” Ms Port said.
She told jurors: “I was sick about it. It’s not the sort of thing you hear every day. I was very worried. I wanted him to drop everything and go to the station then ring me when he got out and tell me what happened.”
Ms Port said she was so concerned that she began driving to her brother’s flat in Barking, east London, from her home in Clacton-on-Sea.
While she was en route, Mr Port called to say he had been bailed by police, the court heard.
When she went to his flat, he appeared “stressed and tired”, she said.
The next day, the court heard, Mr Kovari’s body was found by dog walker Barbara Denham in a churchyard near Mr Port’s home.
Ms Denham told jurors how she also discovered Mr Port’s third alleged victim, 21-year-old Daniel Whitworth, on the morning of 20 September in exactly the same place.
Giving evidence, Ms Denham broke down as she described her shock at finding two bodies in the space of two months.
She said Mr Kovari, who the court heard was also known as Gabriel Kline, was unresponsive and cold to the touch.
Less than a month later, she found the body of Mr Whitworth in the same spot and “lying in exactly the same position.”
She added: “I could see he had some form of a note in a plastic folder but I did not touch that.”.
Mr Port is accused of planting a fake suicide note on the body of Mr Whitworth. He has admitted writing the message, but claims it was dictated to him by Mr Whitworth.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told the court: “As we know the suicide note purports to say that Daniel has taken his own life by taking an overdose because he cannot deal with the guilt he feels for the death of Gabriel Kovari.”
The court has previously heard that the authorities initially accepted the note at face value.
Giving evidence, Mr Whitworth’s former boyfriend Ricky Waumsley said there was nothing in his partner’s behaviour to suggest he was suicidal.
Mr Whitworth’s friend Kate Impey told the court his mother had taken her own life when he was younger and he would would never have killed himself.
She said: “He had a lot of problems with his mum when he was younger and said it was the most selfish thing anyone could ever do, and you should never do it, so I know he didn’t kill himself.”
Mr Port is also accused of killing Anthony Walgate, 23, originally from Hull, and Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, east London.
Jurors were told Port had been jailed for eight months for lying to police about the circumstances of Mr Walgate’s death after ringing 999 to report a body in the communal area of his flat on June 19 2014.
The following March, when Port was convicted of perverting the course of justice, he told his sister that the man who died was called Anthony and he was from Lithuania, the court heard.
The trial continues.
BBC News
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