Alleged Serial Killer Used a Facebook Alias

An alleged serial killer used a Facebook alias to befriend the boyfriend of a victim and tell him “I hope he wasn’t murdered”, a jury heard.

Stephen Port, of Barking, told the man that Gabriel Kovari had been to a sex and drugs orgy before his death in August 2014 with a man called “Dan”.

A month later Daniel Whitworth, another alleged victim, was found dead in the same Barking churchyard as Mr Kovari.

Mr Port denies 29 charges, including four murders, rape and sexual assault.

Posing as a 21-year-old student from California who had come to London to study, Mr Port corresponded with Mr Kovari’s boyfriend Thierry Amodio who was trying to find out what had happened to his partner.

The Old Bailey jury was read five months of Mr Port’s Facebook messages sent from a fake account in the name of Jon Luck.

Posing as Jon Luck, Mr Port said he had spent two nights with Mr Kovari and was surprised to learn of his death, the court heard.

He wrote: “I hope he wasn’t murdered or anything like that as that would be awful.”

Mr Amodio said police had told him there had been no signs of violence, to which “Jon Luck” replied: “Thanks god for that I would hate anyone who could hurt him,” the jury was told.

The messages, between September 2014 and January 2015, started when Mr Amodio noticed “Jon Luck” was following his boyfriend on Facebook and wrote to ask whether they had met.

On 20 September 2014, the day Mr Whitworth’s body was found, “Jon Luck” wrote to Mr Amodio to say he had been told Mr Kovari was in touch with “Dan” on social media and that they went together “to an party/orgy in barking”.

The court heard the parties were described as places where young men were drugged and raped by older men.

The following day, when Mr Amodio said police had been in touch, “Jon Luck” replied: “I have been expecting them to come to my door any second cuss of my DNA and my messages on his phone.”

When Mr Amodio said the police had been in touch as Mr Whitworth was found dead, “Jon Luck” replied: “OMG your joking,” and added: “please don’t let them arrest me”.

The messages also revealed “Jon Luck” probing Mr Amodio for information about the police investigation into his boyfriend’s death.

But when Mr Amodio encouraged “Jon Luck” to contact detectives, he always refused to do so, the court heard.

“Jon Luck” wrote that maybe Mr Kovari had accidentally been killed by “Dan” with a drugs overdose and because he “could not live with the guilt” he “did same to himself”, the court heard.

Jurors had previously been told the defendant admitted writing a suicide note found on Mr Whitworth’s body which said he had killed Mr Kovari accidentally three weeks earlier and had killed himself because of the guilt. The accused claims Mr Whitworth dictated the note to him.

Prosecutors claim the internet history on the defendant’s computer shows he was logged into the Jon Luck profile at relevant times, that “Jon Luck” contacted two of Mr Port’s ex-boyfriends, and that an IP address associated with Mr Port was used to access the fake account.

Mr Port admits using the Jon Luck account on Facebook.

The trial continues.