A gay serial killer who drugged and murdered four young men after meeting them on gay dating apps will die behind bars.

Chef Stephen Port, 41, drugged his victims with GHB - known as 'liquid ecstasy' - so he could carry out his sick fantasies of having sex with their unconscious bodies.

Between 2012 and 2015, Port attacked young men he met on Grindr, Fitlads, and other gay dating sites, killing four of them with drug overdoses in 15 months.

His victims included former Dartford Grammar schoolboy Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend.

At the

Old Bailey earlier this week he was convicted of the murders

of Mr Whitworth, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Jack Taylor, 25, and Anthony Walgate, 23.

Port was also found guilty of raping four other men, four counts of assault by penetration and ten counts of administering a substance.

Today at the same court he was jailed for life, and told by Mr Justice Openshaw that he would serve a whole life term.

In his sentencing the judge said: "The defendant has been convicted of the murders of four young men, including the murders committed in the course of satisfying his lust for penetrating young men who he had rendered unconscious by surreptitiously administration of drugs.

"I have no doubt the seriousness of this offending is so exceptionally high that a whole life sentence is justified, indeed it is required.

"The result of which is the defendant will die in prison."

As he was given a whole life term there was a cry of "yes" from the public gallery with one woman shouting "scumbag".

As he was led from the dock another member of the public shouted: "I hope you die a long slow death you piece of ****."

"These were wicked and monstrous lies that must have cause enormous distress to Daniel's family" - Mr Justice Openshaw

With each of the murders Port tried to cover his tracks, even by writing and planting a fake suicide note on Mr Whitworth framing him for the death of Mr Kovari.

The note said aspiring chef Mr Whitworth blamed himself for the death of Mr Kovari and could no longer live with the guilt.

Referring to the fake letter and Port's evidence, the judge said: "These were wicked and monstrous lies that must have cause enormous distress to Daniel's family."

He dumped three of the bodies, each with bottles of GHB, in a nearby churchyard and one outside his block of flats in Barking, east London.

The former chef was even jailed in March 2015 for perverting the course of justice after lying to police about the first death, Mr Walgate, in June 2014.

However he was released three months later and went on to rape and murder.

Referring to the police's handling of the case after this conviction the judge said: "It is for others to decide with a thorough enquiry in the matter which had not been possible for us to do during the criminal trial.

"The deaths of these young men may have given rise to the suspicion that these deaths were not the result of ordinary self administering drug overdose.

"That is how their deaths were taken at the time.

"The competency and adequacy of the investigation will be later examined by others."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is now investigating the Metropolitan Police's handling of the four deaths after the investigation revealed widespread failings in Scotland Yard's approach to crime in the LGBT community.

It is looking at whether three of the victims could have been saved if the warning signs had been spotted in the first victim, Mr Walgate.

The IPCC will also investigate whether the force was "institutionally homophobic".

It has since emerged the Met is re-examining 58 other drug-related deaths of young men in the wake of its failures in the Port case.