A 40-year-old man from East London named Stephen Port has been charged with murdering four men he met on “gay dating websites,” according to the Evening Standard. His weapon of choice? Lethal doses of the drug GHB, which is known as the “date rape drug,” but is also used recreationally, in bodybuilding, and by John Stamos.

Port’s alleged victims were all in their 20’s. They were killed between June 2014 and September of this year. The BBC has a breakdown:

  • Anthony Patrick Walgate, 23, from Barnet, who was pronounced dead on Cooke Street on 19 June 2014.
  • Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Lewisham, whose body was found near the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church, North Street, Barking, on 28 August 2014.
  • Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, whose body was found near the Abbey Ruins close to North Street on 14 September this year.
  • Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend, Kent, whose body was also found near the same churchyard on 20 September 2014.

Port appeared at the Barkingside Magistrates Court earlier today and will attend another hearing at Old Bailey on Wednesday. There was no application for bail. The Standard reports that at today’s hearing it was disclosed that “Whitworth was said to have left a suicide note blaming himself for his friend’s death.”

Stories like this should remind us of how vulnerable we are when we enter intimate situations with strangers. We often like to think that there’s a gentlemen’s agreement to get off respectfully, but not everyone is a gentleman. If Port did poison these men, it could have been accomplished as easily as by offering them each a glass of water. This is the kind of worst-case scenario that’s popped up in my head time to time when sharing such close space with someone that could be any number of things, including a homicidal maniac. Be alert, be safe, and for the love of god, if you have to do G, do your own.

[Image via Evening Standard]