Daily Mail : Riddle of murder spy's money trail: Why, for three days in a row, was £2,000 paid into his account and then taken out?

Riddle of murder spy's money trail: Why, for three days in a row, was £2,000 paid into his account and then taken out?

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews, Tom Kelly and James Tozer | August 28, 2010

Thousands of pounds mysteriously moved through the bank account of murdered MI6 spy Gareth Williams in the fortnight before his death.

Police sources say they are investigating three sums of £2,000 paid into his account on consecutive days, then withdrawn on consecutive days with the last transaction happening on the eve of his killing.

It is understood to have been established that the sums did not come from his £42,000 salary, and officers are trying to discover who supplied the money and why.

One theory being explored is that the movement of cash could indicate 31-year-old Mr Williams was a victim of blackmail and had transferred money from a savings account into his current account before using it to pay off his tormentor.

Another possibility is that he could have been selling information and was paid the money before transferring it into another account or passing it on to another informant.

There could also be a perfectly innocent explanation, with perhaps a friend or relative repaying the cipher and codes specialist for a loan and him putting the money in a different account.

It is understood that an internal row has broken out between the police and both the intelligence and security services, with ‘spooks’ effectively being accused of sabotaging the police operation.

A source claimed detectives have been ‘blocked’ from interviewing several potentially crucial witnesses.

Mr Williams’s ‘best friend’, a female colleague at the Government’s listening post, was posted to work for an intelligence agency linked to Pentagon in the U.S. five weeks ago.

The 25-year-old woman and her husband, who also knew Mr Williams, both worked at GCHQ in Cheltenham and were ‘suddenly’ transferred to Denver, Colorado, on secret duties.

Murder squad detectives are keen to speak to her in case she can offer any clues to why someone would want Mr Williams dead.

But they were informed this week by the security services that she was ‘unavailable’ for interview.

A second key security services witness, so far unnamed, who also knew Mr Williams, has also been put ‘off limits’ to the frustrated detectives.

The body of Mr Williams, a loner who loved cycling, was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath at his £400,000 apartment half a mile from MI6 headquarters in London by officers on Monday afternoon.

He had been on secondment to MI6 for a year but was due to return next week to his position at the government listening post, GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

The Daily Mail revealed yesterday that he had flown to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon’s listening post nicknamed the ‘Puzzle Palace’, up to four times a year and returned from his last U.S. trip only weeks before his murder.

Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests to discover if poison, drugs, alcohol or suffocation caused his death.

There are no outward signs of violence and Scotland Yard continues to describe his death as ‘suspicious and unexplained’.

One police source said: ‘There is near mutiny among the team.

‘The investigation is in complete disarray because most of the team thinks there should be a public appeal to garner potentially crucial information about Gareth Williams’s movements.

‘But they are being told "No", without any explanation or debate. It is assumed that it’s an order from on high.’

A second source added: ‘It is absolutely bizarre because SO15 (Counter Terror Command) are not conducting the inquiry – it is being handled by homicide command.

’It’s very strange but it explains why the spooks are blocking them. Officers in SO15 are security vetted but the homicide detectives are not.

‘The security services are not going to want to trust them with top-secret information. ‘They would only trust the SO15 officers. This guy may only have been a cipher but he clearly had access to secret material, and they won’t want ordinary police officers tramping all over it.’

Questions are now being asked over why the inquiry was given to murder squad detectives in the first place, rather than security-vetted counter terror officers.

One theory was that this was specifically demanded by the security services. The source added: ‘It’s clearly a big cover up, for whatever reason. The security services obviously don’t want the police to pry too deeply into this one.

‘So by insisting the inquiry is carried out by ordinary officers, who don’t have security clearance, they have an excuse to block them from access to sensitive information and key witnesses.

‘It makes it easier for the whole thing to be swept under the carpet. Why, we can only guess at.’ Publicly, the Metropolitan Police said the notion of any dispute was ‘absolute rubbish’ and said that ‘organised and well established procedures are in place to ensure collaborative and supportive working’.

Family's disgust at slurs about his private life

The family of Gareth Williams are ‘furious’ at lurid allegations circulating about his lifestyle and fear they could be a government smear campaign to discredit him and divert attention from the security services.

His uncle William Hughes, said the spy’s parents Ian and Ellen were ‘very, very upset about these untruths’.

Speculation has been rife that the spy was a transvestite who was murdered by a gay lover or killed in a sex game gone wrong.

The lurid reports were made in a series of newspapers but police chose not to issue a denial until last night.

Only after staying silent on the claims for three days did Scotland Yard finally state that there was no truth in reports of a link to a male escort and said that no bondage equipment or gay paraphernalia had been found at the London apartment where he was found dead.

Mr Hughes, who lives near Mr Williams’s parents in Anglesey, North Wales, said: ‘Someone, somewhere is trying to discredit Gareth with these untrue claims about his private life.

‘The family are concerned that it may be part of an attempt to put false and unkind personal details about Gareth’s private life into the public domain to diminish him and take attention away from the security services he worked so loyally for.

‘They are very, very angry. It is completely false. The lad had been away from home for a long time - we did not know much about his private life but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay. It’s not the picture they have of their son.’

Mr and Mrs Williams are being supported by their daughter Ceri at the family home in Valley, Anglesey.

Mr Hughes, 62, said: ‘I have spoken to Gareth’s parents and they are not doing well at all. They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

‘They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business.

‘When you have these rumours in the papers, it is most distressing. It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories.’

The spy’s former landlady, who for ten years rented a self-contained flat to him in the annexe of her home in Cheltenham, said he never brought anyone, male or female, back in the time he lived there.

Jenny Elliott said: ‘I would do his washing and hang it out to dry. I never noticed anything funny like that. He never came across as gay. Any time I went into his flat I never noticed anything untoward. I would even fold up his washing and put it into drawers.’

Friends too said there was no suggestion he could be gay. One schoolfriend, Dylan Parry, said: ‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual. He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.’