Daily Star : MI6 MURDER: COPS HUNT 'MEDITERRANEAN COUPLE'

MI6 MURDER: COPS HUNT 'MEDITERRANEAN COUPLE'

By Gemma Wheatley | September 7, 2010

POLICE last night revealed they are looking for a “Mediterranean couple” over the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams.

The news came as detectives released some of the last pictures of the murdered agent alive.

Gareth Williams' naked body was found padlocked inside a suitcase at his £400,000 flat in London’s Pimlico on August 23.

He was last seen shopping in Harrods eight days earlier, on Sunday August 15.

And police have released CCTV images of him entering Holland Park Underground station the day before.

The Met yesterday revealed it is trying to trace a man and woman who were spotted visiting Mr Williams’s flat late one evening a few weeks earlier.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “Officers are appealing for information to identify a man and a woman, both of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 20 and 30 years old, who called at 36 Alderney Street in June or July, late one evening.

“They were let into the communal front door.”

There were no signs of disturbances in the flat or of a forced entry and nothing is believed to have been taken from inside.

The new clues came as it also emerged that his body had been found submerged in a mystery fluid, thought to have been used to speed up decay.

The fluid was not believed to be blood or water and could have been used to complicate toxicology results.

Mr Williams’s remains were found stuffed inside a North Face sports bag in his bath.

The 31-year-old cycling and fitness fanatic was a maths genius on secondment to MI6’s HQ on the bank of the Thames in London when he died.

His last movements are believed to have been on Sunday, August 15, when he was seen shopping in the capital’s Brompton Road.

Police said Mr Williams, who was 5ft 7in and of muscular build with short hair, was wearing a red T-shirt, beige trousers and white trainers.

He withdrew money from a cash machine and went into Harrods.

At around 2.30pm he was spotted heading from there towards Sloane Street.

Forensic tests at his flat are continuing, while results from the post-mortem examination revealed that there were no indications of drug use.

But so far police are no closer to finding out exactly how Mr Williams died.

Det Chief Insp Jacqueline Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said: “I would appeal to anyone who may have seen or had contact with Gareth in the period between 11 and 23 August to come forward and speak with us.

“This remains a complex unexplained death inquiry.”

Last night, University of Buckingham security expert Professor Anthony Glees said: “In my own opinion, a murder of this kind bears all the hallmarks of a professional killing and not a rage attack.

“It looks increasingly to me that a hostile intelligence service was responsible.

“To me this looks like a Russian job – they have killed in London before – but it could also be an Iranian one.”