Express : NOW US EXPERT IS CALLED IN OVER GARETH WILLIAMS DEATH MYSTERY

NOW US EXPERT IS CALLED IN OVER GARETH WILLIAMS DEATH MYSTERY

By James Murray | September 12,2010

A LEADING US pathologist may fly in this week to try to unravel the mystery behind the bizarre death of spy Gareth Williams.

A post mortem examination in London last month failed to find a cause of death of the super-fit 31-year-old code breaker who was on secondment to MI6 from the GCHQ listening post in Cheltenham.

Now baffled Scotland Yard detectives hope to bring in a medical examiner from the US who has been trained in CIA and FBI techniques to look for sophisticated methods of assassinations using hard-to-detect substances.

The decision to call for help from America is a sign of the Yard’s ­frustration.

The grieving family of bachelor Mr Williams have called for his body to be released so they can get a second post mortem examination conducted by their own pathologist. They may now hold back on that demand until they hear the findings of the US expert.

Extensive forensic tests at the flat in Alderney Street and from the samples taken at the post mortem examination are still going on.

The Yard says initial indications from the toxicology examinations show no trace of any alcohol or ­routine or recreational drugs. Testing for other substance continues.

Other lines of inquiry are proving equally unproductive.

Detectives had hoped to trace a man and woman of Mediterranean appearance seen entering the apartment block in Pimlico, London, where Mr Williams lived one night in June or July but all their inquiries so far have drawn a blank.

A source said: “It is proving to be a very complex inquiry. Some ­people are calling these people the ghost couple because they seem to have slipped into the area by ­managing to avoid being captured on CCTV.

“The longer it goes on without them being traced or coming ­forward, the more suspicion they are arousing.”

Last week the Sunday Express reported claims that Mr Williams had told his bosses he believed he was being followed by two men. On Monday police discounted this idea then admitted they wanted to trace the mystery couple.

Detectives last week released CCTV footage of Mr Williams entering Holland Park Tube station on Saturday, August 14, at 3pm.

The next day CCTV images showed him shopping in Brompton Road, south-west London. He went to a cash machine then into Harrods and was seen alone in Hans Crescent heading for Sloane Street.

He was wearing the same clothing on both days, a red T-shirt, beige trousers and white trainers, suggesting he may have spent the night somewhere other than his home.

When he failed to turn up for work at MI6, just a short walk from his home, uniformed police went to his top-floor flat on August 23.

They found his naked body in a zipped and padlocked red North Face holdall in an empty bath in the en-suite bathroom. There was no sign of a forced entry or any ­disturbance inside the flat.

Detectives are trying to establish whether it was possible for him to have got into the holdall himself then locked himself inside but they consider that unlikely.

It is understood Mr Williams was asexual and had no interest in ­unusual sexual practices. There was no indication he intended to take his own life.

Detective Chief Inspector ­Jacqueline Sebire of Homicide and Serious Crime Command, who is leading the investigation, said: “This remains a complex and unexplained death inquiry.

“I would appeal to anyone who may have seen, or had contact with Gareth in the period between August 11 and 23 to come forward and speak with us at the Incident Room on 0208 358 0200, or to remain anonymous by calling Crime­stoppers on 0800 555 111.”