Guardian : MI6 spy Gareth Williams had no trace of drugs or poison in body

MI6 spy Gareth Williams had no trace of drugs or poison in body

Toxicology tests on man found dead in holdall in London flat come back negative

October 28, 2010

Tests on the body of the MI6 spy Gareth Williams have revealed no traces of drugs, alcohol or poisons, the Metropolitan police said.

The 31-year-old's naked and decomposing body was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, on 23 August. He had also worked for GCHQ, the government's code-breaking agency.

The negative toxicology tests give detectives no clear indication about what occurred and deepen the mystery.

A statement from Scotland Yard said: "There are no plans to carry out any further tests of this type, but inquiries continue to try and establish a formal cause of death"

Officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command appealed again for further information to help identify a man and woman who were let into the communal front door of his address.

They are described as of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 20 and 30 years old and called at 36 Alderney Street late one evening in June or July, prior to the spy's death.

Williams, a cycling fanatic and accomplished mathematician, was on secondment from GCHQ in Cheltenham to MI6 at their headquarters in Vauxhall, on the banks of the Thames.

His body was found in his temporary residence in Pimlico by uniformed officers. There was no sign of any forced entry to the property, and no signs of disturbance inside.

The Westminster coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, is due to review the case in private next Wednesday after opening an inquest on 1 September.

Williams, from Anglesey, North Wales, was last seen alive on 15 August, eight days before he was found dead. Police have released CCTV footage of him entering Holland Park tube station in west London at about 3pm the previous day.

His family have dismissed suggestions that he had been involved in risky sexual practices as untrue and distressing.