Independent : David Randall: Baffling death ...

David Randall: Baffling death ...

October 31, 2010

Surprisingly little attention – given the international hoo-ha his death caused – has been given to Thursday's results of toxicology tests on the body of MI6 mathematician and code expert Gareth Williams. He was found, remember, naked, in a kneeling position, inside a large sports holdall which had been padlocked. The tests showed no trace of poison, alcohol, or drugs in his body, which knocked on the head the idea that Mr Williams had been sedated, bagged up, and left to die.

Other theories, however, continue to flourish, among them the persistent one that Mr Williams was afflicted with a sexual kink only satisfied by severe confinement. The Sun reports that he had recently visited websites on claustrophobia and sadomasochism, allowing them to headline their story: "Bag spook died in 'Houdini' game". Similar reports have been denied in the past, and all police will say is that they continue to seek a couple who were let into Mr Williams's flat shortly before the assumed time of his death.