Scotsman : Murdered spy used bondage sites and kept female outfits worth £15,000

Murdered spy used bondage sites and kept female outfits worth £15,000

December 22, 2010

AN M16 codebreaker whose decomposing body was found zipped inside a holdall in his flat visited bondage websites in the months before his death, police have revealed.

Gareth Williams viewed webpages showing people bound and tied, which included do-it-yourself guides.

Detectives also found a 15,000 collection of unworn women's designer clothing, including tops, dresses and shoes in the 31-year-old's wardrobe.

They revealed he visited a drag cabaret in east London four days before his death and held tickets to two more.

One witness has also come forward to say he was at a popular gay bar in Vauxhall several months before his death.

Police also released two e-fits of a couple who they said were visiting Mr Williams's Alderney Street home in late June or July.

The casually-dressed Mediterranean couple, in their twenties, were buzzed through the communal entrance by a neighbour.

They suggested they had been given a key by "Pierre Palo" and were on their way to flat four.

Mr Williams's body was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat on 23 August. The keys were inside.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the inquiry, said she is convinced someone helped put him in there. She said police believe they will get to the bottom of the intensely private spy's death by studying his personal life.

Speaking at New Scotland Yard, she said: "We remain completely open-minded about how he died.

We are appealing to someone who is out there to come forward and tell us more."

The GCHQ codebreaker, who had been on secondment to the spy agency, was found dead by police after concerns were raised about his welfare.

The mysterious circumstances of his death sparked a frenzy of speculation.

No evidence of drugs, alcohol or poisons were found during a battery of tests conducted by toxicologists.

Mrs Sebire revealed the police have forensic evidence that other people were in the flat who they have so far been unable to trace.

She added that an expert, brought in to examine the red North Face branded holdall Mr Williams was found in, concluded he could not have locked it himself.

The zip was held shut by a common travel-style Yale padlock through holes in two zip fasteners.

Tests found the temperature inside the bag would have risen to 30C within three minutes.

An expert on survivability in confined spaces from the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said Mr Williams would have suffocated in 30 minutes.

Mrs Sebire said Mr Williams probably died in the early hours of 16 August, a week before he was found. She said there was no sign of injury, apart from bruising to his elbows, which might have taken place some time before his death.

Mr Williams, of Anglesey, North Wales, was last seen alive on 15 August, eight days before he was found dead in the 400,000 property.

Speaking about his private life, Mrs Sebire said a collection of six boxes of unworn designer clothing were found in a wardrobe. She said items by Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, and Louboutin had been bought at London boutiques and online.

The senior detective said the clothing was in various sizes, all small, and a number of women's wigs were also found.

But she added there was no evidence that Mr Williams was "obsessed" with bondage and no other pornography was found.