Daily Post : Anglesey spy Gareth Williams' body was padlocked in holdall

Anglesey spy Gareth Williams' body was padlocked in holdall

by Our Correspondent, Daily Post | September 2, 2010

THE decomposing body of code-breaker Gareth Williams was found padlocked shut in a holdall in a bath in his flat, an inquest heard yesterday.

The cause of death is yet to be established after Mr Williams, from Valley on Anglesey, was discovered in the Government flat on August 23, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard.

Police broke into the top floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, central London, after Mr Williams failed to appear at work for several days.

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman revealed he was found in a bag which was “padlocked shut” and the corpse appeared to be in an “advanced state of decay”, a court spokeswoman said.

A post mortem examination carried out on August 25 failed to establish a cause of death and investigations are continuing. The inquest was adjourned to September 8.

Dr Knapman will be kept informed of how the investigation is progressing and consider when to release the body so a funeral can take place.

There were no members of his family in court. His parents, Ian and Ellen, who live in Valley, were in London last week to identify their son’s body. His younger sister Ceri, who lives in the Wrexham area, is believed to have joined them.

Mr Williams, 30, a former pupil at Ysgol Morswyn, Holyhead, and Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, was last seen alive eight days before his corpse was discovered.

Police have not said whether the sighting was made on CCTV or came from another source.

The investigation is being led by the Met’s Homicide Command with the security-vetted Counter Terror Command (SO15) also playing a lesser role in proceedings.

Officers are still trying to determine if he was asphyxiated, poisoned or if drugs or alcohol were present in his system. A pathologist found Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Mr Williams was a code-breaker at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham.

He was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in Vauxhall, London.

Wales Online : Welsh spy's death a professional hit, claims expert

Welsh spy's death a professional hit, claims expert

by Darren Devine, Western Mail | September 2, 2010

WELSH spy Gareth Williams was murdered by a hostile security service such as the Russia’s or Iran’s, a leading expert on espionage claimed last night.

Professor Anthony Glees suggests Mr Williams’ murder was the result of a professional hit rather than personal entanglements following revelations his decomposing body was found padlocked shut in a holdall.

And Prof Glees, head of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, called on the UK Government to make a statement over the murder of the GCHQ code-breaker – saying the speculation surrounding his death was a threat to national security.

An inquest yesterday heard a cause of death was yet to be established after Mr Williams, from Valley, near Holyhead on Anglesey, was discovered in the government flat on August 23.

Prof Glees said: “To me it smacks of a very professional killing job and that means the Russian secret service – they’ve murdered people in London before – or conceivably the Iranians.

“It looks more and more like an intelligence killing – what people call a ‘wet job’, meaning intelligence officers have murdered somebody and blood has flown.”

Prof Glees, 62, said Mr Williams may have been blackmailed into passing on secrets to a hostile intelligence service which wanted to leave no trace of any links back to its organisation.

The academic questioned how Mr Williams’ body lay undiscovered for so long in the bag – the 30-year-old was last seen eight days before his corpse was found.

The academic said when security services staff were off work for more than a day without explanation home visits were made.

“They don’t appear to have come round to see this chap. Why not? We can only speculate,” he said. “If they had been frantically looking for him, they would have found him.”

Police broke into the top floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, central London, after Mr Williams failed to appear at work.

Prof Glees added: “Until we’re told, people will continue to speculate and that in itself undermines national security and that’s why the Government must now explain what they know about this person and why his body was not discovered for two weeks.

“That, to me, is a really chilling fact.”

At an inquest yesterday coroner Dr Paul Knapman revealed the corpse appeared to be in an “advanced state of decay”.

A postmortem examination carried out on August 25 failed to establish a cause of death and investigations were continuing, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard. The inquest was adjourned to September 8.

Dr Knapman will be kept informed of how the investigation is progressing and consider when to release the body so a funeral can take place.

There were no members of Mr Williams’ family in court.

Police have not said whether the last sighting of Mr Williams was made on CCTV or came from another source.

The investigation is being led by the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide Command with the security-vetted Counter Terror Command (SO15) also playing a lesser role in proceedings.

Officers are still trying to determine if he was suffocated, poisoned or if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

A pathologist found Mr Williams, who in 2000 left a Cambridge University course in advanced mathematics having apparently already learnt all he could, was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Mr Williams was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in Vauxhall, London.

Secret services expert Gordon Thomas has said Mr Williams’ mathematical brain made him a vital tool in the fight against terrorism and cyber- warfare.

Mr Thomas, author of Inside British Intelligence: 100 years of MI5 and MI6, said the security services had played down his role so as not to alarm the world over his importance to anyone involved in his murder.

A Downing Street spokesperson said they could not comment on security matters.

The Metropolitan Police said all areas of Mr Williams’ life were being investigated – both personal and professional.

The University of Buckingham was ranked 27th out of 115 universities in The Times Higher Education Supplement’s ‘Table of Tables’ 2010.

Independent : Dead spy was found padlocked inside bag

Dead spy was found padlocked inside bag

By Terri Judd | September 2, 2010

The British codebreaker found dead in the bath of his London flat last month had been padlocked inside a sports holdall, an inquest heard yesterday.

Gareth Williams, 31, is thought to have been dead for more than a week when his remains were discovered on 23 August at his home in Pimlico, half a mile from the headquarters of the secret intelligence service MI6, where he worked.

Colleagues reported him missing when he did not turn up for work for at least 10 days. He was last seen eight days before his body was found, Westminster Coroner's Court was told.

A post-mortem examination failed to establish a cause of death but a pathologist said Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and bore no obvious signs of strangulation.

Detectives are still trying to determine whether he was asphyxiated or poisoned, or whether drugs or alcohol were in his system. The coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, said the body was in an advanced state of decay when discovered by police, and was in a sports bag that had been "padlocked shut".

Sources within the murder team have said suggestions of national security or terrorism links to the case are "pretty low down the list of probabilities". They say officers are examining Mr Williams's private affairs and not his professional life. Originally from Anglesey in north Wales, he was days from completing a one-year secondment to MI6 from his job at GCHQ, the Government "listening post" at Cheltenham which monitors communications for intelligence purposes.

Dr Knapman said he was to be kept informed of how the inquiry was progressing and would consider when to release the body. The inquest was adjourned for a week.

Mirror : MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'padlocked' in sport bag

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'padlocked' in sport bag

By Jon Clements | September 2, 2010

An MI6 codebreaker whose decomposed body was found in a holdall in the bath had been padlocked into the bag, it emerged yesterday.

Gareth Williams, 31, was found in his flat half a mile from MI6 nine days ago in Pimlico, West London.

But an inquest yesterday revealed that a cause of death has still not been established despite two postmortems.

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman said police went round after colleagues had not seen him at work. He said: "The holdall was padlocked shut and inside was a lifeless body, and it appeared the body was in an advanced state of decay."

Dr Knapman said further tests are being done to find out how he died. Police are still investigating his death.

Mr Williams' family, of Holyhead, Gwynedd, who have accused MI6 of smearing Gareth's name with false sex slurs, were not in court.

The Westminster coroner's court inquest was adjourned until September 8.

Metro : MI6 spy Gareth Williams 'found in a padlocked holdall'

MI6 spy Gareth Williams 'found in a padlocked holdall'

The body of MI6 code-breaker Gareth Williams was found in a holdall that was padlocked shut, an inquest heard.

by Joel Taylor | September 2, 2010

His corpse appeared to be in an ‘advanced state of decay’ when it was discovered in a government-owned flat in Pimlico on August 23, a spokeswoman at Westminster coroner’s court said.

Police broke into the top-floor flat after the 30-year-old failed to turn up for work at the MI6 headquarters, where he was days away from finishing a year’s work placement. A post-mortem examination carried out two days later failed to establish a cause of death and investigations are continuing, the court heard, before the inquest was adjourned until Wednesday next week.

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman will consider when to release the body so a funeral can take place, a court spokeswoman said.

There were no members of his family in court. Mr Williams was last seen alive eight days before his body was discovered – but it remains unknown if the sighting was made on CCTV or came from another source.

The Met’s Homicide Command is leading the inquiry, alongside the security-vetted Counter Terror Command division.

Officers are still trying to determine if he was asphyxiated, poisoned or if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation, the court was told.

Express : SPY’S BODY WAS LOCKED IN BAG

SPY’S BODY WAS LOCKED IN BAG

By John Twomey | September 2, 2010

THE body of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams was stuffed in a holdall and padlocked, a court heard yesterday.

The spy’s killer lifted the sports bag and corpse into the bath and fled.

Fresh details of the murder mystery were revealed yesterday as an inquest was briefly opened into Mr Williams’s death. It emerged after the hearing that a set of front door keys were found inside the flat in Pimlico, central London.

They almost certainly belonged to Mr Williams. But it raises the possibility that the killer had his own set since the flat was locked.

It could equally mean Mr Williams, 31, knew the murderer and let him into his home. Detectives believe the spy died in his flat but have no clear idea of the circumstances.

Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from the Government’s listening post GCHQ, was found dead on August 23.

Post-mortem examinations have failed to establish a cause of death and more tests are being carried out.