Mirror : Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

March 10, 2012

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

The expert codebreaker’s decomposing body was found locked in a large sportsbag in the bath of his London flat in 2010.

There were no obvious signs of how he died or who was responsible – with many claiming a “wall of silence” surrounding his death points to a cover-up at the very heart of the British establishment.

And now it has been revealed Gareth may have been betrayed by a British double agent.

Security bosses are trying to establish if a mole somewhere within intelligence revealed his identity to foreign assassins.

The brilliant mathematician, 31, was working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and would have been a high value target – vital in producing hi-tech defences to prevent cyber attacks on our most secret government departments.

He was one of only a handful of spies launching effective counter attacks to stop enemy hackers infiltrating British networks.

Williams had been seconded from the top-secret Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham to MI6 in the capital.

He was making clandestine visits to Washington to team up with US espionage agents and share intelligence in operations to fend off hostile hacking infiltrations by Russia and China.

Eighteen months after his bizarre death, investigators are still piecing together his every move to try to get information which could lead them back to a British double agent.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, refuses to rule out the possibility that British national security has been breached by the death.

He said: “Reassurance can only be given if it’s based on some new information, and only those who have the skills and the responsibility to carry out such an investigation can take that forward. There have been exhaustive inquiries but they have been unable to reach a conclusion.”

North Wales-born Williams’s parents, Ian and Ellen, hope more will be revealed when a full inquest is opened next month.

They have been told by MI6 chiefs not to talk about his death, while police and security officers have also remained tight-lipped – fuelling speculation the British establishment does not want to reveal what happened to one of its most valued agents.

It was 4.40pm on August 23, 2010, when his naked, contorted body was found by police, zipped and padlocked in a red, 140-litre-capacity North Face hold-all in the bath of his top-floor apartment owned by MI6.

There were no signs of a struggle within flat 4, Alderney Street, Pimlico, less than a mile away from MI6’s HQ, across Vauxhall Bridge.

The key to the bag’s Yale lock was in the hold-all and police said forensic tests showed at least one other person was involved but have not been able to prove it was murder and do not think he killed himself.

Williams, a 9st cycling enthusiast, had not showed up at work for days when an officer went to the flat. Police said he probably died eight days earlier – just weeks after a man and woman of Mediterranean appearance had called at his flat.

Mystery also surrounds a break-in at the flat in the months before – while more twists and turns in the story led to lurid tales about his private life.

One claimed he was a transvestite who police thought may have been murdered by a gay lover.

And the most extreme claim was that he may have died in an auto-erotic asphyxiation sex game gone wrong.

Police also revealed he had £15,000 worth of unworn women’s designer clothing, shoes and wigs in his flat, but his friends believe many of these stories were planted to cloud the investigation.

Crispin Black, an intelligence analyst and former adviser to the Government, says the most likely explanation is that Williams was murdered.

“The thing has a professional air – it’s neat, it’s tidy, it’s organised,” he said.

“A bath is where you put things if you don’t want any forensic residue to be left behind – because you know where the body’s been and you can clear up after it.”

The fact the body was found locked in a holdall, with the key inside, provides the strongest indication he was executed by a foreign death squad.

Investigators believe the team were so expert at their deadly trade, they left no obvious signs of the cause of death.

A security source said: “This has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored assassination. If you’ve got a problem with your codes being broken, the only solution is to remove the codebreaker.

"They’re incredibly hard to replace because they are recruited for having the sharpest mathematical brains.

"There’s always suspicion about the Russians because in many ways the Cold War never completely ended.”

The possibility of a British intelligence mole has to be a huge worry for national security.

Professor Anthony Glees, director of security and intelligence studies at the independent University of Buckingham, said: “Sir Malcolm himself says he could not give the public reassurance that national security had not been breached by Gareth Williams’s death.

"I think we need an answer, especially in light of the fact that this year, with the Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we are clearly a target.

“It’s a possibility that there is a spy and that someone betrayed Gareth Williams.

"It’s by no means unthinkable he was targeted by intelligence officials from other countries who believed he was targeting them.”

The police have not spoken publicly about the death for a year.

And Williams family friend Trefor Lloyd Hughes, 64, said: “I have no doubt some higher influences will be involved here which may stop certain information from getting through, but the family need peace.”

Even before his secondment to MI6, his work in signals intelligence at GCHQ would have put him on the front line in the international cyber war, helping to combat insurgent bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Codebreakers, phone and radio interceptors and internet experts fight the triple threat of terrorism, espionage and organised crime.

At Williams’s funeral at the windswept Bethel Chapel in Holyhead, Anglesey, his family were consoled by MI6 chief Sir John Sawyers, who said: “Gareth did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security.”

Back in Anglesey, those who knew Gareth Williams would no doubt like to know if it was that cause which he ended up giving his life for.