Guardian : MI6 spy inquest shown footage of holdall containing his body

MI6 spy inquest shown footage of holdall containing his body

Police video goes from room to room of Gareth Williams's Pimlico home, in which designer women's clothes were found

Press Association | April 24, 2012

Footage of a red holdall containing the curled-up body of MI6 spy Gareth Williams has been shown at the inquest into his death.

Video of the immaculately kept flat where Williams was found was played for the first time on Tuesday.

Police images also showed a cutting from the Observer headlined "Top five regrets of the dying". Forensic scene recordings were played after the detective in charge said she allowed a counter-terror officer into the crime scene.

But SO15 – the only command at Scotland Yard with regular contact with MI6 – was not in charge of the investigation, she said.

Williams's sister, Ceri Subbe, sat in the hearing as images showed the scene that greeted detectives as they arrived at his flat on 23 August 2010.

The video went from room to room of his Pimlico home – showing a woman's red wig, lipstick and makeup – in the condition that it was found.

Footage showed closeup images of the white bathroom suite where Williams's body was found.

The film zoomed in on the red North Face bag, showing bulges from his limbs inside, and a brass padlock locking two zips together from the outside.

The flat gave an insight into the codebreaker's private life, showing carefully arranged piles of books and an extensive CD collection.

Detectives found the Observer article in the living room near a book by Alan Warner and some of Williams's own paintings.

There was no sign of a break-in at the flat, with footage showing Williams had left cash in a cupboard and a mobile phone on the living room table.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said there was little clutter in the flat except for a dressing gown and quilt discarded on the bedroom floor.

Sebire said: "I also found it difficult to explain because of his general tidiness. In my opinion it was not something that was easily explainable."

As the court viewed images of Williams's flat, Sebire detailed the forensic evidence found there, including blood and semen.

The communal front door was secured by a mortice lock and union lock, and a spot of someone else's blood was found in the communal hallway, the inquest heard.

Inside the flat itself, an "old" and "very small" spot of Williams's blood, which could have been from a cut, was found on the carpet near the stairs, Sebire said.

She accepted the blood could have dried over the course of a week.

Two shoe prints detected in his kitchen were too "partial" for the size or wearer to be identified, she went on.

In the larger of his two bathrooms, the only "significant finding" was traces of semen staining on the floor by the sink, which was identified as belonging to Williams, the detective said.

Traces of his semen were also found in the main bedroom, including on his quilt, she added.

Sebire also described the "high value" items found in the flat's smaller bedroom, which included 26 shoes and boots, mainly bearing designer labels such as Christian Louboutin, Stella McCartney, Christian Dior and Chloe; wigs wrapped in net packaging, which "appear to be unused", including one Mr Williams had bought on a recent trip to the US; small and medium-sized female clothing worth an estimated £20,000, all "immaculate" and "in pristine condition" and often in tissue paper; and makeup items including nail varnish and eye shadow that were new and apparently unused.

The only used items appeared to be four pairs of the size six and 6.5 shoes, which was Williams's size, Sebire said.

Asked by the coroner, Fiona Wilcox, whether she thought the clothes would have fitted Williams, the detective replied: "Possibly."

The clothes were found in the holdall and on the bed, she said.

Receipts suggested they had been collected around 2008 and 2009.