National Post : British spy Gareth Williams found dead in his apartment probably unlawfully killed: coroner

British spy Gareth Williams found dead in his apartment probably unlawfully killed: coroner

Agence France-Presse | May 2, 2012

British MI6 spy Gareth WIlliams unlawfully killed says coroner

LONDON — A British spy whose naked body was found padlocked in a bag in his bathtub was probably unlawfully killed, a coroner concluded Wednesday on the final day of the inquest into his death.

But it is “unlikely” that the full circumstances of the death in 2010 of Gareth Williams, a high-flying codebreaker with the MI6 external intelligence agency, will ever be explained, coroner Fiona Wilcox added.

“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully,” said Wilcox.

She told the inquest she was also “satisfied” that “a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath” of his London flat.

London’s Metropolitan Police said after the hearing that they will review lines of inquiry.

MI6 chief John Sawyers apologized to the family after the inquest, acknowledging that his service should have reported his absence from work to police more quickly.

The inquest heard that experts could not agree how the highly intelligent 31-year-old had died because his body had been decomposing for a week by the time it was discovered.

Pathologists said Williams likely died from poisoning or suffocation.

The hearings focused on whether the mathematician could have locked himself into the holdall as part of a lone sex act, after examination of his computer showed he had visited bondage websites.

But the coroner said it was “highly unlikely” that Williams could have got inside the red North Face holdall alone and observed that the surfaces around the bathtub were strangely clear of any evidence.

“If Gareth had been carrying out some kind of peculiar experiment, he wouldn’t care if he left any foot- or fingerprints,” Wilcox concluded.

The inquest heard last week from experts who had failed to padlock themselves into bags identical to Williams’ red North Face holdall, despite several hundred attempts.

One expert said escapologist Harry Houdini “would have struggled” to pull off the feat.

Wilcox ruled out the possibility that Williams’ apparent interest in bondage had an impact on his death, and observed: “I would have expected much more Internet activity to have been recovered.”

The coroner also questioned leaks of details about Williams’ private life, adding: “I wonder if this was an attempt by some third party to manipulate the evidence.”

Police found women’s clothing worth about $32,400 in Williams’ flat as well as make-up, but Wilcox said there was no evidence to suggest he was a transvestite.

His strong interest in fashion was a much more likely explanation for the presence of the make-up, Wilcox said.

There was some suggestion that his interest in female footwear could have been of a sexual nature, but this was not particularly unusual, she argued.

The coroner said she did not have enough evidence to give a definitive verdict of unlawful killing, and instead delivered a two-hour narrative verdict listing all the possibilities.

After the inquest, Williams’ family hit out at the failures of MI6 to raise the alarm after the spy went missing, saying their “grief is exacerbated” by it.

The family also hit out at the secret services, saying they were “extremely disappointed” at their “reluctance and failure” to make relevant information available to the inquiry.

MI6 failed to report Williams’ disappearance for a week, while police told the inquest they had not been able to examine some of Williams’ possessions including nine memory sticks because his bosses said they were irrelevant.

“The Secret Intelligence Service and GCHQ would like to express once again their deepest condolences to Gareth’s family at their tragic loss,” MI6 chief Sawyers said in a statement.

“Lessons have been learned, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences,” he added.