Press TV : MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

May 4, 2012

A British coroner has said the MI6 spy whose body was found at his government flat was probably “unlawfully killed”, admitting it is “unlikely” the circumstances surrounding his death “will ever be satisfactorily explained."

“The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated," said British coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox in her two-hour narrative verdict at Westminster Coroner's Court.

“I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully," added Wilcox.

The naked and decomposing body of Gareth Williams, a spy for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), was found in the bath at his government flat in south London in August 2010.

An inquest into Williams’ mysterious death opened on Monday 23 April. After seven days of inquest and also considering a 21-month police inquiry, Wilcox said most of the fundamental questions about how he had died remained unanswered.

Prior to the opening of the inquest on Monday, Williams’ family, friends, and neighbors said they feared he might be the victim of a “cover-up."

Williams’ family believes that a member of “some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services” had a role to play in his death.

Wilcox also said that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams’ death.

ISH/MA/HE