The Age : Spy could have taken GHB before death

Spy could have taken GHB before death

April 28, 2012

Traces of the date-rape drug GHB were found in the body of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, an inquest heard, as experts said they were unable to rule out poisoning.

Toxicologist Denise Stanworth said the traces found in the post mortem had probably occurred naturally, which is common shortly after death, but it was possible Mr Williams had taken the drug.

A panel of forensics experts that reviewed the post-mortem findings was unable to rule out the use of certain poisons, such as cyanide and chloroform, because the body was so decomposed, the inquest heard.

Miss Stanworth said it was unlikely Mr Williams had been given some ''old-fashioned poison'' but she could not rule out other ''volatile agents''.

The inquest at Westminster Coroners' Court has heard how Mr Williams' naked body was in a padlocked bag in his London flat for more than a week before it was discovered in August 2010.

A number of drugs and poisons were ruled out, but abuse of amyl and alkyl nitrites, such as poppers, and ''lots of substances that could have caused poisoning and death'' could not be detected nine days after death.

The inquest also heard it was impossible to tell whether Mr Williams was alive or dead when he got into the bag.

At one stage, the inquest had to be halted after a member of Mr Williams' family broke down when an MI6 manager disclosed no one had been disciplined over the errors that led to the delay in finding the body.

The meticulous timekeeper had failed to show up for work for a week and missed two meetings but only cursory attempts were made to phone him. It was finally decided he was missing on August 23.

Australian : MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams may have been poisoned

MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams may have been poisoned

Fiona Hamilton | April 28, 2012

THE MI6 spy found padlocked inside a bag may have taken drugs or been poisoned before he died, it was revealed yesterday.

Experts are unable to rule out a range of "volatile agents" or poisons such as cyanide being used on Gareth Williams, 31, whose body had decomposed badly in the week before his colleagues reported him missing.

The codebreaker's inquest was also told that he could have been vulnerable to "hostile and malign" third parties after making unauthorised searches on the agency's sensitive database.

A Secret Intelligence Service witness known only as SIS F said that there were a "small number of searches for which we could not see any clear operational justification".

She told Westminster Coroner's Court there was a "theoretical possibility" that a third party could use that knowledge to "put pressure on Gareth", although there was no evidence that that had occurred. The spy's family have previously suggested that agents specialising in the "dark arts" might have been involved in, or tried to cover up, his death in August 2010.

MI6 offered a "profound apology" to Williams's parents, Ian and Ellen, and his sister, Ceri Subbe, for the failure to raise the alarm about his absence from work. SIS F acknowledged that delays hampered the police inquiry and said that the authorities should have been called within four hours.

The spy's relatives walked out in tears after learning that no disciplinary action had been taken against the MI6 manager who did not report him missing for seven days even though he knew him to be diligent and a meticulous timekeeper.

Anthony O'Toole, representing the Williamses, said that the delays had "horrendous results". As well as material evidence being lost, Williams's family were unable to say goodbye properly because his body was in an "unacceptable state".

Williams had been in the bag for up to nine days and his remains were such that tests for drugs and poisons could not be relied on. The court was told that a "wide range of poisons", anaesthetics and other "volatile agents" might have been used on the spy, who was discovered in the North Face holdall placed in the bath at his flat in Pimlico, Central London. Other substances that could not be ruled out included the legal high amyl nitrate, helium, chloroform and nitrus oxide.

Denise Stanworth, a toxicologist, said that traces of the party drug GHB were found in Williams's bloodstream and urine but had "probably" been produced naturally after he died. Asked how reliable the tests could be, she said: "In terms of many of the drugs, reliable, but in terms of the more volatile substances, not that reliable."

Mr Williams, who was due to leave his MI6 secondment and return to GCHQ in Cheltenham, was found on August 23 but his last known activity took place on August 16.

The investigation into the death has always focused on whether he could have got himself into the holdall, although police believe that a third party was involved.

His Cheltenham landlady had once had to free him after finding him tied up in bed and £26,000 of women's designer clothing and shoes were found in the flat, near MI6 headquarters.

The police have previously disclosed that he visited websites about bondage and claustrophilia.

SIS F said that Mr Williams had passed all vetting processes and she appeared to indicate that such lifestyle preferences would not have rendered him unsuitable for MI6. There was no indication that his death was linked to his work as he was a low-risk officer.

Stephen Gale, his boss at GCHQ who has since retired, said that Mr Williams could have afforded the expensive clothes though they would have taken a "large chunk" out of his salary.

SMH : Date rape drug found in body of MI6 spy

Date rape drug found in body of MI6 spy

Tom Whitehead | April 28, 2012

LONDON: Traces of the date rape drug GHB were found in the body of Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy, an inquest has heard, as experts said they were unable to rule out that he was poisoned.

Small amounts of the Class C drug, which has sedative effects, were found in post-mortem tests.

Denise Stanworth, a toxicologist, told the inquest the traces had probably occurred naturally, which is common shortly after death, but it was possible that Mr Williams had taken the drug.

A panel of forensics experts which reviewed the post-mortem findings was unable to rule out the use of certain poisons, such as cyanide and chloroform, because the body was so decomposed, the inquest heard.

Ms Stanworth said it was unlikely Mr Williams had been given some "old fashioned poison" but she could not rule out other "volatile agents".

The inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court has heard how Mr Williams's naked body was in a padlocked holdall in his London flat for more than a week before it was discovered in August 2010.

While there were no obvious signs of poisoning, the level of decomposition made it impossible to test for certain substances, the hearing was told on Thursday.

A number of drugs and poisons were ruled out, but abuse of amyl and alkyl nitrites, such as poppers, and "lots of substances that could have caused poisoning and death" could not be detected nine days after death, the inquest heard. When asked if the toxicology findings were reliable, Ms Stanworth said: "In terms of many of the drugs, many of the analyses of the drugs, it was reliable. In terms of the more volatile substances, in terms of certain unstable substances, [it was] not that reliable."

The inquest also heard it was impossible to tell whether Mr Williams was alive or dead when he got into the bag.

At one stage, the inquest had to be halted after a member of Mr Williams's family broke down when an MI6 manager disclosed that no one had been disciplined over the errors that led to the code-breaker's body lying undiscovered for so long.

The spy, a meticulous timekeeper, failed to show up for work for a week and should have attended two meetings during that time. But his absence led to only cursory attempts to raise him on the phone. Even when his secret service bosses finally decided he was missing on August 23, it took another four hours before they contacted the police.

A senior manager at MI6, identified only as SIS F, told the hearing from behind a screen: "We are profoundly sorry about what happened. It shouldn't have happened and we recognise that the delay in finding Gareth's body has made it even harder for the family to come to terms with his dreadful death and we are truly sorry for that."

Despite blaming Mr Williams's line manager for the "breakdown in communication", SIS F said no one had been disciplined over the incident.

A female member of the family, who also sat behind the screen, reacted with shock to the disclosure and the hearing was briefly adjourned.

Anthony O'Toole, the lawyer for the family, accused the security agencies of a "total disregard for Gareth's whereabouts and safety". He blamed the delay for denying the family the chance to say goodbye to Mr Williams while his body was in an "acceptable form" and for making it more or less impossible for detectives to establish how he died.

SIS F also disclosed that Mr Williams had carried out several searches of the secret service database without permission. She admitted that if a "hostile or malign" third party knew of his activities, it could "theoretically use that knowledge to put some pressure on Gareth".

Telegraph, London

NZ Herald : Spy dead when locked inside bag: report

Spy dead when locked inside bag: report

April 28, 2012

The spy in the bag must have been dead or unconscious when he was locked into the holdall in which his body was found, an inquest heard yesterday.

An escapology expert tried and failed 300 times to lock himself into an identical bag after being hired to try to crack the mystery of Gareth Williams' death.

Peter Faulding said 'Harry Houdini would have struggled' to use the small brass travel padlock to seal himself inside, and someone else must have done it.

Mr Faulding, a former Parachute Regiment reservist, described theories that the reclusive MI6 codebreaker got into the North Face holdall by himself as 'unbelievable scenarios'.

His experiments appeared to be a key breakthrough in the riddle which has baffled Scotland Yard's most senior detectives. How Mr Williams died remains unknown. Mr Faulding's evidence came as details of material discovered on Mr Williams' laptops and mobile phones were revealed for the first time.

A short film on his work iPhone showed the 31-year-old wearing nothing but calf high leather boots, 'wriggling and gyrating' around a chair before bending over with his back to the camera.

Mr Williams had used other laptops to view fetish clothing websites and bondage and sadomasochism videos, as well as spending half his time on women's fashion sites and blogs.

Images he viewed on a French website showed a model enclosed in plastic using a vacuum cleaner to suck air out. Others were of people tied up with ropes.

Mr Faulding, a mine rescue specialist, was hired by police a month after the naked and decomposing body of Mr Williams was discovered in the bath in his flat in Pimlico, Central London, in August 2010.

The case sparked a blizzard of conspiracy theories, including claims Mr Williams was murdered by foreign spies or died in a sex game that went wrong.

Mr Faulding filmed himself attempting to get inside an identical heavy-duty holdall and lock himself in by threading a padlock through the eyelets of the zip.

Asked by coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox how many times he had tried, he replied 'probably 300'.

He said: 'I just cannot do it. This case, I just cannot get it off my mind. It is very difficult. I am an escapologist, I am thinking outside the box here and trying everything I can to find a way.'

Dr Wilcox added: 'With all your trials and failures do you think it would be impossible to padlock this bag from the inside?'

Mr Faulding replied: 'I cannot say it was impossible, but even Houdini would struggle.'

He said Mr Williams could not have survived for more than 30 minutes as the temperature quickly rose and oxygen levels dropped. Mr Faulding said he only lasted five minutes before becoming 'delirious' after zipping himself inside with emergency oxygen and a paramedic outside.

He said other evidence reinforced his belief that someone else was involved.

No fingerprints or DNA were found where Mr Williams would have placed his hands on the bath and it would have been difficult to put the key where it was found under his right buttock.

But Mr Faulding said it would have been 'easy' for one person to lift the sturdy bag carrying the body, into the bath.

This may have been done to catch leaking body fluids, while the bathroom door could have been closed to contain the smell of decomposition, he said.

'My conclusion is Mr Williams was placed in the bag unconscious or he was dead when he was put in the bag,' he added.

A second expert, William MacKay, said he and a yoga-practising assistant made more than 100 attempts to recreate the feat without success.

But he refused to rule out the possibility that Mr Williams locked himself inside, highlighting that the rock climbing, fell running spy was extremely fit and dextrous. Mr Williams' former landlady has already revealed she once found him tied to the posts of his bed after he shouted for help one night.

DC Simon Warren said the spy spent half of his time viewing haute couture fashion websites.

But a small amount of material revealed he also viewed websites about famous drag queens and niche sexual fetishes, including bondage.

The inquest has also heard how Mr Williams may have been at risk from blackmail after making illicit searches on the top secret MI6 database. But a senior official, known only as SIS F, said there was no evidence that he had been identified by hostile foreign agents, let along targeted.

The inquest continues next week.

- Daily Mail

Daily Post : MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'dead or unconscious' when placed in holdall, inquest hears

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'dead or unconscious' when placed in holdall, inquest hears

by Our Correspondent, DPW West | April 28, 2012

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was either dead or unconscious when he was placed in the sports holdall in which he was found dead, an inquest heard yesterday.

An expert said even world-famous escapologist Harry Houdini “would have struggled” to squeeze himself into the bag.

Peter Faulding said he believed a third party was present, describing theories that Mr Williams got inside the holdall by himself as “unbelievable scenarios”.

Police discovered the naked decomposing body of the 31-year-old spy padlocked inside a red North Face holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, London, on August 23 2010.

Mr Faulding, a former Parachute Regiment reservist who specialises in rescuing people from confined spaces, made 300 unsuccessful attempts to lock himself inside an identical 81cm x 48cm bag.

“I couldn’t say it’s impossible, but I think even Houdini would have struggled with this one,” he said.

The expert added: “My conclusion is that Mr Williams was either placed in the bag unconscious, or he was dead before he was in the bag.”

He suggested it would have been “very easy” to fold the dead spy’s arms and place him in the holdall as long as rigor mortis had not set in.

The inquest was shown a video of Mr Faulding trying to squeeze himself into the bag while it was in a bath of the same size as the one in Mr Williams’ flat. He flayed around, starting with his torso, then tucking his head in, and finally pulling his legs in one by one.

He said: “The only way I could get myself into the bag was to lie on my back, put my shoulders and head in first, and bending my body at my stomach, pulling my knees up and pulling the bag over my body.”

Mr Faulding told the hearing it would have been “extremely hot” in the holdall and Mr Williams would only have been able to survive inside for a maximum of 30 minutes.

“I am used to confined spaces, and once I’m in that bag, it is a very unpleasant place to be,” he said.

A second expert refused to rule out the possibility that Mr Williams locked himself in the holdall unaided.

William MacKay and a yoga-practising assistant made more than 100 attempts to recreate the feat without success.

But he said it was possible that Mr Williams, a fitness-loving maths prodigy, died without a third party being present.

“I would not like to say that it could not be done,” he told the inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court.

“There are people around who can do amazing things and Mr Williams may well have been one of those persons.”

Video reconstructions played to the hearing showed Mr MacKay’s assistant, of similar height and build to Mr Williams, curling his body in the bag but struggling to pull the zip shut.

Mr MacKay said the holdall was not airtight, and as long as the person inside did not panic they would be able to breathe for some time.

“It depends on how calm you are in terms of oxygen intake,” he said.

The inquest was adjourned until Monday.

Daily Mail : Warning call by GCHQ boss to police about Gareth aborting secret mission may hold key to his death

Warning call by GCHQ boss to police about Gareth aborting secret mission may hold key to his death

* Gareth Williams's spy bosses expressed concerns about his state of mind
* He'd been pulled from a case and missing from work for a week

By Robert Verkaik and Stephanie Condron | April 28. 2012

The handlers of ‘body in the bag’ spy Gareth Williams raised concerns about his state of mind on the day he was found dead inside his flat.

The inquest into Mr Williams’s death heard that a senior executive at GCHQ, the Government’s secret listening post, told police that the MI6 spy may have reacted badly after being removed from a covert operation.

A transcript of the call revealed that the executive added: ‘We are not sure how he’s taken that.’

The warning was passed on to officers searching for Mr Williams, who had been missing from work for more than a week.

He was expected at MI6’s headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, South London, on Monday August 16, 2010.

But his bosses did not raise the alarm until Friday and waited until after the weekend before deciding to call the police.

Mr Williams’s naked body was discovered in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London, on the evening of August 23.

The GCHQ warning has been seized on by Mr Williams’s parents as possible evidence of a cover-up about the truth of what happened to their son.

The intelligence services have always claimed the spy’s death had nothing to do with his secret work.

But the warning message appears to contradict this, as it suggests they were concerned about him after they had told him to withdraw from a secret operation.

Gareth’s parents, Ian and Ellen Williams, and sister Ceri, from Anglesey, North Wales, believe the ‘dark arts’ of an unnamed secret agency may have been involved in his death.

Evidence submitted to Westminster Coroner’s Court confirms that Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham, had been involved in covert operations in the months before he died.

The spy worked in a four-man team as an expert code breaker and shortly before his death had been in contact with two secret agents working in the field in the UK.

On August 11 he returned to London following a six-week visit to the US, where he had been part of a contingent of UK spies sent to a computer intelligence conference, known as the Black Hat.

The coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, said on Friday that the Las Vegas conference attracted criminal hackers who attend the briefings to keep up with the latest developments in computer technology.

But it is also used by security agencies from Britain and America to target hackers.

The FBI has been reported to have sent teams of undercover agents to the conference to break up hacking cells, and also to mount clandestine operations to recruit criminal hackers as informants.

If Mr Williams had gone to Las Vegas as part of an active intelligence operation he could have been exposed to dangers from criminal hacking gangs.

But GCHQ insists that its officers in the US faced no greater risk than they did in the UK.

His bosses also say Mr Williams, who was due to end his secondment with MI6 in September 2010, had not been working on an undercover operation at the time he went missing.

The eight-day delay in GCHQ and MI6 telling police he was officially missing has provoked accusations from his family that they knew something ‘horrible’ had happened to him.

The inquest heard of a transcript of the call, made at 4.41pm on the 23rd by senior GCHQ officer Helen Yelland, in which she said: ‘He was last spoken to on Friday 13th. He was expected into work all of last week and did not appear.

Both the landline and mobile phones are not picked up. The mobile is switched off. His sister was expecting to stay with him on Wednesday this week and she has not been able to contact him.’

The Metropolitan Police operator asked if there were any concerns, to which Ms Yelland replies: ‘He is going to be coming back to Cheltenham because he’s just been pulled back from a job he’s supposed to do and we are not sure how he’s taken that.’

Police suspect another person was involved in Mr Williams’s death and experts believe he was likely to have been unconscious or dead when he was placed in the bag.

Forensic experts are still examining Mr Williams’s mobile phone after it emerged on Friday that all the data on it had been wiped.

Detective Constable Robert Burrows told the inquest that he was unable to say when the iPhone, which was found in the living room of the flat, had been wiped before or after the spy’s death.

The inquest has also heard how traces of the date-rape drug GHB were found in Mr Williams’s body.

Forensic scientist Denise Stanworth said the traces were ‘probably’ naturally occurring, which is common after death, but admitted she could not rule out that it had been taken.

MI6 has apologised for failing to raise the alarm about his disappearance, conceding the error may have hampered police inquiries.

The inquest will tomorrow be told the results of an investigation into a second post-mortem examination ordered by the coroner’s office in the days after Mr Williams’s death.

The spy’s family want to know why the police were not informed of this post-mortem examination, as they would have been in an ordinary murder inquiry.

During the inquest, spies from MI6 and GCHQ have given evidence behind screens to protect their identities and Foreign Secretary William Hague has signed an order prohibiting the disclosure of details of Mr Williams’s work.

The family’s barrister, Anthony O’Toole, told the inquest that since MI6 performed such an ‘important job’ it was even more vital that Mr Williams’s team leader – known as Witness G – should have done more to raise the alarm about the spy’s absence from work.

It took Witness G five days before he visited Mr Williams’s flat.

The team leader has told the inquest he had been preparing to go into the field on a secret operation in the week the Welsh spy went missing.

The coroner has heard the dead spy was considered a ‘world-class’ intelligence officer by GCHQ. Stephen Gale, Mr Williams’s boss in Cheltenham, said the maths prodigy had won two awards for his code-breaking work.

Dr Wilcox has intimated that she is prepared to consider a verdict of unlawful killing if she believes another person was involved in the death.

The family want the coroner to explore the possibility that Mr Williams’s flat may have been wiped of other people’s DNA and the spy’s office computers tampered with.

The electronic equipment was handed to Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, SO15, on August 27, four days after the death came to light, the inquest heard.

Mr O’Toole noted there was not ‘any statement from any person at GCHQ to say that equipment was not tampered with’ in the interim period.

But Superintendent Michael Broster, who was responsible for SO15’s involvement in the investigation, insisted Mr Williams’s workplace had been ‘sealed and taped’.

[video] Reuters : Spy-in-bag case baffles UK police

Spy-in-bag case baffles UK police

Reuters | April 28, 2012

British investigators try to work out how the body of a spy ended up inside a locked sports bag with the keys to the padlock with him. Paul Chapman reports.

It's a mystery that's still baffling British police. How did a spy whose body was found in a locked sports bag like this get inside it. Gareth Williams had the keys to the lock with him inside the bag and there was no sign of a struggle. So did somebody else put him there? This police reconstruction shows a yoga expert trying to lock himself into a similar bag. He tried 300 times without success. A lawyer for Williams' family has told an inquest hearing they believed a secret service agency removed evidence from the scene relating to his death. British intelligence officials have denied the 31-year-old's unexplained death was linked to his work or that it had covered up the episode. One of the detectives investigating the death has said she believed someone else had helped him into the bag because there were specks of unidentified DNA on it. Williams' body was found in the bag at his apartment a week after he failed to show up for work with Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence agency. Paul Chapman, Reuters