National Post : Spy couldn’t have locked himself naked in bag before he died, experts say after trying to recreate it

Spy couldn’t have locked himself naked in bag before he died, experts say after trying to recreate it

Hayley Dixon, The Telegraph | November 17, 2013

Experts who tried and failed to recreate the method of death of spy Gareth Williams, who was found locked in a bag in the bath of his London apartment, say they do not agree with the police finding that the MI6 man died by accident.

The codebreaker could not have got into the bag and locked it from the inside alone, witnesses who worked closely with the investigation have claimed after attempting the task more than 400 times. No one has ever come forward who has been able to recreate the scene.

When Mr. Williams’ naked, decomposing body was found in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, London, in August 2010, the handles of the bag had been fastened with Velcro, there was no sign of him struggling to escape and the eyelets on the locks had been perfectly aligned.

No finger, foot, palm prints or DNA belonging to Mr. Williams was found on the rim of the bath, padlock or zipper and he was not wearing any gloves.

Despite the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death and an inquest finding that he had been unlawfully killed, the police have now concluded that Mr. Williams most likely got into the bag by himself and died after failing to get out again.

However, William MacKay, a confined spaces expert who gave evidence at the inquest, said that he still believes that someone else was involved.

“Everything leads to that being the case,” he said. “When you put the forensic evidence together with the other evidence the likelihood that one person could do it is slim.

“Where is all the DNA that would have been around the bath? I would stay short of saying it was murder, because obviously it could have been an accident that someone else could have been involved in, the scenarios are many.”

For the inquest he and a yoga expert, who was of very similar stature to Mr. Williams, made hundreds of attempts to recreate the scenario in which Mr. Williams’ body was found. Although the expert could get into the bag, he was unable to lock it.

Peter Faulding, who also worked closely with the police and gave evidence at the inquest, agrees that Mr. Williams was not alone when he was locked in the bag.

He believes that the evidence points toward murder as the heating in the flat had been turned up despite it being midsummer, which would have speeded up decomposition, a doorknob which could have given forensic clues had been removed, and Mr. Williams’ iPhone had been wiped.

Mr. Faulding told the Sunday Express: “I believe the bag was placed in the bath to let bodily fluids run down the plughole.”

Mr. MacKay, a former Army officer, said: “As I told the coroner I have seen some amazing things being done in my career, and so I could not say beyond all reasonable doubt that nobody could do it.

“We got close, but close is still far away. With all the other demonstrations generally it showed damage to the bag when it was done.”

Express : EXCLUSIVE: MI6 spy Gareth Williams found dead in a bag WAS murdered

EXCLUSIVE: MI6 spy Gareth Williams found dead in a bag WAS murdered

THE handles of the locked bag in which MI6 spy Gareth Williams was found dead were fastened together with Velcro, which an expert said last night was proof he was murdered.

By: James Murray | November 17, 2013

Last week Scotland Yard angered the family of the 31-year-old by saying it was possible he had got into the North Face bag on his own and locked it, despite Coroner Fiona Wilcox saying in 2012 she thought he was killed “on the balance of probabilities”.

Peter Faulding worked closely with the Yard on the baffling case and is convinced code breaker Mr Williams could not have managed to get inside the bag, bring the handles up and Velcro them together and then lock it with the padlock on the outside.

“I tried it scores of times and it was impossible,” said Mr Faulding, chief executive of Specialist Group International of Redhill, Surrey.

“I strongly believe another person must have been involved. If he’d done the lock there would have been prints or DNA on it and the same goes for the Velcro. It is simply impossible to do.”

Mr Faulding, whose expertise is finding bodies or people stuck in confined places, made several other disturbing points which raise serious questions about the Yard’s new perception on the mystery.

When Mr Williams’s body was found on August 23, 2010, in his central London flat the door to the bathroom was shut and the light was off, making the room pitch black.

The shower screen was in place, making the space he had to move around very tight if he were to put the bag in the bath and then step into it. There were no palm prints on the bath, which meant Mr Williams, who was single and a maths genius, would have had to stand up in the bag first and then get into it. Mr Faulding said: “Entry into the bag needs to be shoulder first and then pulling the bag under the bottom, this would leave footprints at the end of the bath above the taps but there were none.

“The shower screen was closed. If he was practising getting into the bag this would have been wide open as it creates a barrier. No finger, foot, palm prints or DNA belonging to Gareth Williams were present on the rim of the bath, padlock or zipper. He was not wearing any gloves.” Mr Faulding added: “If he was practising or dabbling in escapology he would have carried a knife in the bag to release himself, he was an intelligent individual and not a chancer.

“When I did it I had a knife around my neck because it is pretty scary. There was no sign of Gareth struggling to get out. He was found in a peaceful foetal position. I believe the bag was placed in the bath to let bodily fluids run down the plug hole.”

Although it was midsummer, the heating in the flat was turned up full, which meant decomposition would be fast and potential forensic clues lost. A doorknob, which could have revealed forensic clues, was removed and Mr Williams’s iPhone was wiped.

Mr Faulding carried out tests for the police on how difficult it would be to get a person into a sports holdall and then put it in the bath.

He said: “I practised putting a person pretending to be unconscious in the bag and then lifting them into the bath and it was easy to do.”

While doing that work he noticed he scuffed the bag on the top of the bath. On the rim of Gareth’s bath some scuff marks were found. Recalling how he felt while trying to lock himself in the bag, he said: “After five minutes zipped into the bag the temperature goes up by 10 degrees and the oxygen level rapidly dropped to 17 per cent.

“Carbon dioxide builds up making it very difficult to work or concentrate. It’d be impossible to close the zip and fit the padlock from the inside without light or leaving prints. Suffocation would be within 30 minutes, probably less, depending on the individual.”

Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said: “The Metropolitan Police’s position is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died.”

Telegraph : 'Spy in bag' Gareth Williams did not get into holdall alone, say experts

'Spy in bag' Gareth Williams did not get into holdall alone, say experts

Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy, was not alone when he was locked in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat, claim experts who contradict police conclusions

By Hayley Dixon | November 17, 2013

Experts who tried and failed to recreate the method of death of spy Gareth Williams say they do not agree with the police finding that the MI6 man died by accident.

The codebreaker could not have got into the bag and locked it from the inside alone, witnesses who worked closely with the investigation have claimed after attempting the task more than 400 times. No one has ever come forward who has been able to recreate the scene.

When Mr Williams' naked, decomposing body was found in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, London, in August 2010, the handles of the holdall had been fastened with Velcro, there was no sign of him struggling to escape, and the eyelets on the locks had been perfectly aligned.

No finger, foot, palm prints or DNA belonging to Mr Williams was found on the rim of the bath, padlock or zipper and he was not wearing any gloves.

Despite the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death and an inquest finding that he had been unlawfully killed, the police have now concluded that Mr Williams most likely got into the bag by himself and died after failing to get out again.

However, William MacKay, a confined spaces expert who gave evidence at the inquest, said that he still believes that someone else was involved.

“Everything leads to that being the case,” he said. “When you put the forensic evidence together with the other evidence the likelihood that one person could do it is slim.

“Where is all the DNA that would have been around the bath? I would stay short of saying it was murder, because obviously it could have been an accident that someone else could have been involved in, the scenarios are many.”

For the inquest he and a yoga expert, who was of very similar stature to Mr Williams at 170cm tall and weighing 68 kilos, made hundreds of attempts to recreate the scenario in which Mr Williams' body was found. Although the expert could get into the bag, he was unable to lock it.

Peter Faulding, who also worked closely with the police and gave evidence at the inquest, agrees that Mr Williams was not alone when he was locked in the holdall.

He believes that the evidence points toward murder as the heating in the flat had been turned up despite it being midsummer, which would have speeded up decomposition, a doorknob which could have given forensic clues had been removed, and Mr William’s iPhone had been wiped.

Mr Faulding told the Sunday Express: “I believe the bag was placed in the bath to let bodily fluids run down the plughole."

He has always said that Mr Williams was dead or unconscious when he was placed in the bag, and believes it was then lifted into the bath.

Mr MacKay, a former Army officer, said: “As I told the coroner I have seen some amazing things being done in my career, and so I could not say beyond all reasonable doubt that nobody could do it.

“We got close, but close is still far away. With all the other demonstrations generally it showed damage to the bag when it was done. That was based upon hundreds and hundreds of attempts, maybe if we had tried it 2,000 times we would have done it, I don’t know, but there were two of us.

“One of the key things for me is that after we released all the evidence we waited for people who would come and show us how to do it.”

Days after the inquest, a retired Army sergeant did claim to demonstrate how it was possible to climb into a similar North Face bag and lock it from the inside.

However, Mr MacKay said: “One person did come forward, but the eyelets weren’t put together in the same way, we dispelled that method as it wasn’t the way that the bag was closed.

"Nobody else has come forward and for me that is very telling, people always want to show off and show us as experts how badly they think we have done.”

Despite their findings, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who led the police investigation, last week concluded "it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died.”

Mr Williams’ family have rejected the results of the three and a half year police investigation and maintain that he was murdered.

Las Vegas Sun : UK police: Spy in bag probably died by accident

UK police: Spy in bag probably died by accident
[or here]

The Associated Press | November 17, 2013

More than three years after the naked, decomposing body of British spy Gareth Williams was discovered stuffed inside a locked gym bag at the bottom of his bathtub, the mystery over his bizarre death lingers, and a police investigation has done little to clear it up.

London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday that their investigation had found that Williams likely died in an accident with no one else involved. But the tentative conclusion, which the police hedged by acknowledging many gaps haven't been filled in, is unlikely to calm conspiracy theories surrounding the case.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said Williams, whose remains were discovered in August 2010, was "most probably" killed in an accident, a verdict which conflicts with a coroner's inquest that concluded last year that Williams was probably been killed by another person in a "criminally meditated act."

Hewitt said the police position "is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died."

"But the reality is that for both hypotheses, there exist evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding," he said.

Hewitt told reporters at Scotland Yard headquarters that his conclusion was based on the fact that investigators found little evidence of foul play in a death that has spawned a host of theories, from assassination to sexual adventure gone awry.

Williams, a cyberwarfare expert, worked for Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping service and was attached to the overseas espionage agency MI6 when he died.

Some have raised the possibility that Williams locked himself in the bag as part of a sex act gone wrong or an experiment in escapology _ the Houdini-like art of wriggling out of restraints or traps. Investigators found that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia _ a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

Police concluded _ after several reenactments _ that it was possible for Williams to climb inside the sports bag and lock it.

However, police couldn't find Williams' DNA was found on the lock, palm prints on the rim of the bath, or footprints in the bathroom itself. The coroner, Fiona Wilcox, said that pointed to another person having taken the bag into the bathroom, noting that if Williams had been "carrying out some kind of peculiar experiment, he wouldn't care if he left any foot or fingerprints."

She was also critical in her inquest verdict of MI6, which failed to pass evidence to investigating police, and said that while it seemed unlikely that British intelligence agencies were involved in Williams' death, it was a "legitimate line of inquiry."

Hewitt said there was no evidence that the apartment had been cleaned to remove forensic traces and nothing to suggest a struggle or a break-in.

And he dismissed the idea that Britain's secretive intelligence services had carried out a cover-up, noting that a total of 27 members of staff from both MI6 and GCHQ had been interviewed and that police were given full access to Williams' vetting and personnel file.

"I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes," Hewitt said. "I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death."

He added that there was "no evidence to support the theory that Gareth's death was in any way related to his work."

Williams' relatives said in a statement that they were disappointed that the facts remain unclear, but still believed it was likely he had been the victim of foul play.

"We consider that on the basis of the facts known at present the coroner's verdict accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth's death," the statement said.

Mirror : Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was killed to protect Russian 'mole' in MI6, ex-KGB agent claims

Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was killed to protect Russian 'mole' in MI6, ex-KGB agent claims

Boris Karpichkov says police claims that the MI6 operative's death was 'a tragic accident' are 'nonsense' and believes he was killed by the Russians

By Justin Penrose | November 17, 2013

Spy in the bag Gareth Williams was assassinated because he was about to reveal the identity of an MI6 employee working for the Russians, a former KGB agent has claimed.

Boris Karpichkov dismissed as “nonsense” Scotland Yard’s conclusion last week that Mr Williams’ death was an accident.

He says the spy had been working for a unit focusing on Russian intelligence and that Mr Williams, 31, a former codebreaker, had also been on training courses on field operations and had been given a new false passport with a secret identity.

Mr Karpichkov, a Latvian who fled to Britain in the late 1990s when his double life was exposed, said intelligence sources had passed on the bombshell new information.

Mr Karpichkov, who successfully turned foreign spies into double agents in Eastern Europe, told the Sunday Mirror: “I believe Gareth Williams was targeted by the Russian security services and was unlawfully killed.

“I am 100 per cent sure he was working for a unit against Russian intelligence, had a passport in a false name and had been on field operative training courses.

“One of two things happened. First Russian security services could have tried to recruit him as a mole, probably through blackmail.

“But if people refuse this, then it is all part of counter espionage games and he would not have been killed. It does not fit.

“During the course of his work he came across a mole inside MI6 working for the Russians. They probably tried to recruit him to keep this information hidden.

“When he refused, he became a threat to Russian security services and at the point when he was going to reveal the mole agent inside MI6, he was killed.

“When I was exposed in Latvia, my bosses told me to kill those who had betrayed me, giving me a licence to kill as was about to be exposed. I didn’t and left the country.”

Mr Karpichkov claims the FSB - the successor organisation to Russia's KGB - would have placed him under surveillance by using hidden cameras in unmarked cars’ rear view mirrors.

Video would have picked up from the cars simply by driving past.

The former KGB agent said he saw several cars with Russian diplomatic number plates in the area in the two months before Mr Williams died and a Russian agent in unmarked British car.

Police last week claimed that “on the balance of probabilities” nobody else was present when Mr Williams got into a bag in his bath and padlocked himself inside.

This was despite there being no DNA on the pad lock and no palm prints on the bath - making it impossible for him to get in by himself.

Between 10 and 15 unidentified traces of DNA were found at the flat.

The door of the flat in Pimlico, South West London was also locked from the outside.

Despite being a strict time keeper, none of Mr Williams’ colleagues reported him missing for over a week and none went into his flat.

His boss, known as Agent G, went and only knocked on the door twice.

The heating in the flat had been turned onto full blast despite it being in the height of summer - rapidly increasing the speed that the body decomposed.

Mr Karpichkov added: “To say that he died accidentally is ridiculous and nonsense.

“MI6 failed to report him being missing as they would not have wanted it being revealed that they may have an operative working for the Russian security services.”

Last year, Coroner Fiona Wilcox ruled that on the balance of probabilities Mr Williams was unlawfully killed and it was unlikely that he got into the bag himself.

But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt last week said it was “beyond credibility” that Scotland Yard had been duped by MI6 as part of a cover up.

He said: “I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. "I believe that we are dealing with a tragic, unexplained death.”

Mr Williams’ parents Ian and Ellen have rejected the police claims.A