Western Daily Press : Detective Colin Sutton thinks GCHQ worker Gareth Williams was drugged

Detective Colin Sutton thinks GCHQ worker Gareth Williams was drugged

By JEFF WELLS | June 23, 2014

GCHQ worker Gareth Williams could have been poisoned, a retired murder squad detective has said.

The MI6 codebreaker's body was found in a large hold-all in the bath of his flat in Alderney Street in Pimlico, London, in August, 2010.

The bag was locked, from the outside.

Former Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was the most senior officer on the scene and he told The Sun newspaper that the flat was unusually warm when he arrived.

He claimed the heating was turned up to the maximum, possible to help with decomposition.

He said: "If he had been poisoned, then the chemical compounds might have vanished by the time toxicology results were conducted."

According to Mr Sutton if some unusual form of poison had been used it would have been difficult to detect. He added: "I remain convinced the flat was tidied up after his death. That may have been to protect national security or it might have been something more sinister. If that's the case, then it could have been the perfect murder."

Last year, the Metropolitan Police issued a report following further inquiries into Dr Williams' death which concluded that he was probably alone when he died.

Previously an inquest had decided that another person or persons were probably involved, as the mathematician was found locked, from the outside, in the bag.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox ruled that the spy would not have been able to lock himself in the bag and was therefore likely to have died at somebody else's hands.

She concluded: "The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.

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

Dr Williams was coming to the end of a three-year secondment to MI6 in London in August 2010, when he was reported missing by GCHQ, just days before he was due to return to Cheltenham.

Dr Williams, who rented a flat in Bouncers Lane, Cheltenham, for many years and was a keen cyclist and member of Cheltenham and County Cycle Club, was originally from North Wales.

His family have said they believed the coroner's view "accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth's death.

"We remain very disappointed over the failure of his employers at MI6 to take even the most basic of enquiries concerning Gareth's welfare when he failed to attend for work on August 16, 2010," they said.

"This lack of concern for Gareth's wellbeing remains an overriding feature of our thoughts following the death of a dear son and brother."