Daily Star : MI6 IN SPY BAG MYSTERY

MI6 IN SPY BAG MYSTERY

By Marc Walker | May 2, 2012

MI6 withheld evidence from police investigating the death of spy Gareth Williams, his inquest heard.

The espionage agency held on to a black holdall and nine computer memory sticks found in the spook’s office.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard the bag was similar to the red one in which Mr Williams’ naked corpse was found.

The memory sticks were in a cabinet while the holdall was found under the 31-year-old’s desk at MI6’s Vauxhall Cross HQ.

Det Ch Insp Jackie Sebire said she had never been told about the bag or memory sticks during her 21-month probe.

She said: “I would have expected to be told.”

Dc Colin Hall, of the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 counter-terror branch, said he examined the bag. But he said his search of the office was cut short and he could not remember what had been inside the bag, although it was something “sensitive”.

Members of Mr Williams’s family in the public gallery shook their heads in disgust when they heard the items were not probed properly.

The hearing continues.

Daily Star : MI6 BAG SPY 'DIED IN EX GAMES WITH MYSTERY COUPLE'

MI6 BAG SPY 'DIED IN EX GAMES WITH MYSTERY COUPLE'

By Emma Wall | 23rd December 2010

POLICE are hunting this mystery couple in connection with the death of spy-in-a-bag Gareth Williams.

The e-fits released yesterday show the pair believed to have visited his flat in the weeks before he died.

M16 codebreaker Gareth was found locked in a holdall with the keys inside at his London flat in August.

Investigators believe someone else fastened the padlock on the bag, pictured right, before leaving him in the bath.

The 31-year-old visited a series of bondage websites in the months before he died. Several showed people bound and tied, and included do-it-yourself guides.

A £15,000 collection of unworn women’s designer clothing was also found stashed in his wardrobe.

Police said Gareth visited a drag cabaret four days before his death and held tickets to two more. A witness also claims he was spotted at a popular gay bar.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said she is convinced someone helped to put Gareth in the bag and believes the key to the mystery lies in his private life.

She said: “We are appealing today to someone who is out there to come forward and tell us more.”

GCHQ code-breaker Gareth, who had been on secondment to MI6, does not appear to have taken drugs or alcohol, nor does he appear to have been poisoned.

But forensic tests showed other people were in the flat. Police said the e-fit couple visited his home in late June or July.

The casually-dressed Mediterranean pair, in their 20s, were buzzed through the communal entrance by another resident.

Det Ch Supt Hamish Campbell said investigators were sure someone involved with the bondage or gay scene had “linked in” with Williams.

He said: “We are very sure that someone else was in that flat. We want to know the circumstances when you would leave somebody in that position, by accident or design.

“Maybe, by explaining to the public, someone will think: ‘I get it and I can explain.'”

DCI Sebire said police still did not know for certain that Gareth was gay and appealed for more information about his private life.

An inquest will be held at Westminster Coroner’s Court in February.

emma.wall@dailystar.co.uk

Daily Star : OFFICIAL: SPY IN BAG GARETH WILLIAMS DIED DURING KINKY SEX GAME

OFFICIAL: SPY IN BAG GARETH WILLIAMS DIED DURING KINKY SEX GAME

By Paul Robins | October 29, 2010

THE spy found dead inside a padlocked sports bag suffocated during a sex game, police claimed yesterday.

New evidence revealed spook Gareth Williams got his kicks from being trapped in confined spaces, a fetish known as claustrophilia.

But detectives claim things went wrong when he could not get out.

The brilliant codebreaker’s body lay undiscovered for two weeks in the bathtub of his London flat.

But police believe they have solved the mystery after finding links to weird torture websites on the M16 officer’s laptops.

One called Torture Garden gives advice and tips on bizarre fetishes like claustrophilia.

Its believed Gareth, 31, stripped naked before asking someone to snap a padlock shut on the bag’s zip and leave him to find his own way out.

He was stuck in a semi-foetal position and was soon left struggling to fill his lungs with air.

The spy had taken the padlock key into the bag as his “life line” but because the padlock was on the outside he was unable to reach it.

With little oxygen in the bag, he soon passed out and suffocated. Police are convinced the spook would not have been able to lock it from the inside himself.

But it is believed he may have told the person to leave the flat to add to his sexual fantasy.

Erotic asphyxiation is the deliberate restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal.

Gareth had a small frame and fitted easily in the bag that measures 32 inches by 19.

Detectives are still trying to trace a mystery couple who visited the spy’s flat weeks before he died.

Police have confirmed that tests showed there was no trace of alcohol or drugs in his system.

His flat, in Pimlico, central London, did not appear to have been disturbed before the discovery of his body on August 23.

Police also scotched rumours about his double life as a gay transvestite after women’s clothes were found in his flat.

The cyclist fanatic and maths genius had been recruited by British security bosses after earning a university degree at 17.

He was just days away from completing a one-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, Britain’s eavesdropping base in Cheltenham, Glos.

Yesterday a pal said: “What a tragic waste of a brilliant life.”

An inquest will be held next year.

Daily Star : MI6 MURDER: COPS HUNT 'MEDITERRANEAN COUPLE'

MI6 MURDER: COPS HUNT 'MEDITERRANEAN COUPLE'

By Gemma Wheatley | September 7, 2010

POLICE last night revealed they are looking for a “Mediterranean couple” over the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams.

The news came as detectives released some of the last pictures of the murdered agent alive.

Gareth Williams' naked body was found padlocked inside a suitcase at his £400,000 flat in London’s Pimlico on August 23.

He was last seen shopping in Harrods eight days earlier, on Sunday August 15.

And police have released CCTV images of him entering Holland Park Underground station the day before.

The Met yesterday revealed it is trying to trace a man and woman who were spotted visiting Mr Williams’s flat late one evening a few weeks earlier.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “Officers are appealing for information to identify a man and a woman, both of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 20 and 30 years old, who called at 36 Alderney Street in June or July, late one evening.

“They were let into the communal front door.”

There were no signs of disturbances in the flat or of a forced entry and nothing is believed to have been taken from inside.

The new clues came as it also emerged that his body had been found submerged in a mystery fluid, thought to have been used to speed up decay.

The fluid was not believed to be blood or water and could have been used to complicate toxicology results.

Mr Williams’s remains were found stuffed inside a North Face sports bag in his bath.

The 31-year-old cycling and fitness fanatic was a maths genius on secondment to MI6’s HQ on the bank of the Thames in London when he died.

His last movements are believed to have been on Sunday, August 15, when he was seen shopping in the capital’s Brompton Road.

Police said Mr Williams, who was 5ft 7in and of muscular build with short hair, was wearing a red T-shirt, beige trousers and white trainers.

He withdrew money from a cash machine and went into Harrods.

At around 2.30pm he was spotted heading from there towards Sloane Street.

Forensic tests at his flat are continuing, while results from the post-mortem examination revealed that there were no indications of drug use.

But so far police are no closer to finding out exactly how Mr Williams died.

Det Chief Insp Jacqueline Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said: “I would appeal to anyone who may have seen or had contact with Gareth in the period between 11 and 23 August to come forward and speak with us.

“This remains a complex unexplained death inquiry.”

Last night, University of Buckingham security expert Professor Anthony Glees said: “In my own opinion, a murder of this kind bears all the hallmarks of a professional killing and not a rage attack.

“It looks increasingly to me that a hostile intelligence service was responsible.

“To me this looks like a Russian job – they have killed in London before – but it could also be an Iranian one.”

Daily Star : GARETH WILLIAMS: THE 'PERFECT MURDER'?

GARETH WILLIAMS: THE 'PERFECT MURDER'?

By Jerry Lawton | September 1, 2010

SPY Gareth Williams may have been the victim of the “perfect murder” by an expert assassin who used a martial arts death grip.

Police still have no idea how he died, nine days after his body was found stuffed inside a sports bag.

Pathologists are examining the MI6 agent’s neck to see if he could have suffered a “pressure blow” so subtle it did not show up during his post-mortem.

Medics believe it could explain how Gareth, 31, was apparently murdered without the culprit leaving any clue to the method.

There are no marks around his neck indicating he had been throttled. His body shows no signs of a struggle, or puncture marks to suggest he was injected with poison.

The post-mortem failed to determine how he died and detectives are so baffled they have still not been able to officially declare the case a murder.

They hope the results of toxicology tests on the body due later this week will shed some light on the mystery.

But a source told the Daily Star: “At the moment it looks like he was the victim of the perfect murder. There is an increasingly worrying possibility we may never know how he died.”

Detectives probing his background for clues have had their efforts blocked by the security services. Officers are tracing calls on a number of mobile phone SIM cards found at his Government flat in Pimlico, central London.

They are also checking big transactions involving Gareth’s bank accounts.

Daily Star : SPY PROBE FOR LINKS WITH GAY COMMUNITY

SPY PROBE FOR LINKS WITH GAY COMMUNITY

By Jerry Lawton | August 30, 2010

POLICE probing spy Gareth Williams’s bizarre death are trying to establish whether he was involved in the gay community.

Customers in a gay bar on the doorstep of MI6’s HQ said the 31-year-old maths genius was a regular visitor and “very sweet guy”.

Medical student Lemuel Miller said the spy had frequently visited trendy Barcode in Vauxhall, south London.

“I often saw Gareth here and spent an evening last summer chatting to him and a group of other guys,” he said.

“He was a very sweet guy. He was intelligent but never talked about his work.”

Fellow regular Matt Green, 38, a music producer, added: “He was shy but seemed comfortable here.”

But yesterday Gareth’s family insisted his reputation was being smeared to take the pressure off the security services.

And his uncle William Hughes said the secret agent, who had twice been to Afghanistan to crack the Taliban’s secret codes, had a girlfriend for the past year.

Mr Hughes said: “It never crossed our minds that he could be gay.”

Gareth was found dead in a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, London.

Detectives believe unlocking the mysteries surrounding his private life is ­vital in determining if his death was triggered by sex, money, or terrorism. But they have reportedly been frustrated by security chiefs blocking their inquiries “at every turn”.

Officers are also investigating Gareth’s bank accounts. Three sums of £2,000 were paid in and immediately withdrawn, the last time on the eve of his death, suggesting he was possibly being blackmailed.

Daily Star : DEAD SPY GARETH WILLIAMS LINKED TO RED ANNA

DEAD SPY GARETH WILLIAMS LINKED TO RED ANNA

By Scott Hesketh and Jonathan Corke | August 29, 2010

MURDERED spook Gareth Williams could have helped to nail Russian spy beauty Anna Chapman.

Detectives are looking into claims the MI6 code breaker was in the US when ­Chapman was uncovered in June.

And any evidence that he was ­involved in infiltrating ­Chapman’s spy ring will ­become part of the murder ­inquiry.

The bust prompted revenge calls from Russia.

However, investigators are meeting “resistance” from US and UK intelligence agencies.

Chapman, who once lived in the UK, was accused of trying to infiltrate America’s political elite and sending secrets to a handler via wi-fi on a laptop.

She was sent back to Russia last month after being arrested in the US.

Last night a high-level source told the Daily Star ­Sunday: “Mr Williams’ work in America is forming part of the inquiry.

“We need to know what he was working on during his ­visits there. MI6 and CIA code crackers played a vital part in outing Chapman and the ­Russian spy ring.

“Any evidence he did play a part will be treated as a ­possible motive for his killing.”

The insider also revealed how the discovery of Welshman ­Gareth’s mobile phone and a dozen SIM cards on his bed may have been a message from his killer.

“The way the SIM cards were found carefully placed next to the phone is of particular ­interest to detectives,” he said.

“Early indications are that it is some sort of message, ­someone saying, ‘I know who your contacts are and I’m ­coming for them’.”

Keen cyclist Gareth, 31, was found dead in his top-floor flat in ­Pimlico, west London.

His body had been stuffed into a bag and left in the bath. It was revealed last night that police referred to the crime as a “neat job”, a phrase which officers use to describe the work of a professional.

According to a source Mr ­Williams’ body was found ­during a “welfare check” by ­police following a call from one of his colleagues at GCHQ in Cheltenham.

Officers discovered a suitcase “seeping a red liquid” in his bath. Police say there was no evidence of a “sex game gone wrong”, bondage gear or gay porn in the flat, as has been claimed.

His distraught family slammed the whispers as a ­government “dirty tricks” ­campaign to blacken his name.

But we can reveal police ­visited a gay bar in London’s trendy Soho area in the wake of the grim discovery.

A source in the Admiral ­Duncan pub said: “I had a visit from a plain-clothed copper asking if we’d seen this man – and he showed me a picture of the lad on his bike.

“I asked him what it was about but he didn’t say much, just that he’d been found dead and they were investigating.”

Daily Star : SPY FOUND DEAD HAD LINKS WITH USA

SPY FOUND DEAD HAD LINKS WITH USA

By Jerry Lawton | August 28, 2010

THE CIA is probing the bizarre death of a real life James Bond after it emerged he had been on secret missions to the United States.

American intelligence officers are poring over MI6 spy Gareth Williams’ work to see if US national security has been compromised.

The 31-year-old code cracker flew to the National Security Agency, the listening post for the Pentagon, up to four times a year. He had returned from his latest trip only a week before he was found dead.

A Brit intelligence agency source said: “The Americans are as concerned as we are about what has happened.

“The police will understandably want to know details of everyone with whom he had recent contact.

“Discovering who was behind this is the key to determining if national security has been breached.’’

Mr Williams was found dead in a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, central London, on Monday.

Youth worker Raphael L’Hoste-Morton, 32, of Cheltenham, Glos, listed as living at the same London address and who reportedly worked at GCHQ, says any alleged links made between the pair were “purely coincidental” as he had never met Williams.

Daily Star : MI6 SPY MURDERED BY 'MATA HARI' HONEYTRAP ASSASSIN

MI6 SPY MURDERED BY 'MATA HARI' HONEYTRAP ASSASSIN

By Jerry Lawton, chief crime correspondent | August 27, 2010

A REAL-LIFE James Bond found murdered in his bath could have fallen prey to a modern day Mata Hari.

Police found a SIM card containing telephone numbers of escort agencies in the flat where 31-year-old spy Gareth Williams was discovered stuffed inside a giant sports bag.

Porn was also recovered from the £500,000 top floor apartment.

Mr Williams, an expert code-cracker, was within days of coming to the end of a year-long secondment to MI6 and returning to GCHQ in Cheltenham, Glos.

Intelligence experts are trying to locate his laptop and MP3 player. They fear he could have been targeted by enemy agents in a “honeytrap’’. They were last night trying to determine if state secrets could be in the wrong hands.

MI6 try to infiltrate foreign terror networks such as al-Qaida and monitor the Russian and Chinese underworld.

A senior intelligence source said: “It is a major concern that classified information Mr Williams may have been privy to could have leaked.

“Establishing if national security has been compromised is our immediate priority in light of his tragic death. Items discovered in the flat suggest there may have been a sexual element to this.”

Some reports, unconfirmed by police, suggested women’s clothes in Mr Williams’ size were discovered in the apartment in Pimlico, central London, suggesting he might have been a cross-dresser.

But detectives have not ruled out the possibility his killers may have placed items there. Last night police were trying to determine if he was strangled, suffocated or poisoned.

His dad Ian, a nuclear power plant worker, mum Ellen and sister Ceri arrived in London after breaking off a holiday in the US.

Childhood pal Dylan Parry, 34, feared his school friend was vulnerable because he was “so innocent”.

Mr Williams’s best friend Raphael L’Hoste-Morton, 32, a former GCHQ colleague who works for a youth group in Gloucester, denied they had had a sexual relationship.

Mr L’Hoste-Morton, who had been on foreign exchange trips with Mr Williams, was too upset to discuss the tragedy.

Daily Star : MI6 SPY STABBED TO DEATH AND STUFFED IN SPORTS BAG TO ROT

MI6 SPY STABBED TO DEATH AND STUFFED IN SPORTS BAG TO ROT

By Jerry Lawton | August 26, 2010

A REAL-LIFE James Bond found stabbed and stuffed in a sports bag at his flat could have been dead for up to two weeks.

The decomposing body of spy Gareth Williams was found in the holdall which had been put in a bath at his flat near MI6 HQ, London.

His mobile phone and several SIM cards had been laid out in a ritualistic manner in another room of the top floor apartment.

It is thought the block of flats where he lived was owned by a mysterious firm called New Rodina, which translates to motherland in Russian.

The expert code-breaker was employed by Government listening post GCHQ in Cheltenham, Glos. But he was working temporarily at the HQ of the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service, near his Pimlico flat.

Detectives believe his work for the organisation, which gathers secret information about Britain’s enemies abroad, would have made him a target for terrorists and rival spies.

Gareth’s former landlady Jenny Elliott, 71, a retired office worker who rented him a flat in Cheltenham from the late 1990s until a year ago, said he “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.

The Cambridge University student was due to move back on September 3.

Last night Gareth’s uncle William Hughes said the shocked family had “no idea” about his nephew’s life as a spy.

Speaking from Gareth’s home town of Holyhead, Anglesey, he said: “He’d never talk about his work and the family knew not to ask.”

Gareth, 31, lived in a street of £1million houses with former Tory leader Michael Howard, 69, and Sir Leon Brittan, 70, as near-neighbours.

According to the Land Registry, the spy’s home, divided into flats, is owned by New Rodina, registered in the British Virgin Islands so no details are kept at Companies House.

It was bought for £675,250 in 2000 with a Royal Bank of Scotland mortgage obtained via a law firm that no longer appears to exist.

Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command has launched a murder investigation.

Last night the street remained sealed off to all except residents.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “It is long-standing Government policy not to confirm or deny that any individual works for the intelligence agencies.”