Crime Library : Gareth Williams: The Dead Spy in The Sports Bag

Gareth Williams: The Dead Spy in The Sports Bag

By Bruce Gain | January 4, 2013

One of the first things police noticed on entering the London apartment of the missing man, was the smell of death, exacerbated by the sweltering temperature. It was the middle of August in 2010, and someone had turned up the heat and shut the windows.

The smell was coming from the bathroom, where a large sports bag lay in the tub. Inside the bag, which was locked from the outside, was the badly decomposed body of missing British MI6 spy Gareth Williams.

Investigators did not have much to go on. There were few traces of DNA in the apartment that did not belong to Williams and his family. A suspect would have to have had professional training to know how to enter and leave an apartment without leaving any fingerprints or DNA evidence. Since the body had had over a week to decompose in the sweltering apartment, determining whether he had been poisoned or had suffocated inside the bag was impossible. Traces of alcohol and the date rape drug GHB were found in his body, but according to coroner Dr. Fiona Wilcox, the decomposition process could have produced those chemicals naturally.

Lacking any fingerprints, investigators could not confirm whether someone had stuffed Williams into the bag or not. They speculated that Williams, with his expert spy training, had managed to crawl inside the bag and lock it himself, but the evidence was in conclusive. In fact, the mystery surrounding how Williams got into that bag is at the center of the case.

Police, however, suspected foul play. The mere fact that Williams was a spy aroused their suspicions. Investigators pondered the possibility that, because of his connections to M16 as well as other agencies, including the U.S.’s NSA (National Security Agency), Williams had been the victim of a professionally orchestrated hit.

Investigators also learned that Williams might have led a secret life, possibly involving cross-dressing and the S&M scene in London. Police naturally probed Williams’ private life and sexual interests, the behavior of Williams’ colleagues and superiors at MI6 in the wake of his death drew criticism. Most notably, they did not report him missing for a week. Intentionally or not, these errors committed during the course of the investigation wound up impeding it, leading many to conclude that at the very least MI6 knew more about the circumstances surrounding Williams’ death than the secretive organization was willing to reveal.

The Welsh Math Genius

British intelligence had made good use of Williams’ talents as a cryptologist and computer network expert. His intellectual aptitude became apparent while he was still growing up in Wales, where he excelled in school, and began taking university classes while still in high school. Williams graduated from Bangor University at the age of 17.

He got his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Manchester, and joined the UK Government Communications Headquarters in 2001. Few details were revealed about his role at the agency other than that he specialized in “applications of emerging technologies.”

Based in Cheltenham, Britain, at first, Williams spent his downtime pursuing his favorite activities: cycling and hiking. He then moved to the London flat where his body was found, and joined MI6’s operations. According to testimony from his family, however, Williams was not happy with his assignment in London: He did not like the hectic pace of city life, nor did he appreciate M16’s macho, cloak-and-dagger culture. He requested and was granted permission to transfer back to Cheltenham to take up his former post at GCHQ, and was scheduled to make the move just a few days after his death.

Court testimony also revealed that Williams was actively involved in gathering intelligence about terrorist activities, which he did by penetrating and monitoring computer and voice networks. Just a few weeks before his death, it was revealed that Williams was responsible for preventing a major jihadist attack on British soil.

According to the Daily Express, Williams intercepted phone calls that matched the voice prints of a terrorist database, composed of Al-Qaeda members and other terrorists. Williams would later travel to Afghanistan with members from the GCHQ and the U.S.’ NSA. It was uncovered that the terrorist group was preparing to launch a major attack against targets in Berlin, London, and Paris and planned to destroy cultural and historical landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Brandenburg Gate, and Buckingham Palace. The attack was reportedly thwarted by arrests, and by a U.S. drone strike that killed Abdul Jabbar, a Pakistan-born British national. According to the Daily Express, Williams was responsible for saving thousands of lives in Europe.

An S&M Connection?

Williams’ roll in saving lives while serving his country at M16 might have made him a hero, but that is not what the tabloid press chose to focus on. Instead, during the weeks and months after Williams’ body was found, much attention was paid to Williams’ private life, details of which were leaked to the British press.

By all accounts, Williams was very private; he kept mostly to himself, had few close friends and few people outside of his work knew him. However, there were some aspects of his life outside the agency that police theorized could have played a role in his death.

Besides his passion for cycling and hiking, William was a prodigious collector of women’s clothing. Police found over £20,000 worth of women’s apparel at his London flat, a major investment for Williams who earned hardly twice that much in a year. Investigators concluded that the clothing collection, most of which was not his size, reflected his personal interest in fashion itself, an interest he pursued by attending classes at a local fashion design institute in his free time.

Other details police uncovered about Williams’ private life prompted investigators to suspect that he may have been a transvestite, possibly involved with the local S&M bondage community. Witnesses reported seeing him, on occasion, at transvestite clubs and gay bars, according to the Daily Mail. Police found a video on one of his cell phones of him dancing naked, wearing only women’s boots. However, police never found evidence that Williams had gay relationships. In fact, they never found evidence that he had relationships of any kind, with women or men. His friends and relatives continued to insist that he was heterosexual.

One incident that lent credibility to the theory that Williams was interested in sexual bondage, came from his landlady. She told investigators that on one occasion, while renting a floor of her house, Williams had once cried to her out for help. She and her husband responded, discovering Williams tied to his bed, wearing only underwear. He explained that he was trying to see if he was able to free himself after being tied up. The landlady reported that she suspected Williams was seeking sexual thrills by tying himself up.

While there continues to be much speculation by police and the media that Williams was involved in a sexual stunt that resulted in his death, his family and friends think otherwise. Wilcox, who released her verdict in late 2012, cast further doubts that Williams was killed during a sexual misadventure.

If someone had entered the apartment without force, it indicated that Williams had let that person in, and that it was a colleague. Williams would have only trusted a colleague to enter the flat, which had served as housing for MI6 officers before Williams moved there.

Wilcox also questioned MI6’s intentions for mishandling the case. Suspicious were raised from the beginning, when the agency waited for over a week to alert police that Williams had not reported to work, despite the extremely sensitive nature of that work.

Other details smacked of a professional hit. The bag, for example, had been placed in the bathtub, which would have facilitated the draining of bodily fluids as the corpse decomposed. Turning up the heat in the apartment helped to speed decomposition, making it more difficult to determine cause of death.

MI6 found and removed USB memory sticks that Williams had, in violation of protocol, brought home from work. The agency, however, did not share the contents of the USB keys with police, citing security concerns. MI6 officials also did not communicate the possible reasons why Williams breached the agency’s security rules by taking classified data from the agency to his apartment in the first place.

An Elaborate Cover Up?

If the bizarre nature of his death was part of a setup staged by a professional from the intelligence community, it would almost certainly not be the first time such an incident occurred. Many M16 and other spies have turned up dead in the aftermath of what looked like embarrassing sexual encounters. According to the Daily Mail, there have been more than 17 deaths of British agents who have died under suspicious circumstances during the past 50 years. Of those deaths, a third died while engaging in what appeared to have been bizarre sexual acts. The motive in staging these sex scenes was to prevent investigators from discovering the truth, according to the Daily Mail.

In one incident in 1990, Jonathan Moyle, a British journalist and editor of Defence Helicopter World, was found dead in his hotel room in Chile, hanging naked in his closet with a pillowcase over his head. British officials initially claimed that he had asphyxiated himself as a way to heighten his pleasure during sex. He was officially in Chili to investigate an arms deal for his magazine, but years later, British intelligence divulged that the 3-year former RAF officer was actually working undercover for MI6 seeking intelligence about an arms deal between Chile and Iraq. It took an aggressive legal campaign spearheaded by the family against the British Secret Service before officials reluctantly agreed to apologize and acknowledged that Moyle was probably murdered.

British politician and former BBC newscaster Stephen Milligan also died under suspicious circumstances in 1994. Milligan, believed to have ties to the British intelligence community, was found dead in his London flat tied to a chair wearing only women’s leggings and suspenders. There was a cord wrapped around his neck and a bag over his head. Part of an orange was stuffed in his mouth. Despite the sexual implications of the circumstances, the true circumstances of Milligan’s death remain a mystery.

Many Questions, More Answers … And More Questions

In her official verdict, coroner Fiona Wilcox downplayed the possibility that Williams was killed during a sex encounter and said that his death was likely “criminally premeditated.” She also concluded that Williams was probably “killed unlawfully,” and while she did not have conclusive proof, the coroner also said that a member or members of the MI6 or GCHQ could have been involved.

Gareth Williams’ family remains adamant that MI6 at least knows more about his death than the agency’s members are willing to reveal. They have openly questioned how the rumors, that the family continues to deny, of the sordid details of Williams’ his private life could have been mysteriously leaked to the newspapers. The family claims that Williams has been the target of a smear campaign.

John Sawers, head of MI6 and GCHQ, offered a “profound apology” to Williams’ family for the delay in taking action after Williams was reported missing. However, MI6 officials have denied that his death was the result of the espionage-related “black arts.” Family members, however, remain unconvinced and are using legal channels to get the British secret service as well as the police to reveal more about what they may have uncovered about the case.

After the coroner concluded that Williams was killed and did not die by sexual misadventure, police at Scotland Yard stated that they have exhausted all of their leads, and that Williams ‘probably locked himself in holdall’ willingly, because they keys were found inside. Also a retired Army sergeant, William MacKay, demonstrated for police how Williams could have done it.

Police however continue to assure the public that they haven’t given up yet. So the mysterious death of Gareth William’s will most likely remain hot topic for 2013.

Independent : Curious case of a lack of curiosity over missing spy

Curious case of a lack of curiosity over missing spy

MI6's delay in noticing the disappearance of Gareth Williams means vital forensic evidence was lost

David Randall | April 29, 2012

All over the country, there are offices, schools, workshops, banks, pharmacies, IT departments and factories where the failure of a colleague to arrive at work and thus miss a scheduled meeting would arouse some immediate questions. Such as: "Where is he?"

But not at MI6, apparently. When Gareth Williams didn't turn up at the office on 16 August 2010, there was not so much, initially, as an attempt to track him down, an inquiry of his family, or even a casual: "Strange, not like old Gareth to go Awol."

Instead, within the Vauxhall Cross headquarters of these guardians of national security, there was a bewildering lack of curiosity about the whereabouts of this super-fit, "world-class" code-breaking mathematician who had been seconded to the service from GCHQ, Cheltenham, had just completed a course enabling him to carry out covert operations, was hardly ever late, never had a day off sick, and had a journey to work that was but 1.7 miles.

Life at MI6 went seamlessly on. Mr Williams's line manager, known as "G" when he gave evidence at the inquest last week, merely "had a gut feeling that he was away doing something I was unaware of" – an explanation which suggests absenteeism in the service might be somewhat higher than is generally realised. "G" did try his phone, and also later went round to Williams's flat to give a tentative ring on his doorbell. But one, two, three, four, five, six days went by before, finally, on the seventh, the official alarm was raised.

That day, police entered his flat, and there in the bathroom, they found a large, red, zipped and padlocked North Face sports bag. And inside it was a very dead Gareth Williams. He had probably been there at least a week, the last known sighting of him being on the CCTV of Harrods on the day before he was due back at work.

This mysterious delay in taking any concerted action – and thus the non-discovery of his body for fully seven days – continues to trouble his family greatly, and has proved crucial. Williams had lain, in a bathroom and inside a plastic bag, for a week in August. By the time he was found, his body had significantly decomposed, as had any reliable forensic evidence. If he was drugged or poisoned, we shall never know. One of his superiors, deploying a nice line in understatement as she gave evidence behind a screen, conceded: "I appreciate the delay had some impact on the police investigation."

Mystery number two is how did he get there? Despite an apparent passing interest (if web searches are anything to go by) in bondage and the sexual thrills of being in a confined space, it seems inconceivable he could have placed himself in the bag, then zipped and locked it unaided. Police gave evidence to this effect, as did two experts in Houdini-like matters who have tried a total of 400 times to replicate such a manoeuvre. Fit and supple young men of the same build as Mr Williams – a keen cyclist and climber – could get into the bag, but could not find a way of closing the zip.

Small specks of another person's DNA have been found on the bag, adding to the obvious conclusion by police that Gareth had an assistant – or an assassin. It also seems likely that he was dead or unconscious before he went into the bag. The coroner's court heard from Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire that he was in the foetal position, and there was no sign that he had scrabbled to get out. She said: "In my opinion he was very calm. His face was very calm. His hands were resting on his chest." There was no damage to the bag or his fingernails.

What on earth, then, went on inside the flat at the security services safe house at 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico, south-west London? The evidence suggests that, however upsetting it may be for his family, Mr Williams was a man of unusual tastes and habits. There were, in his apartment, female wigs, 26 shoes by designers including Stella McCartney and Christian Dior, a quantity of cosmetics and, in his bedroom, some £20,000 worth of designer women's clothes.

He was a frequent visitor to couture websites, and, the inquest heard, a regular browser and sometime purchaser at Dover Street Market – an edgy emporium in west London which carries a large range of designer clothes. Carol Kirton, who works there, said he regularly shopped in the store, saying the items were for his girlfriend.

This extensive and costly wardrobe was raised in court with a female friend, Sian Jones. She told the inquest she did not think he was a transvestite. "I feel he would have been able to confide in me ... and I would not have judged him." She said she saw him every few days and he "showered" her with gifts. Another friend, Elizabeth Guthrie, suggested the clothes might have been "Gareth's attempt at a support strategy for someone. They certainly would not have been for him".

The wigs were kept neat in netting; none of the cosmetics had been used, and many of the clothes – and they were of varying sizes, the inquest heard – were kept pristine in tissue. They may indeed have been a store of gifts for as-yet unidentified girlfriends, but there could be another interpretation. After all, if the hoard was not the collection of a fetishist, it was a very good imitation of it.

Could this be connected to his death? The bathroom was evidently a venue for at least one sexual climax for Mr Williams, traces of his semen were found on its floor. Did he have some companion in sexual, or pseudo-sexual, meanderings which involved being put into a confined space such as a sports bag?

This would not have been the first time some bedroom escapade had gone wrong. When he was working at GCHQ his home was in an annex let out by a Mr and Mrs Elliot, who lived in the adjoining house. One night, the couple heard Gareth's cries for help, and went to investigate. "We went upstairs and found him lying on the bed with both hands tied with material attached to the headboard," said Jennifer Elliot's written statement. She said that he explained how he had tied himself up as an experiment, but she wrote that she and her husband thought it "more likely to be sexual than escapology".

Mr Williams's career and its particular path are clearly a complicating context to the mystery of a brilliant man who served his country. His sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest: "He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office. The job was not quite what he expected. He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with."

Six months before his death he had completed an intensive course which would allow him to undertake what were described to the court as very tough operational tasks. But, according to his boss, he had applied for his three-year secondment at MI6 to be cut short – a request that was granted. There are also the unauthorised searches he made of security service databases about which the inquest heard. This was not, it seems, a settled man.

Neither police nor security services say they have reason to believe that his death was connected to his work for MI6. And, if any practitioner of "the dark arts" – as the lawyer for his understandably still-distressed family put it – wanted to kill him, surely it would have been a road "accident" while he was out cycling, an assignation on a bridge that would have ended with him "falling" into the Thames, or a simple bullet to the head? But not a modus operandi so outré that it would keep the media panting for an answer 20 months later.

The inquest continues this week. The mystery of how exactly Gareth Williams died, one fears, will go on much longer.

Remarkable coincidence?

Whatever the truth in the case of Gareth Williams, details of women's underwear and cross-dressing regularly emerge in the "presentation" of the deaths of intelligence agents.

Nicholas Anderson, former MI6 officer turned author, told The Independent on Sunday: "I am on verbal record to my own family, close friends and select lawyers that if anything ever happened to me – a straight man and a positive thinker – it would likely be made to look either like a suicide or that I died dressed like a woman.

"Over the years, it seems to me a favourite way of presentation. I, of course, am not suicidal in any remote way nor do I like to dress so. When I read in the press about Gareth Williams, women's clothes, and a wig, it all fits the usual scenario."

The IoS has come across at least 17 mysterious deaths – some dubbed suicides, others freak accidents – of MI6 agents, workers at GCHQ, or those linked to the defence or intelligence services over the past 50 years. Sexual overtones, asphyxia, or both, feature in a third of cases, and they are just the ones that are in the public domain and "open source", as spooks would say.

Stephen Drinkwater, 25, a clerk employed in a department at GCHQ where highly classified documents were copied, was found dead in his parents' house at Cheltenham in September 1983. A plastic bag was over his head and he had died from asphyxiation.

In March 1990, British journalist Jonathan Moyle, 28, who had been investigating claims that US civilian helicopters were to be converted into gunships for sale to Iraq, was found hanged inside a hotel wardrobe in Santiago, Chile. Eight years later, an inquest concluded that he had been "unlawfully killed" by a "person or persons unknown". Speaking in September 2010, his former fiancée said: "The British intelligence services tried to smear Jonathan suggesting he was sexually deviant."

Four years later, in February 1994, Conservative MP Stephen Milligan, 45, was found tied to a chair wearing women's underwear and with a bag over his head and a satsuma stuffed into his mouth. He was the parliamentary private secretary to the then defence minister Jonathan Aitken. Mr Aitken has since denied media reports that he also worked for MI6.

The same month that Mr Milligan's body was discovered, James Rusbridger, 65, ex-MI6 agent turned journalist, was found hanged at his house on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. He was dressed in a green protective suit, green overalls, a black plastic mackintosh and thick rubber gloves. His face was covered by a gas mask and his body was surrounded by bondage pictures. Consultant pathologist Dr Yasai Sivathondan said he died from asphyxia due to hanging "in keeping with a form of sexual strangulation".

In another case, an inquest in July 1997 heard how GCHQ worker Nicholas Husband, 46, was found dead wearing women's clothing after a bizarre sex ritual. Mr Husband, from Tewkesbury, had a plastic bag over his face and was wearing a nightie and a bra. He was found dead after he failed to show up for work in December 1996.

In March 1999, Kevin Allen, a 31-year-old linguist at GCHQ, was found dead in bed by his father at his home in Cheltenham. He had a plastic bag over his head and a dust mask over his mouth. An post-mortem revealed that death was due to asphyxiation.

Jonathan Owen