Independent : MI6 spy Gareth Williams was ‘killed by Russia for refusing to become double agent’, former KGB man claims

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was ‘killed by Russia for refusing to become double agent’, former KGB man claims

Defector Boris Karpichkov claims Russia had a secret agent in GCHQ and Williams knew who it was

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith | September 28, 2015

The MI6 spy who was found dead in a padlocked holdall in his bath in Pimlico was “exterminated” by Russia’s SVR because he refused to become a double agent and knew the identity of a Russian spy working inside GCHQ, it has been claimed.

Codebreaker Gareth Williams was found dead at his home in 2010. He had been a cipher expert at GCHQ but was on secondment to MI6 when he died.

According to the coroner at the subsequent inquest, his death was likely a “criminally mediated” unlawful killing, though it was “unlikely” to be satisfactorily explained. Police investigating Williams’ death suggested he had died as the result of a sex game gone wrong.

But defector Boris Karpichkov, 56, claims intelligence sources in Russia have admitted the MI6 spy was killed by the SVR, the current incarnation of the country’s espionage agency, formerly known as the KGB.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Karpichkov claimed the SVR attempted to recruit Williams as a double agent, allegedly using details from the British cypher’s private life as leverage.

Police disclosed at the time of Williams’ death that he owned £15,000 worth of women’s designer clothing, a wig and make up. It had been suggested that Williams dressed as a woman outside of work, though a forensics expert has since said they believe the spy likely worked undercover as a woman.

Karpichkov, who is ex-KGB, claims the SVR threatened to reveal the Briton was a transvestite, before Williams in turn revealed he knew the identity of the person who had “tipped the Russians off” about him.

“The SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him in order to protect their agent inside GCHQ,” he alleged.

Karpichkov, who also lives in the Pimlico area, said he had seen Russian diplomatic cars in the area around the time of Williams’ death but had believed they had been sent to monitor himself. He claims to have not seen the cars since Williams died.

Karpichkov has also claimed that Williams was killed by an untraceable poison which was pushed into his ear using a needleless syringe.

At the time of the inquiry the coroner said that the involvement of intelligence services in Williams’ death remained a “legitimate line of inquiry” but stressed “there was no evidence to support that he died at the hands” of a government agency.

Whaat's New UK : Russia ‘has spy in GCHQ and body-in-bag MI6 victim Gareth Williams was killed to protect their identity’

Russia ‘has spy in GCHQ and body-in-bag MI6 victim Gareth Williams was killed to protect their identity’

Par Mirror - UK News | September 26, 2015

A Russian spy infiltrated into Britain’s top secret GCHQ base is passing secrets to Moscow, a former major in the KGB says.

Defector Boris Karpichkov claims to have has new evidence backing his dramatic claim that body-in-a-bag victim Gareth Williams was murdered because he knew the Russian mole’s identity.

Maths genius and GCHQ codebreaker Williams, 31, was found dead, padlocked inside a holdall in the bath at his London home in August 2010.

At the time of his death he was on secondment to MI6.

Karpichkov, 56, who by coincidence lived near Williams’ flat in Pimlico, south London, has been investigating the mysterious death ever since.

According to him, Moscow intelligence sources have confirmed that the Briton was murdered by the SVR, the KGB’s successor, after a blackmail attempt failed.

The Russians had hoped to ­recruit Williams as a double agent in an operation codenamed Sweetie.

Moscow agents had discovered the spy’s fondness for cross-dressing and were threatening to reveal his secret unkless he co-operated.

An inquest into his death heard that £20,000 worth of women’s clothing was found at his flat.

Karpichkov believes Williams signed his own death warrant by defying the blackmail attempt.

He told the Sunday People : “Williams did not break down when confronted.

“But he recklessly said he knew the person who had tipped the Russians off about him.

“The SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him in order to protect their agent inside GCHQ.”

The SVR had kept Williams under intensive surveillance to gather “compromising material” on him after their GCHQ mole alerted them that his private live activities while at the communications and intelligence base in Cheltenham made him ripe for recruitment.

Russian spymasters had ­already put Karpichkov under a death sentence after he escaped to Britain 17 years ago – carrying two suitcases full of secrets.

The ex-KGB man noticed Russian diplomatic cars loitering in the Pimlico area of London in the days leading up to Williams’ death and had made notes their numbers.

Mistakenly, he became convinced the Russian surveillance was aimed at him and that a hit squad was on its way to kill him.

Only after the death of Williams did he he realise the cars were actually there to monitor the MI6 operative.

Karpichkov recalled: “I had never seen those cars before – and I never saw them again.”

The ex-KGB man claims that Williams was killed by pushing a needleless syringe containing untraceable poison into his ear.

He was then bundled into the bag because his murderers could not dispose of the body.

Karpichkov says an SVR clean-up team later returned to William’s flat through a skylight and removed any remaining incriminating evidence.

Although the 2012 inquest said the death of Williams was “likely to have been criminally meditated” a subsequent police investigation came to the conclusion it was an accident.

They decided Williams had suffocated when a sex game went disastrously wrong.

Karpichkov believes different – and added: “As far as I know the mole is still operating inside GCHQ.”

There is a long history of British secrets being handed to Russia – often by UK traitors, writes Harriet Clugston.

Art expert Sir Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge Spy Ring, was exposed in 1979.

He may have recruited other spies, including Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

Double agent Kim Philby worked for the KGB and headed MI6’s anti-Soviet section. He defected in 1963.

Geoffrey Prime served 18 years in jail after spying for the Soviet Union while working at GCHQ in the 1970s.

Mirror : Russia 'has spy in GCHQ and body-in-bag MI6 victim Gareth Williams was killed to protect their identity'

Russia 'has spy in GCHQ and body-in-bag MI6 victim Gareth Williams was killed to protect their identity'

Defector and former KGB major Boris Karpichkov claims to have new evidence that the maths genius was murdered to protect Russia's mole

By Nigel Nelson | September 26, 2015

A Russian spy who infiltrated Britain's top secret GCHQ base is passing secrets to Moscow, a former major in the KGB says.

Defector Boris Karpichkov claims to have new evidence backing his dramatic claim that body-in-a-bag victim Gareth Williams was murdered because he knew the Russian mole's identity.

Maths genius and GCHQ codebreaker Williams, 31, was found dead, padlocked inside a holdall in the bath at his London home in August 2010.

At the time of his death he was on secondment to MI6.

Karpichkov, 56, who by coincidence lived near Williams' flat in Pimlico, south London, has been investigating the mysterious death ever since.

According to him, Moscow intelligence sources have confirmed that the Briton was murdered by the SVR, the KGB's successor, after a blackmail attempt failed.

The Russians had hoped to recruit Williams as a double agent in an operation codenamed Sweetie.

Moscow agents had discovered the spy's fondness for cross dressing and were threatening to reveal his secret unless he co-operated.

An inquest into his death heard how £20,000 worth of women's clothing was found at his flat.

Karpichkov believes Williams signed his own death warrant by defying the blackmail attempt.

He said: "Williams did not break down when confronted.

"But he recklessly said he knew the person who had tipped the Russians off about him.

"The SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him in order to protect their agent inside GCHQ."

The SVR had kept Williams under intensive surveillance to gather "compromising material" on him after their GCHQ mole alerted them that his private life activities while at the communications and intelligence base in Cheltenham made him ripe for recruitment.

Russian spymasters had already put Karpichkov under a death sentence after he escaped to Britain 17 years ago - carrying two suitcases full of secrets.

The ex-KGB man noticed Russian diplomatic cars loitering in the Pimlico area of London in the days leading up to Williams' death and had made notes of their numbers.

Mistakenly, he became convinced that the Russian surveillance was aimed at him and that a hit squad was on its way to kill him.

Only after the death of Williams did he he realise the cars were actually there to monitor the MI6 operative.

Karpichkov recalled: "I had never seen those cars before - and I never saw them again."

The ex-KGB man claims that Williams was killed by pushing a needleless syringe containing untraceable poison into his ear.

He was then bundled into the bag because his murderers could not dispose of the body.

Karpichkov says an SVR clean-up team later returned to Williams' flat through a skylight and removed any remaining incriminating evidence.

Although the 2012 inquest said the death of Williams was "likely to have been criminally meditated" a subsequent police investigation came to the conclusion it was an accident.

They decided Williams had suffocated when a sex game went disastrously wrong.

Karpichkov believes different - and added: "As far as I know the mole is still operating inside GCHQ."

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