Daily Record : Intelligence expert Crispin Black on why sex games feature in so many spy deaths

Intelligence expert Crispin Black on why sex games feature in so many spy deaths

By Crispin Black | former government intelligence adviser | May 5, 2012

SITTING at the Gareth Williams inquest this week, listening to the more lurid details of the case, it occurred to me the death of spooks in bizarre circumstances involving sex games or women’s clothing is hardly an unusual event.

Disposing of an enemy and making it look like a perverted fantasy gone wrong is in the training manuals of every spy agency from MI6 to Mossad.

Codebreaker Gareth, from Anglesey, north Wales, was found dead in a locked bag, in a flat full of women’s clothing and wigs and with his internet browsing history conveniently featuring bondage sites, sparking a flurry of allegations which horrified his parents.

But the fact the 31-year-old’s death scene was organised in such a way as to suggest a sex game gone wrong should make us more suspicious, not less.

The sex game cover is a very useful mechanism in a murder. Not only does it provide a disguise for the actual means and method of death, it trashes the reputation of the victim and blunts the energy of any subsequent investigation.

And it appears to explain the astonishing number of spies, and other people who step into their murky world, who turn up dead in circumstances similar to Gareth.

Take GCHQ personnel for instance, those that work at the vast electronic doughnut in Cheltenham that is responsible for intercepting and decoding secret electronic traffic of interest to Her Majesty’s Government. And Gareth’s ultimate employer.

In 1983, 25-year-old Stephen Drinkwater, who worked as a clerk at GCHQ, was found dead at his home with a plastic bag over his head. In 1997 another worker, Nicholas Husband, 46, was found dead at home dressed in a bra and panties – with a plastic bag over his head.

Two years later, Kevin Allen, 31, a language expert at GCHQ, was found dead in his bed with a plastic bag over his head and a dust mask over his mouth. One wonders what the Gloucestershire Constabulary make of it all.

To be fair, the kind of higher mathematical ability that many GCHQ codebreakers have is rare and it sometimes comes with some personal eccentricities attached.

Alan Turing, the Cambridge academic and founder of modern computer science who became the greatest of the wartime Bletchley Park codebreakers was a distinctly odd fish – a loner with sexual hang-ups who seemed to spend most of his waking hours dreaming of obscure mathematical theorems.

The point was amusingly made in 60s film The Italian Job in which Charlie Croker, played by Michael Caine, recruits computer genius Professor Simon Peach – Benny Hill – to pull off a daring bullion robbery.

But the whole scheme nearly comes unstuck as Prof Peach is unable to control his powerful urges towards large women. MI6, who recruit a more worldly-wise type than the boffins of GCHQ, have not been immune.

In 1994 ex-MI6 man turned journalist James Rusbridger, 65, was found hanged at his house in Cornwall – in a green chemical protection suit including rubber gloves, gas mask and black plastic mackintosh. Bondage pictures completed the tableau.

And of course, according to the pathologist, it turned out he probably did it himself as part of a sex game.

The same year Stephen Milligan, the Tory MP for Eastleigh, was found dead with electrical flex tied round his neck, a black bin liner over his head and wearing stockings and suspenders.

The 45-year-old was also tied to a chair and had a satsuma stuffed into his mouth.

His boss at the time, then junior defence minister Jonathan Aitken, has since denied suggestions Milligan had links to MI6.

Even if you are not a spook you need to be careful. In 1990, ex-RAF helicopter pilot and editor of Defence Helicopter World Jonathan Moyle, 28, was found hanged in the wardrobe of his hotel in Chile with a pillow case over his head.

At the time his demise was widely thought to be an auto-erotic accident. He was in fact almost certainly murdered after uncovering links between Chilean arms dealers and Saddam Hussein.

The last person to give evidence at the Gareth Williams inquest was Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire – the senior investigating officer in the case.

She stated confidently that she was sure she and her team would be able to unlock the mystery in the end. But she also felt that this, her final appearance in court, was an appropriate time to remind the assembled audience of Williams’s internet browsing habits.

The last website he accessed probably just a few hours before his death was connected to cycling – a photo of him competing in a cross-country cycling race has been seen frequently in the national newspapers.

But then she went on to deal with the browsing information that had been made much of in the media over the last 20 months. Williams had accessed bondage websites on four days over a two-year period.

He had never accessed so-called “claustrophilia” sites which cater for people who get a thrill out of being confined in small spaces.

There we have it – the view of the woman in charge of the probe. Williams may have had a passing interest in bondage but no more than that. Even this passing interest may have a perfectly innocent explanation.

All MI6 officers get extensive training before they are allowed out on to the streets. Much of this takes place at Fort Monckton near Gosport in Hampshire – a Napoleonic era fortress surrounded by barbed wire and accessible only by a drawbridge.

It includes instruction in basic entry and exit procedures – buildings and cars mainly. If you ever get locked out of your flat and know a friendly spook from school or university give them a ring.

They should be able to get you back inside and could save you a fortune on locksmith’s fees. The instruction also includes some counter-surveillance techniques – how to make sure you are not followed.

And instruction on what to do if you fall into the wrong hands – resistance to interrogation and crucially, what to do if you are restrained – tied or chained up.

It is possible Williams had some of this training and it might well account for the episode when he was discovered tied up in his room by his landlady.

That the sex game angle was a simple smear is a view certainly not ruled out by the Westminster coroner who said, “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry” Gareth died at the hands of MI6.

In her narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I am sure a third party placed the bag into the bath and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag.

The cause of death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated. I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities Gareth was killed unlawfully.”

I was impressed by Dr Wilcox. She had good judgment and wisdom as can be seen from her verdict in the case. She played down the bondage question and the interest in female fashion – Williams had an expensive collection of women’s clothing nearly all of it unworn and most of it not in his size.

She seemed to accept the view of Williams’s sister that these were a store of presents for his female acquaintances. Dr Wilcox pretty much dismissed the idea of any sexual component in his death.

Sadly that is the aspect many people will remember. Well, these kinky games with yourself or other people go wrong – what can you expect – becomes the prevailing attitude.

Occasionally the dark arts of postmortem reputation trashing are employed in a good cause and based on hard facts rather than a set-up.

The strange and squalid habits of Osama bin Laden before his death have been used to great effect by the US to make him a laughing stock.

Crispin Black’s espionage thriller The Falklands Intercept is published by Gibson Square on June 19.

Global Post : UK coroner criticizes MI6 over death of Gareth Williams, spy found naked and dead in a bag

UK coroner criticizes MI6 over death of Gareth Williams, spy found naked and dead in a bag

A UK coroner has concluded that Gareth Williams, the British spy whose naked body was found padlocked in a bag in his bathtub, was probably unlawfully killed.

May 3, 2012

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said she was sure a third party locked the code-breaker inside the red holdall in which his naked body was found in his bathtub.

Police strongly suspect a member of MI6 or GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) was in his flat the day he died and will take DNA samples from up to 50 of his colleagues, the Daily Mail reported.

Wilcox said he was probably killed and it "remained a legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services may have been involved in the death.

She had earlier said there was not enough evidence to deliver a formal unlawful killing verdict.

The verdict was highly critical of the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism branch and MI6, The Guardian reported.

Wilcox severely criticized Williams's employers at MI6 who failed to report him missing for seven days when he did not turn up for work.

She said she could "only speculate as to what effect this [delay] had on the investigation."

The head of the intelligence service, meantime, made an unreserved apology to Williams's family over the delay in reporting him missing and the subsequent anguish it caused.

The BBC cited intelligence expert Crispin Black as saying that a cover-up by British secret services could not be ruled out.

"There's a possibility there's been some sort of clean-up by MI6 — that's a clear possibility," said Black, an intelligence analyst and former advisor to the UK government.

"One thing I'm pretty sure of, and I think others will be too, is that the police are unlikely to have been the first people around to that flat."

The 21-month investigation into Williams' death has yet to yield a suspect.

Forensic experts are hoping for a breakthrough from DNA tests on a green towel discovered in his kitchen.

The Week : Spy-in-bag death can be solved if police are allowed to do their job

Spy-in-bag death can be solved if police are allowed to do their job

Crispin Black | May 2, 2012

THE WESTMINSTER Coroner investigating the death of GCHQ mathematician Gareth Williams in 2010 has delivered a narrative verdict after listening to the evidence of 39 witnesses over seven days. This means that the circumstances of a death are recorded without attributing the cause to a named individual. But it’s a narrative verdict with a twist. She has made it clear that she believes that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ Gareth Williams was unlawfully killed.

She has shown both ingenuity and common sense in framing her formal verdict in this way. But it’s not a surprise. It was clear from the outset that Madam Coroner suspected foul play - she referred in court to the police investigation a number of times as a "Category A Murder Investigation". Technically, it is only an investigation into a ‘suspicious death’.

Towards the end of the process, her own dissatisfaction with the police investigation became abundantly clear. In an electrifying moment mid-afternoon yesterday she snapped. Visibly wearying of the answers of Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, the counter-terrorism officer acting as liaison between MI6 and the police investigation, she suggested angrily that he had not been "totally impartial".

He was coming to the end of a rough hour or so in the witness box trying to explain why he hadn't passed nine memory sticks found in Gareth Williams's locker at MI6 to Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the detective in charge of the investigation.

The spooks had apparently assured him they were not relevant.

He hadn't seen fit to mention to anyone that a black North Face holdall similar to the one in which Williams was found dead had been found beneath his desk at Vauxhall Cross. It didn't help that Broster's account of the search of the locker didn't seem to tally with the account given earlier in the day by an equally evasive and unimpressive subordinate who had assisted him.

Broster's uncomfortable experience in the witness box - he looked absolutely furious as he left the building - made embarrassingly clear the shortcomings in the police investigation.

Because DCI Sebire and her team do not have the security clearances to deal with Top Secret matters of national security, they have not been allowed to enter MI6 HQ or question any of Gareth Williams's colleagues at either GCHQ or MI6. These aspects of the investigation have been undertaken by officers from Counter Terrorism Command like Broster who have been security vetted.

Quite why Sebire and her team can't be put through the 'developed vetting' procedure isn't clear. It does not take that long and she and her team have been on the case for 20 months now. The absurdity of this was underlined in court on Tuesday.

When Williams's overall boss at MI6 'Witness D' gave evidence, it was entirely proper that he did so from behind a screen. He is a spook and therefore his identity should be protected. The Coroner, the family and the lawyers could all see him face to face but court officials and journalists could not. We could hear the questions and answers but not see anything. Sitting with us also unable to see anything was DCI Sebire. One wonders what she made of Witness D's evidence. His memory didn't seem to be too good - unusual in a spook.

‘Witness G’, Williams’s immediate superior, also giving evidence from behind a screen earlier in the inquest – failed to impress. In her summing up the Coroner described his evidence as beginning ‘to stretch bounds of credibility’.

This is much more serious than just a slightly unwieldy protocol to protect national security. It is hard not to conclude that MI6 is being protected in some way from a proper investigation. Sebire hasn't been able to interview any spooks and she has had to rely on the judgment of others about physical evidence.

As the Coroner said to Broster, "Don't you think the murder inquiry and those responsible for it should have been investigating that evidence and not the person providing the evidence to you?" The Coroner's implication was clear and you could see the penny dropping with Broster as she said it. A few minutes later under heavily sarcastic questioning from Anthony O'Toole, the lawyer for the Williams family, he let slip: "I am not saying a member of SIS is not involved, I don't know."

Although I greatly admire the way Fiona Wilcox has conducted the inquest I don't agree with her pessimistic summing up that it is "unlikely" that Gareth Williams's death "will ever be satisfactorily explained". The answer is out there somewhere.

The way the police investigation has been conducted does not command public confidence and as currently organised seems unlikely to unravel the mystery. DCI Sebire, who has been convinced all along that "a third party was involved" has clearly done her best in difficult circumstances, but a whole avenue of investigation dealing with Williams's work colleagues has been deliberately closed off to her. As she made clear throughout the inquest she is convinced she can unravel the mystery. Let her do her job.

The Week : Death of a GCHQ code-breaker: no wonder his family smell a rat

Death of a GCHQ code-breaker: no wonder his family smell a rat

Gareth Williams's family are right – this has always looked like the work of a meticulous professional killer

Crispin Black | April 2, 2012

THE pre-inquest review held in London last week into the mysterious death of the GCHQ code-breaker Gareth Williams, whose body was found in a locked holdall in his Pimlico flat in August 2010, has thrown up a number of new and surprising twists.

The most startling is that the single unexplained DNA sample recovered from Williams's hand and which the police felt was a significant lead for nearly 18 months turns out to come from one of the forensic scientists who attended the scene – a labelling cock-up by the forensic laboratory, apparently.

The lawyer representing Williams's family, Anthony O'Toole, also suggested that there were no signs of covert entry into the flat but an expert despatched to examine the door discovered that it had already been removed from its frame, complete with locks.

No wonder the family are smelling a rat. They like just about everyone else reject the Houdiniesque theory that Williams somehow locked himself into the small holdall and are convinced that a third party must have been present in the flat even though no unexplained DNA or fingerprints have been discovered.

O'Toole put it this way on the family's behalf: "The impression of the family is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services – or evidence has been removed post-mortem by experts in the dark arts."

The Williams family's instincts look spot on. It has always looked like a professional affair: people with experience in "wet jobs" - the KGB slang for murder and assassination - either working for a foreign intelligence agency or a criminal enterprise.

Getting into someone's house to have a look around and then getting out again without leaving any trace is much more difficult than the Bond films would have us believe. It requires long training and then meticulous attention to detail, invariably against the clock.

Unless the individual or team is very skilled they will usually leave some small sign of their presence – a book placed back on a shelf out of order or some tiny forensic trace like a hair or a piece of dried skin. Killing someone without leaving any tracks is even more difficult. That forensic and other evidence may eventually lead the police nowhere is a fact of life. That there is no forensic evidence at the scene at all suggests a high level of skill and coolness of mind by the perpetrators.

In the Williams case, truth seems stranger than fiction. But we can glean some clues from the world of fiction - in particular the locked room or impossible-crime detective story. Out of fashion these days, it was once all the rage. Conan Doyle's only specimen, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, is consistently voted the best of all the Sherlock Holmes stories and Agatha Christie's And Then there Were None is the best-selling detective novel ever.

The key to both tales and indeed all impossible-crime cases in a locked room is that however complicated, bizarre and unlikely the circumstances, the explanation is always simple. In some way the room was not locked at all. The most popular tricks are secret passages or sliding panels or a poison administered earlier. A less common device but one found in a number of golden age novels and short stories is the "unhinging and rehinging of a door or windows". Quite.

We may never know how Gareth Williams died. But we do know about the leisurely pace and Janet and John blunders of the investigation so far. More energy is required – perhaps the full inquest which starts on 23 April will kick-start the process.

Mirror : Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

Was body-in-the-bag spy betrayed by a double agent? Mole theory over MI6 codebreaker's death

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

March 10, 2012

In a throwback to the dark days of the Cold War, a worrying theory has emerged about the death of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams

The expert codebreaker’s decomposing body was found locked in a large sportsbag in the bath of his London flat in 2010.

There were no obvious signs of how he died or who was responsible – with many claiming a “wall of silence” surrounding his death points to a cover-up at the very heart of the British establishment.

And now it has been revealed Gareth may have been betrayed by a British double agent.

Security bosses are trying to establish if a mole somewhere within intelligence revealed his identity to foreign assassins.

The brilliant mathematician, 31, was working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and would have been a high value target – vital in producing hi-tech defences to prevent cyber attacks on our most secret government departments.

He was one of only a handful of spies launching effective counter attacks to stop enemy hackers infiltrating British networks.

Williams had been seconded from the top-secret Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham to MI6 in the capital.

He was making clandestine visits to Washington to team up with US espionage agents and share intelligence in operations to fend off hostile hacking infiltrations by Russia and China.

Eighteen months after his bizarre death, investigators are still piecing together his every move to try to get information which could lead them back to a British double agent.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, refuses to rule out the possibility that British national security has been breached by the death.

He said: “Reassurance can only be given if it’s based on some new information, and only those who have the skills and the responsibility to carry out such an investigation can take that forward. There have been exhaustive inquiries but they have been unable to reach a conclusion.”

North Wales-born Williams’s parents, Ian and Ellen, hope more will be revealed when a full inquest is opened next month.

They have been told by MI6 chiefs not to talk about his death, while police and security officers have also remained tight-lipped – fuelling speculation the British establishment does not want to reveal what happened to one of its most valued agents.

It was 4.40pm on August 23, 2010, when his naked, contorted body was found by police, zipped and padlocked in a red, 140-litre-capacity North Face hold-all in the bath of his top-floor apartment owned by MI6.

There were no signs of a struggle within flat 4, Alderney Street, Pimlico, less than a mile away from MI6’s HQ, across Vauxhall Bridge.

The key to the bag’s Yale lock was in the hold-all and police said forensic tests showed at least one other person was involved but have not been able to prove it was murder and do not think he killed himself.

Williams, a 9st cycling enthusiast, had not showed up at work for days when an officer went to the flat. Police said he probably died eight days earlier – just weeks after a man and woman of Mediterranean appearance had called at his flat.

Mystery also surrounds a break-in at the flat in the months before – while more twists and turns in the story led to lurid tales about his private life.

One claimed he was a transvestite who police thought may have been murdered by a gay lover.

And the most extreme claim was that he may have died in an auto-erotic asphyxiation sex game gone wrong.

Police also revealed he had £15,000 worth of unworn women’s designer clothing, shoes and wigs in his flat, but his friends believe many of these stories were planted to cloud the investigation.

Crispin Black, an intelligence analyst and former adviser to the Government, says the most likely explanation is that Williams was murdered.

“The thing has a professional air – it’s neat, it’s tidy, it’s organised,” he said.

“A bath is where you put things if you don’t want any forensic residue to be left behind – because you know where the body’s been and you can clear up after it.”

The fact the body was found locked in a holdall, with the key inside, provides the strongest indication he was executed by a foreign death squad.

Investigators believe the team were so expert at their deadly trade, they left no obvious signs of the cause of death.

A security source said: “This has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored assassination. If you’ve got a problem with your codes being broken, the only solution is to remove the codebreaker.

"They’re incredibly hard to replace because they are recruited for having the sharpest mathematical brains.

"There’s always suspicion about the Russians because in many ways the Cold War never completely ended.”

The possibility of a British intelligence mole has to be a huge worry for national security.

Professor Anthony Glees, director of security and intelligence studies at the independent University of Buckingham, said: “Sir Malcolm himself says he could not give the public reassurance that national security had not been breached by Gareth Williams’s death.

"I think we need an answer, especially in light of the fact that this year, with the Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we are clearly a target.

“It’s a possibility that there is a spy and that someone betrayed Gareth Williams.

"It’s by no means unthinkable he was targeted by intelligence officials from other countries who believed he was targeting them.”

The police have not spoken publicly about the death for a year.

And Williams family friend Trefor Lloyd Hughes, 64, said: “I have no doubt some higher influences will be involved here which may stop certain information from getting through, but the family need peace.”

Even before his secondment to MI6, his work in signals intelligence at GCHQ would have put him on the front line in the international cyber war, helping to combat insurgent bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Codebreakers, phone and radio interceptors and internet experts fight the triple threat of terrorism, espionage and organised crime.

At Williams’s funeral at the windswept Bethel Chapel in Holyhead, Anglesey, his family were consoled by MI6 chief Sir John Sawyers, who said: “Gareth did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security.”

Back in Anglesey, those who knew Gareth Williams would no doubt like to know if it was that cause which he ended up giving his life for.

BBC : VIDEO: Questions over MI6 worker Gareth Williams' death

Questions over MI6 worker Gareth Williams' death

BBC | April 5, 2011

Fresh questions are being asked about the police investigation into the death of MI6 worker Gareth Williams.

The body of Mr Williams, from Holyhead, Anglesey, was found in a locked bag in a bath at his London falt last August.

Police revealed he had £15,000 of designer women's clothes in the flat but close friend Sian Lloyd-Jones denies speculation Mr Williams was gay and wants police to broaden their inquiry.

Iolo ap Dafydd reports.

VIDEO including Sian Lloyd-Jones and Crispin Black at the link

BBC : Gareth Williams MI6 death: police inquiry questioned

Gareth Williams MI6 death: police inquiry questioned

By Iolo ap Dafydd | BBC Wales correspondent | April 5, 2011

A close friend of MI6 worker Gareth Williams whose body was found in a locked bag in a bath has questioned suggestions his death was linked to his private life.

The body of the code-breaker, from Holyhead on Anglesey, was found in his London flat in August.

Police revealed he had £15,000 of designer women's clothes in the flat.

But Sian Lloyd-Jones denies speculation he was gay and wants police to broaden their inquiry.

Detectives say the key to the mystery lies in Mr Williams' private life.

Press speculation has centred on him dying during a "bizarre sex game gone wrong".

That speculation was fuelled last December when police revealed Mr Williams had the women's clothes and that he had visited a drag show at a cabaret club; that he was allegedly seen at a gay bar; and that had "limited" access to bondage sites on his mobile.

But an investigation by BBC Wales raises questions about the police investigation, and asks if the key to his death really does lie in his private life.

His close friend Sian Lloyd-Jones, told Week In Week Out: "I think it's really important here for everything to be investigated - absolutely everything. I think it's about time now that the investigation is broadened.

"I feel the police did wrong around Christmas time when they released information about the clothing, but didn't reveal that there was £10,000 of mountaineering equipment as well."

Ms Lloyd-Jones denies suggestions Mr Williams was gay or a cross-dresser, saying the women's clothes were too small for him, and were probably intended for her, or his sister, Ceri.

"The things that have been in the papers have been so hurtful. To read what has been written about him has completely broken my heart, and I know it would have broken Gareth's as well," she said.

Police still don't know how Mr Williams died, and are calling his death "unexplained and suspicious".

But Crispin Black, an intelligence analyst and former advisor to the government, says the most likely explanation is that Mr Williams was murdered.

"The thing has a professional air: it's neat, it's tidy, it's organised," he said.

"A bath is where you put things if you don't want any forensic residue to be left behind. Because you know where the body's been and you can clear up after it."

Mr Black also questions the ability of the investigating police to do their job properly.

Murder squad detectives have to interview Mr Williams's former colleagues at the Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6) and GCHQ, the agency in Cheltenham which provides intelligence and information for the government through another team of officers from counter-terrorism.

"One of the weaknesses of the investigation, is the murder squad are interviewing friends, or colleagues, at one remove," said Mr Black.

"Interrogation, even of completely innocent people, relies on nuance, checking the story over and over again, and eye contact.

"That's how policemen decide if you're telling the truth, or not. Even if interviewing colleagues to rule them out, it should be done by the people in charge of the investigation - not somebody else,."

Week In Week Out has also uncovered new information relating to a mystery couple detectives want to find.

Police are still trying to trace a couple of "Mediterranean appearance" who visited Mr Williams' London flat a month or two before his death and had a key to the property.

The Metropolitan Police wasn't prepared to discuss that but insists it's looked into all aspects of his life, and has received full co-operation from the intelligence agencies.

As yet there's still no date set for an inquest, when the full circumstances of Gareth Williams death may eventually be explained.

The First Post : MI6 man ‘locked himself in his holdall’. Oh yes?

MI6 man ‘locked himself in his holdall’. Oh yes?

Latest theory about the death of Gareth Williams is preposterous, say security experts

By Jack Bremer | September 20, 2010

National security experts reached by The First Post last night have reacted with a mixture of astonishment, ridicule and suspicion to the idea that Gareth Williams, the MI6 agent found dead in a London flat last month, padlocked himself in a zip-up holdall in search of a sexual thrill and then suffocated because he couldn't get out again.

"With all due respect to Williams and his family, I haven't stopped laughing since I read the paper at breakfast," one former agent said. "It's more than unlikely - it's preposterous."

The hypothesis was reported by the Sunday Times, quoting anonymous "security sources".

The paper claimed police had established that Williams, a single man, had a record of engaging in autoerotic practices, and that the greatest likelihood was that he had died as result of an experiment going wrong.

According to the Sunday Times' source, police recently invited an escapologist to show them whether it was possible to lock oneself in a holdall and get out again. The escapologist duly climbed into the bag, padlocked it from the inside and then unzipped it using a sharp-tipped pen.

Convinced by this - and without addressing whether a 31-year-old codebreaker would necessarily have the skills honed over the years by a seasoned escapologist - the police were apparently persuaded that Williams must have got into the bag and then suffocated in the August heat before he could release himself.

"The emerging background is something almost certainly autoerotic," a "senior official" told the paper.

The "emerging background", to coin a phrase, for those observing this case unfold, is that the police are at a total loss as to how Williams died.

This is either because forensics are revealing nothing - it is possible he was murdered by an enemy using undetectable poison, for instance - or because someone somewhere has succeeded in throwing the police off the scent.

According to The First Post's security sources, there are good reasons why government agencies might want this investigation to "go away". These include the possibility that what Williams was working on - and what might have led to his murder - is simply too sensitive to be allowed to go public. It is also possible that his employers slipped up in some respect.

One security consultant who spoke anonymously to The First Post said he had been surprised from the start at the considerable delay - at least a week, longer according to some reports - before anyone was alerted to Williams's absence.

This did not tally with our source's experience of working for British intelligence: he said the slightest hiccup in established routine would bring instant inquiries.

Another source was puzzled by the differing messages being leaked - mainly to the Sunday Times - by those claiming to be close to the investigation. "One minute we're looking for a suspicious couple of Mediterranean appearance, the next we're being told he could have been poisoned by polonium-210 like Alexander Litvinenko - now we're expected to believe that he locked himself in a suitcase."

The facts are that Gareth Williams was a GCHQ codebreaker on secondment to MI6, where his work made him privy to highly classified anti-terrorism material. On August 23, at least a week after he had last been seen, his body was found in a North Face holdall in the bath at his top-floor apartment in Pimlico, a short walk from MI6 headquarters.

Yes, there are instances of auto-asphyxiation fetishists accidentally killing themselves. But invariably these cases involve hanging, not climbing into airtight suitcases.

As Crispin Black wrote for The First Post a week ago, the discovery of Gareth Williams's corpse bore all the hallmarks of a murder by someone who had killed before.

The perpetrator had prepared the victim for transport, put the bag in the bath where any final traces of the crime could most easily be washed away, and was then presumably interrupted before being able to remove the body for disposal.

The First Post : MI6 murder mystery: how the spy got into the bath

MI6 murder mystery: how the spy got into the bath

Killers aimed to destroy any forensic residue after moving Gareth Williams’ body, says intelligence analyst

By Crispin Black | September 8, 2010

In the James Bond novels, only one of 007's fellow agents is ever killed: in Moonraker, 0011 disappears on a job in Singapore. In the films, a number of 00 agents are bumped off by the bad guys, notably 002, who is shot through the neck in Beirut by "the man with the golden gun". Roger Moore and Britt Ekland are dispatched to even the score.

But in real life the agents of Britain's intelligence agencies tend, like the rest of us, to die of natural causes in their beds. Kim Philby's bed was unfortunately in Moscow, but it was a bed nevertheless.

The suspicious death of the GCHQ cipher and code expert Gareth Williams is therefore a highly unusual event.

The post-mortems have been inconclusive and the police are currently awaiting the results of sophisticated tests for obscure poisons. It certainly looks like murder - but what kind of murder?

To begin with, it was reasonable for the police to assume that the reason for his death could be found in his private, not professional, life. Statistically this was the most likely option.

In police slang, this was probably 'an ordinary decent crime' rather than an assassination or terrorist-related. At some point an outraged husband or unsuitable sexual partner would emerge.

This is becoming less likely by the day. Go with the facts. If you find a neatly packed suitcase by the door it is because someone is about to leave - ­ someone efficient. If you find a body in a padlocked bag in a bath, then what you see is what you get. The body is in a bag because it's going somewhere and it's in the bath because once it has been removed it is easy to destroy any forensic residue.

For some reason the disposal of the body was interrupted - but the killer or killers knew what they were doing.

Getting rid of a body is difficult for amateurs but easy enough if it's your trade. The IRA were good at it - so good that since the Good Friday Agreement, and as part of the reconciliation process, they have had difficulty in revealing the whereabouts of some of their unfortunate victims. At least some of them disappeared into meat processing factories close to the border. The moors and peat bogs outside Belfast still hold their secrets.

In the case of Gareth Williams, the omens are not good. The police are looking for a couple of "Mediterranean appearance" - what Scotland Yard used to call in less politically correct days 'swarthy'.

Apparently this couple were filmed going into the front door of Williams's flat. Broadcasting CCTV footage on national television is sadly a sign of desperation: the Crimestoppers approach to this baffling crime.

Maybe it was them. Maybe not. Maybe it's related to intelligence. Maybe not. But one thing is for sure: whoever killed Williams has killed before.

Mirror : Intelligence expert Crispin Black says a spy’s life includes danger, hard graft and a dash of glamour

Intelligence expert Crispin Black says a spy’s life includes danger, hard graft and a dash of glamour

By Crispin Black | August 28, 2010

Discretion and the principle of “need to know” govern every aspect of an intelligence officer’s life.

They are allowed to reveal to their families their real job although this is a relatively recent concession.Selected close friends are also allowed to be in on the secret but only in the most generalised terms.

To the rest of the world spooks assume a false identity usually pretending to work for the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Defence.

Whatever the cover story it is well backed up. If a spook is pretending to work as a commercial attaché his or her name will appear in the Diplomatic List as just that.

There are three intelligence ­agencies. The first, MI6 or the Secret Intelligence Service, deals with acquiring intelligence abroad.

Usually, they operate from “stations” inside British embassies – speaking their own jargon. The senior spook is Head of Station or H.

Sir John Scarlett, who was at the centre of the controversies over the Iraq dossiers was famously “H Moscow”, smuggling a top defector out of Russia in the boot of an embassy car under the very noses of the very angry KGB.

After the invasion of Iraq Tony Blair promoted him to be Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service or C. Its biggest stations are now in Islamabad and Kabul, where conditions are tough. Elsewhere the James Bond lifestyle is still maintained.

The second agency, MI5 or the Security Service, is responsible for security at home. The job is more high-level complex police work than anything else. The most difficult and demanding aspects of the job are the surveillance operations mounted on unfolding terrorist plots.

If an intelligence officer is part of such a team he may not see friends and family for weeks on end and will subsist on coffee and takeaways.Things have improved slightly over the past few years as MI5 has developed regional stations with proper accommodation for its agents.

The third agency, GCHQ, are the listeners – direct descendants of the talented folk who broke codes at Bletchley Park in the Second World War. They have a hi-tech headquarters in Cheltenham known as the Doughnut because of its shape.

Tasked with breaking enemy codes and protecting our own electronic secrets they stare for long hours at computer screens trying to make sense of garbled conversations in foreign languages. They are serious and secretive people but they do let their hair down at Cheltenham Races, especially on Gold Cup Day.

Life in all three agencies is about detailed hard work. On every desk there are reminders of its importance. The most secret intelligence is contained in brightly coloured folders. As in nature, where the most dangerous animals are brightly coloured, the brighter the colour the more secret the intelligence. The ones for the Prime Minister and the Queen are bound in scarlet and gold.

In the dark hours all three agencies take comfort in the reflected glory from their fictional counterparts. James Bond was/is an MI6 agent. Traditionally every Bond film has a For Spooks Eyes Only premiere.

Film magnates and spies mingle at a cocktail party beforehand. In 1999 at the first showing of The World Is Not Enough the audience cheered as their Vauxhall Cross HQ was blown up. Senior management was apparently not amused.

MI5 are lucky enough to have the BBC TV hit Spooks which has done wonders for recruitment and morale. There was always a feeling before that they were in some way “poor relations” to their counterparts south of the river.

Their real Albert Embankment HQ is even more hi-tech and glossy than the BBC studio mock up. But officers tend to dress down in case they have to drop everything and hit the street on some urgent surveillance.

GCHQ has its own heroes from the past – principally the Bletchley Park geniuses who broke the secret German codes so vividly brought to life in the film Enigma.

But it is not all hard work. One of the most glamorous parts of being a spy is the visits to the US. MI5 go to FBI headquarters in downtown Washington and MI6 to the CIA base in Langley. No alcohol is served at Langley dinners – except when the British are in town.

The closest relationship is between GCHQ and the National Security Agency who have a formal arrangement splitting responsibility for the world. There is a constant stream of British visitors to its Fort Meade HQ in Maryland, known as the Puzzle Palace.

The world’s most powerful computers are there and the most brilliant mathematical minds. Gareth Williams visited often and would no doubt have been at home with his fellow maths whizz-kids.

The exchange of information is free and frank. He would have been privy to US as well as British secrets.

That is why the Americans are taking such a strong interest in his death.

Mirror : Cops have to solve it quick

Cops have to solve it quick

By Crispin Black | August 26, 2010

James Bond spends much of his time avenging fellow spooks killed by the bad guys.

But back in the real world it has always been rare for British spies to die of anything other than natural causes.

Neverthless, the murder of Gareth Williams will have sent shudders through the intelligence establishment. Senior officers from all three intelligence services will be urgently reviewing the facts assisted by policemen from Scotland Yard, specially vetted to allow them access to secret intelligence.

There are two main possibilities. The first is that the murder was connected in some way to the victim's intelligence work - the Russians are up to their old tricks or a terrorist organisation has somehow been able to target GCHQ personnel.

More likely is that the murder was connected to Mr Williams's life. He was murdered by someone he knew. This after all is what happens to most victims. There is a chance he may have been a victim of random violence. Whatever happened, the authorities need to get to the bottom of the matter fast. Given that Mr Williams had a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Cambridge University it is clear that he was a codebreaker. His body remained undiscovered possibly for a fortnight - we need to be sure that national security has not been compromised.

Express : SPY KNEW HIS KILLER AND LET HIM IN HOUSE

SPY KNEW HIS KILLER AND LET HIM IN HOUSE

August 26, 2010

MURDERED British spy Gareth Williams is believed to have known his killer, detectives said last night.

The MI6 code breaker let the murderer into the “safe house” where he was later found dead and stuffed into a sports bag.

Police are concentrating on the personal life of the “intensely private” man.

Scotland Yard cannot rule out the possibility that his killer also works for the intelligence services.

Detectives are also probing the theory that the murderer is a one of the few casual acquaintances the 31-year-old single man made outside his top secret world.

Intelligence experts say it is “extremely unlikely” that Mr Williams was murdered by a hit squad with links to either Al Qaeda or dissident Irish terrorists.

He was murdered in his flat on the top floor of a Georgian house in Pimlico, central London, a short distance from MI6 headquarters on the South Bank.

It is believed the killer strangled or suffocated the brilliant mathematician before putting him into a sports bag in the bath.

The killer fled the flat, which is owned by MI6, leaving some of his victim’s possessions strewn on the floor, including a mobile phone and SIM cards.

The body of Mr Williams, who was a fanatical cyclist, was found on Monday afternoon after neighbours became concerned they had not seen him for some time. He may have lain undiscovered for up to two weeks.

A post mortem was carried out yesterday but proved “inconclusive”. A Yard spokesman said: “Further tests will be carried out. There is no evidence that the victim was stabbed.”

Yesterday, Mr Williams’ grieving parents, Ian and Ellen, flew back to Britain from a holiday abroad and gave brief statements to detectives to help in the formal identification of their son.

They were heading to their home in Holyhead, north Wales, last night where they will be comforted by their daughter, Ceri.

A friend of the dead man delivered flowers to the flat yesterday. He declined to speak to reporters and hurried away.

Mr Williams, a former child maths prodigy who was born in Holyhead, had been on secondment to MI6 from the code-breaking GCHQ for more than a year.

It is believed he was due to return to GCHQ’s Cheltenham base next week.

Jenny Elliott, 71, was his landlady in the town from the late Nineties until he moved to London. She said he had recently asked her if he could move back to his old room at her home on September 3.

Retired office worker Mrs Elliott said: “Gareth was a really nice guy who was polite and mild-mannered and wouldn’t hurt a fly. When someone has lived with you for 10 years, you get to know them and Gareth almost became a part of the family.

“I could not imagine Gareth ever making enemies who would want to kill him. Gareth was a very likeable person who didn’t really have any friends.

“He would not talk about his job as it was a secret, on account of working for GCHQ. All he told me was it was something to do with codes.

“I know he had studied maths at Cambridge, so obviously he was a very clever guy. Occasionally you could hear tapes whirring from his flat, which must have been audio cassettes he used for work, but he never told me what they were.”

Neither Mr Williams’ mother or father wished to comment but his uncle, Bill Hughes, said: “It was a terrible shock. He was quiet, unassuming. When he came home he’d be on his bicycle riding around the lanes of Anglesey.

“We knew he was working in London, but he’d never talk about his work and the family knew not to ask.” Mr Hughes added that Gareth was “brilliant” as a child and had gone to a special primary school.

In 2000, his first class performance as a maths graduate at Cambridge earned him a place on a distinguished masters course at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

But a university spokesman said yesterday: “He didn’t complete the course.”

In London, City worker Jason Hollands, 41, who lives close to Mr Williams’ flat, said: “The police have been very, very strict and they won’t tell us anything.”

Scotland Yard declined to comment, apart from repeating appeals for anyone with information to contact police.

Former Government intelligence analyst Crispin Black, 50, said he did not believe the killer was a terrorist assassin. He said: “The most likely explanation is to be found in the personal life of the individual.”

Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism subcommittee, said: “This underlines the danger that our outstanding security services have to face on a minute-by-minute basis every single day.”