Daily Mail : Army veteran claims spy-in-bag could easily have locked himself in holdall... and proves it with his 16-year-old daughter

Army veteran claims spy-in-bag could easily have locked himself in holdall... and proves it with his 16-year-old daughter

* Teenager measures 5ft 5ins, just 3ins shorter than MI6 agent Gareth Williams

By Julian Gavaghan | May 9, 2012

Body in the bag spy Gareth Williams could have easily locked himself inside the holdall in which he died, an Army veteran revealed today.

The inquest into the MI6 agent’s death heard how a number of experts unsuccessfully tried to lock themselves inside a bag up to 300 times.

But Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49 - a sergeant in the Royal Artillery for 22 years - discovered a simple method by which a holdall can be zipped up and locked from the inside without assistance.

The technique is the reverse of a well-known trick used by airport thieves to steal from locked bags, as long as they are flexible and the sides can be pinched together.

Intrigued by the mysterious case of the MI6 agent, he asked his daughter Izzy, 16, to climb inside an identical North Face bag to test his theory.

The teenager, who at 5ft 5ins was 3ins shorter than Gareth, easily fitted inside the bag in the foetal position before partially closing it.

She drew her legs up to her body and was able to draw the two zip pulls together while leaving a gap for her hands to protrude through and close the padlock.

Izzy then tensed her body and the zip simply sealed itself leaving her successfully shut inside the bag holding the key to the padlock.

But crucially, the procedure is said to be much easier in a bath where the occupant of the bag can push against the sides for assistance.

Jim, of Shrewton, Wiltshire, served around the world as a sergeant with the 33 Regiment, Royal Artillery, for 22 years until he retired five years ago and has been a reservist ever since.

He claims that, despite Mr Williams being taller than his daughter, this would not have made much difference.

He said: ‘The man on TV tried it 300 times and I was amazed he couldn’t do it.

‘I’ve told my friends and show them and their jaws drops - it is so obvious, maybe people are thinking too much into it.

‘She is 5ft 5 and he was 5ft 8 but when you’re in the foetal position inside that height doesn’t make much difference.

‘She had a bit of a struggle pulling the bag but she wouldn’t have been as strong as him. I could easily see that he would be able to do it.

A similar technique is used to steal from locked holdalls, where the end of the bag can be squeezed together to create ‘slack’ in the zip.

This creates enough room for an opening in the zip without unlocking the padlocks.

However, one of the reasons why other experts said they couldn't zip themselves in bags was because there wasn't enough room to manoeuvre in a bathtub.

Mr Fetherstonhaugh contacted the Met Police via the force’s 101 number and he was provided with a serial number but they have yet to respond to him.

A spokesman for the force refused to comment today.

The revelation raises questions over the coroner’s findings, which concluded Mr Williams’ death ‘unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated’.

Mr Williams’ former landlords told the inquest how they once found him handcuffed alone to a bed, suggesting he had a fetish for restraint.

To test the method, reporter Claire Hayhurst, who is 5ft 4in tall and of slight build similar to Mr Williams, zipped herself into the bag without assistance.

She repeated the task a number of times on video and was eventually able to do it in less than three minutes.

Daily Mail : You are not above the law Met chief tells MI6 agents as he demands unprecedented access to solve spy-in-the-bag murder

You are not above the law Met chief tells MI6 agents as he demands unprecedented access to solve spy-in-the-bag murder

* Tests on microscopic human traces on a hand towel in the spy’s flat could identify his killer
* Employees at MI6 and GCHQ could face mass voluntary DNA screening within weeks

By Daily Mail Reporter | May 9, 2012

Britain’s top policeman told MI6 last night that no one is above the law as he demanded unprecedented access in a bid to solve the murder of spy Gareth Williams.

Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said there was ‘nothing in law’ to stop police making secret agents give statements and forensic samples.

The Scotland Yard chief said employees at MI6 and GCHQ could face mass voluntary DNA screening within weeks.

Detectives believe tests on microscopic human traces on a hand towel in the spy’s flat could identify his killer.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: ‘There is no difference in law, as you would expect if someone has committed a serious crime, no matter who they are.’

Asked if MI6 will grant full access, he said: ‘They do not have to sign up to it, it is called the law. There is no reason why they need to agree to it.’

No one has been arrested over the murder of Mr Williams, whose naked body was discovered in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat in August 2010.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: ‘There is no difference in law, as you would expect if someone has committed a serious crime, no matter who they are.’

Asked if MI6 will grant full access, he said: ‘They do not have to sign up to it, it is called the law. There is no reason why they need to agree to it.’

No one has been arrested over the murder of Mr Williams, whose naked body was discovered in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat in August 2010.

His family lashed out at MI6 last week after a coroner ruled he was probably unlawfully killed and the case may never be solved.

Fears remain that the solution to the riddle of his death could lie within MI6 or that a secret agent could even be responsible for the murder.

Detectives investigating the mysterious death of the body-in-the-bag spy believe a killer could have slipped back into his flat through a skylight to cover his tracks, it has been claimed.

Many close to the case believe he was assassinated by a spy working for foreign powers because of his work for MI6 and the US National Security Agency.

Speculation over the exact nature of his work has been growing since Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a a document to stop details being released about his job on security grounds.

It has been claimed that MI6 and the government eavesdropping centre GCHQ, to which Williams was attached, have been working on a computer virus designed to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme.

Questions are also being asked as to how MI6 came into possession of a second iPhone belonging to Mr Williams when Police found only one at his flat.

Daily Mail : Did spy-in-bag killer slip back into flat through skylight to cover his tracks? New theory emerges over MI6 codebreaker death

Did spy-in-bag killer slip back into flat through skylight to cover his tracks? New theory emerges over MI6 codebreaker death

* Theory rival spy 'trained in the dark arts of the secret services' murdered British agent
* Mystery of second mobile phone containing video of victim dancing naked in nothing but cowboy boots

By Daniel Miller | May 6, 2012

Detectives investigating the mysterious death of the body-in-the-bag spy believe a killer could have slipped back into his flat through a skylight to cover his tracks, it has been claimed.

MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams was found dead in his London flat in 2010. A coroner ruled that he was 'probably killed illegally and his family remain convinced he was the victim of a rival agent.

Many close to the case believe he was assassinated by a spy working for foreign powers because of his work for MI6 and the US National Security Agency.

Speculation over the exact nature of his work has been growing since Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a public interest in order to stop details being released on security grounds.

It has been claimed that MI6 and the government eavesdropping centre GCHQ, to which Williams was attached, have been working on a computer virus designed to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme.

Questions are also being asked as to how MI6 came into possession of a second iPhone belonging to Mr Williams when Police found only one at his flat.

The agency handed over the mobile containing a video of Mr Williams dancing naked except for a pair of cowboy boots after his death was discovered.

However MI6 workers are forbidden from taking their personal phones into work and experts believe it is unlikely Williams would have risked bringing in a phone containing such a video.

Curiously the iPhone discovered by police searching the flat had been completely wiped of all memory.

Investigators are now believed to be working on a theory that the second phone was taken from the flat after Williams died but before police conducted a thorough search of the property.

MI6 regulations mean efforts are made to contact any employees who do not arrive at work by 10pm, yet Mr Williams' disappearance was not reported for eight days.

Another irregularity was the fact that heating in the flat had been turned up full blast - possibly because it would have accelerated the rate at which the body decomposed - helping to destroy any evidence.

The Sunday Mirror newspaper reports an intelligence source as saying: 'It's never been mentioned that there is a skylight but it was pretty clear to a lot of people in the case that there was no better way for the killer to get back into the flat.

'They could have come back to clean up the crime scene and got in through the skylight while police were outside.

'Of course, if MI6 were involved in his death that is one explanation for how they managed to get his phone.'

Anthony O'Toole, a barrister representing the family, has suggested that Gareth could have been killed by someone who specialises in 'the dark arts of the secret services.'

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said the theory that Mr Williams was killed by a spy was 'legitimate line of inquiry'.

She has questioned the motives of those who leaked details about Mr Williams's private life, including his visits to bondage websites. His family say the visits could have been work-related.

Police wasted time on false leads generated by the leaks. Reports that Mr Williams went to gay bars in the Vauxhall area of London, and visited websites on sadomasochism and claustrophilia – the sexual pleasure of confined spaces – proved to be false.

Dr Wilcox said Mr Williams was not a transvestite and that his collection of £20,000 of unworn women's clothes were probably gifts for friends.

She said the cause of death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated' and dismissed claims that Mr Williams had entered the sports bag seeking sexual gratification.

The coroner said: 'I wonder what the motive was for the release of this material to the media. I wonder whether this was an attempt by a third party to intimate a sexual motive.'

Daily Mail : Scotland Yard investigates transvestite smear against spy Gareth, but no disciplinary action will be taken

Scotland Yard investigates transvestite smear against spy Gareth, but no disciplinary action will be taken

May 6, 2012

Detectives have investigated allegations that police smeared MI6 spy Gareth Williams – but have ruled out taking disciplinary action against any officer.

Scotland Yard's internal investigation unit examined claims that officers leaked information which led to false media reports that Gareth Williams was a transvestite who was the victim of a sex game that went wrong.

The leaks shifted attention from the spy's work with MI6 and GCHQ, the Government's secret listening station, to his private life.

Last night, the Met confirmed its team had ruled out disciplining any officer over the leaks.

In 2010, Mr Williams's family complained to officers they were learning more about the investigation from newspaper reports rather than from police briefings.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation into Mr Williams's death, told his inquest last week that the leaks diverted resources from genuine lines of inquiry.

The spy's body was found on August 23, 2010, locked inside a holdall which was placed in the bath at his home in Pimlico, Central London. The victim had last been seen by his colleagues ten days earlier.

Last week, coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox questioned the motives of those who leaked details about Mr Williams's private life, including his visits to bondage websites. His family say the visits could have been work-related.

Dr Wilcox said Mr Williams was not a transvestite and that his collection of £20,000 of unworn women's clothes were probably gifts for friends.

She also dismissed claims that Mr Williams had entered the sports bag seeking sexual gratification.

The coroner said: 'I wonder what the motive was for the release of this material to the media. I wonder whether this was an attempt by a third party to intimate a sexual motive.'

Scotland Yard's internal investigations unit was asked to look at the leaks after concerns were expressed by Det Chief Insp Sebire.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Concerns were raised that information relating to the investigation had been placed in the public domain.

The force initiated an exercise to assess the concerns. A decision was taken not to proceed further.'

Police wasted time on false leads generated by the leaks. Reports that Mr Williams went to gay bars in the Vauxhall area of London, and visited websites on sadomasochism and claustrophilia – the sexual pleasure of confined spaces – proved to be false.

Det Chief Insp Sebire told the inquest that she had seen at first-hand the
distress the leaks had caused the Williams family, but insisted: 'They did not come from my team.'

A senior police source said that suspicions surrounding the source of the leaks initially centred on counter-terrorism police officers and MI6.

Last night a Whitehall spokesman denied MI6 was responsible for the smears but declined to say whether the Service was also investigating the claims.

A memo released to the inquest revealed that senior officials at GCHQ, where Mr Williams spent most of his career, were concerned about the leaks.

Last night, a GCHQ spokesman declined to comment on the memo or any investigation into the leaks.

MI6 and GCHQ were criticised by the coroner for waiting more than a week before raising the alarm about Mr Williams's absence.

Dr Wilcox also hit out at counter-terrorism officers who liaised with MI6 and GCHQ, and police officers investigating the spy's death.

She said evidence that could have helped the inquiry was only passed to detectives once the inquest was in its second week.

Last week it was revealed that police are planning to take DNA samples from up to 50 spies.

Dr Wilcox said the possibility that another spy was involved in Mr Williams's death was a 'legitimate line of inquiry'.

At the end of the inquest, Mr Williams's family criticised SO15, the Met's counter-terrorism branch, for the 'total inadequacies' of its investigation into MI6.

The family said: 'Our grief is exacerbated by the failure of MI6 to make even the most basic inquiries as to Gareth's whereabouts and welfare.

'We are also extremely disappointed at the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information.'

Daily Mail : MI6 'body-in-bag' spy learned to pick locks at Las Vegas escapology convention weeks before he died after being sent there to mix with criminals

MI6 'body-in-bag' spy learned to pick locks at Las Vegas escapology convention weeks before he died after being sent there to mix with criminals

By Chris Greenwood | May 4, 2012

Spy Gareth Williams may have studied lock-picking and escapology weeks before his naked corpse was found in a padlocked bag.

It has emerged that MI6 sent the 31-year-old to mingle with hackers, fraudsters and other criminals at the Def Con conference in Las Vegas.

It included classes on opening padlocks without keys, escaping from handcuffs, tampering with objects without leaving traces and confounding drug tests.

The event is a magnet for spies from agencies across the world.

Delegates are encouraged to ‘out’ government agents and undercover police officers, raising the possibility that the highly sensitive nature of Mr Williams’s job was exposed.

Earlier this week, the inquest into Mr Williams’s death was told he travelled to Las Vegas for the well-respected Black Hat hackers convention.

The event, which costs more than £1,000 to attend, features high-profile guest speakers and lavish hospitality funded by technology firms.

Less was made of the fact that Mr Williams stayed in the US to attend Def Con at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.

Its unusual conference pass – a working circuit board – was discovered in Mr Williams’s Alderney Street flat.

Two Scotland Yard detectives have already retraced Mr Williams’s steps in Las Vegas and during a week-long driving holiday that followed.

They linked an orange fancy-dress wig discovered at his flat to a shop there, where a member of staff remembered selling it to him.

However, they are unlikely to have discovered what he did during the secretive second conference, which he attended with a team of colleagues.

A British security expert told the Daily Mail he met GCHQ staff at Def Con, but said Mr Williams was not among them.

‘We met for a chat and coffee,’ he said. ‘They were just one of several intelligence agencies that I do business with. I did not see [Mr Williams] and I would remember his face.'

Mr Williams flew back to London on August 11, 2010, but never returned to MI6’s headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.

His family suspect that an agent of the ‘dark arts’ was involved in his murder, in the early hours of August 16.

Detectives have been instructed not to rule out the ‘legitimate line of inquiry’ that an MI6 colleague or foreign agent was responsible.

Delegates queue for hours to pay £60 admission for Def Con, which was founded as an alternative to the main Black Hat conference. Few provide their real names.

In 2010, one of Def Con’s main stands included a huge range of padlocks that attendees were invited to pick.

Elsewhere, three escapology experts gave an hour-long presentation demonstrating how to release handcuffs using slim pieces of metal and skeleton keys.

Delegates could also win a prize by working around supposedly tamper-proof stickers, metal clasps and plastic ties with a range of tools and chemicals without leaving a trace.

Most seminars and talks focused on computer hacking, including password cracking, eavesdropping on phone conversations and seizing control of wi-fi networks.

In one demonstration, a well-known hacker showed that he could make a cash machine spew out notes.

Chester Wisniewski, of computer security firm Sophos, said Def Con has a ‘free-wheeling spirit’ and an ‘anything goes environment’.

He added: ‘There are probably criminals there – anyone from a Russian mafia guy, a child pornographer to God knows who else.

‘It’s a well-known fact that lots of spies and Government agents go.

There is even a game called “spot the Fed”.

If you call them out and they admit to being from an agency the person gets a T-shirt.’

Mr Williams attended the same conference two years earlier, according to one of his colleagues at GCHQ who gave evidence at the inquest.

It was also revealed that Mr Williams ran up a substantial credit card bill at the two 2010 conferences, sending his account into the red.

Daily Mail : So who did kill the spy? Spooks, sex and the vital questions that the inquest couldn't answer

So who did kill the spy? Spooks, sex and the vital questions that the inquest couldn't answer [scroll down]

May 2, 2012

Who put him in the holdall?

Some 400 attempts were made by expert witnesses to padlock themselves inside a North Face holdall identical to the one in which Mr Williams' body was found. Each attempt resulted in failure, so unless Mr Williams was able to pull off this 'amazing' feat, at least one still unidentified person was involved in his death.

The theory that he was placed in the bag while already dead or unconscious was challenged at the inquest by pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd. He said it would be 'extremely difficult' to place a 'floppy' dead body in a foetal position as neat as that in which the corpse was found.

Dr Shepherd did concede that the codebreaker could have been forced into the holdall at gunpoint or while sedated.

While tests continue on scratches found at the end of the bag where his head lay, there were no signs inside the bag of a violent struggle to get out. If Mr Williams was conscious when the bag was sealed he would have quickly passed out and died because of the build-up of carbon dioxide within. He could also have been poisoned.

Furthermore, if a naked Mr Williams had climbed into the holdall while it was in the bath, he would have left hand and footprints. That there were none found suggests that he was already in the bag before it was placed in the bath.

At least one unidentified person would seem to have been present in the bathroom between the time the bag was put in the bath and its discovery by police eight days later.

Yesterday the coroner said: 'In relation to the prints found within the bathroom, in my view what was more significant was what was not found rather than what was found.' She said she was 'sure that a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath'.

Was his death linked to his private life?

That is the official MI6 verdict. While his family portrayed him as a very private man with conventional tastes, the picture that has emerged since his death suggests otherwise.

Police found evidence that Mr Williams looked at bondage websites and visited transvestite clubs and gay bars, though they could not identify any sexual partners. His friends insisted he was heterosexual but could not explain his behaviour.

Mr Williams had a £20,000 collection of women's clothing in his flat, including shoes his own size which had been worn and a long wig. His friends, who knew nothing of the collection, suggest Mr Williams meant to give them away as gifts.

But a video found on one of his phones showed Mr Williams 'gyrating' for the camera naked but for a pair of women's calf-length boots.

His landlady at a former home in Cheltenham had once found him tied to his bedposts wearing only his boxer shorts. She felt that the incident was of a sexual nature. This and his occasional visits to extreme websites coincide with his MI6 training.

There is no firm evidence that Mr Williams derived any kind of sexual pleasure from bondage or confinement, and the coroner raised the possibility that allegations about the spy's private vices were made by a third party to 'manipulate' the evidence. Had a false trail been laid and if so, why?

Did he die as a result of a sex game?

The coroner ruled out any link between Mr Williams' interest in bondage and his death. But suspicions remain. Traces of his semen were found on the floor of the bathroom in which his body was discovered and on his dressing gown.

Someone else's DNA is understood to have been found on a green hand towel in Mr Williams' kitchen, which might yield further clues, even a breakthrough, in coming weeks.

Did he die as a result of a sadomasochistic scenario which went wrong? Was the bag padlocked by a sexual partner who then fled the scene?

Why were the radiators on full blast?

Mr Williams died during August, when central heating would normally be switched off. The fact that it wasn't off in his top floor flat raises a suspicion that it is linked to his death, or at least an attempt to destroy evidence.

The higher temperature would have speeded up the decomposition of the body. Putrefaction would have been further hastened by the fact that the body was curled up inside a holdall.

The holdall also helped contain the tell-tale smell of decomposition. The bath would also have contained and eventually drained any fluids released as the body decayed.

If there was indeed a deliberate effort to speed up decomposition in order to hide the cause of death and delay discovery then it was entirely successful.

By the time pathologists were able to examine Mr Williams' corpse, the decomposition was so advanced they could only guess at cause of death.

Was his death linked to spying?

His family believe so, but we may never know.

MI6 obtained a Public Interest Immunity certificate which kept details of his work for them and GCHQ secret.

They claim Mr Williams was seen as at 'low risk' but he was a highly skilled and trained computer scientist who had recently met two informants and was ready to be deployed on an active mission.

One manager said he made a 'small number' of unauthorised searches on the MI6 database which could have left him open to blackmail.

His flat had been rented by spies since 2003 and he confirmed his sensitive occupation to at least two close friends.

When she reported him missing, GCHQ's human resources chief, told a police switchboard worker that Mr Williams had been 'just taken off an operation' and was unhappy.

The inquest was told this was not true and the coroner ruled her comment may have been 'misinformation' designed to spur police into action. These contradictions did nothing to increase confidence in the security services' account.

Why did MI6 take eight days to call the police?

MI6's behaviour throughout this whole affair has been puzzling and done little to discourage conspiracy theories about its direct involvement in Mr Williams' death.

The codebreaker was a meticulous time-keeper yet he was missing from work for a week before the security services alerted the police.

During that time only cursory attempts were made to contact him. His line manager – known at the inquest as MI6 Officer G – came in for particular criticism at the inquest.

The delay was crucial in the pathologists' subsequent inability to give a definite cause of death. Even after his bosses decided he was missing there was still a four-hour delay before raising the alarm.

Given his work as a spy, this seeming laxity is amazing. It is also puzzling that the security services apparently wanted the police to be the first people through the door of their own 'safe house', to hunt for a missing operative.

Did MI6 undermine the inquiry?

Anthony O'Toole, lawyer for the Williams family, asked an officer from the Met's SO15 counter-terrorism branch: 'If this wasn't the SIS and it was the Kray twins or someone else, you were investigating, you would have gone into far more detail, wouldn't you?'

As the inquest progressed it became clear that there was a disconnect between the anti-terrorist police officers who were security vetted to visit MI6 HQ and their colleagues on the outside investigating the death.

Officers from SO15 went to Vauxhall Cross and examined Mr Williams' locker and desk. There were nine memory sticks in the locker and a North Face holdall, similar to the death bag, under the desk, containing a number of personal items and work material.

Detective Constable Colin Hall, of the counter-terror branch, told the inquest he did not take the computer memory sticks because he was told by MI6 they contained material 'of a sensitive nature'. He said he was also told to leave the bag in situ.

In fact the investigative team learned of the suppressed evidence only during the inquest. They were also kept in the dark about MI6's examination of the dead man's 'electronic media'.

It seems the SO15 officers were serving the interests of the security services rather than those of the murder squad.

MI6 failed to provide formal statements to the inquest. This may well have been the fault of SO15 officers who did not press for anything more than anonymous summaries of informal interviews rather than sworn statements.

The coroner said this had affected the quality of evidence heard at inquest. The security services were also slow in handing over key other evidence.

The inquest heard that Mr Williams's GCHQ computer was not handed over until six days after his body was discovered and the MI6 one four days later.

Mr Williams also owned four iPhones. Experts are still trying to recover data from one of them. It was wiped on the last day he was seen alive.

Telephone company records suggested that it had never been used.

The MI6 headquarters where Gareth Williams worked at Vauxhall Cross, near Vauxhall Bridge, in south London

Why was there so little forensic evidence?

It wasn't only the bathroom that was suspiciously devoid of clues. Police found no unidentified fingerprints anywhere else in the death flat. All belonged to Mr Williams or his close family.

There was a similar paucity of third party DNA, though forensic scientist Ros Hammond told the inquest there was 'certainly evidence' of at least two unidentified people at the flat.

There was no evidence that the flat had been 'wiped' of prints. Yet circumstances suggest that someone else, who knew their business enough not to leave clues, had been at work there. Probably wearing gloves.

Another spy? His family think so; they believe someone skilled in the 'dark arts' was responsible for Mr Williams' death.

There was no sign of a break-in, but police found that the front door latch could be reached and raised through the letterbox.

The top flat at 36 Alderney Street did not seem to be a very 'safe' safe house at all.

Was he killed by MI6?

The theory that Mr Williams was killed by his employers, Britain's own secret service, is perhaps the most outré and disturbing, better suited to the pages of a sensational spy thriller.

No credible motive has been advanced as to why the spymasters would kill one of their own, in circumstances that would attract the most sensational publicity, in their own safe house, in central London.

However, it was by no means discounted by the coroner. Dr Wilcox said that while there was no evidence to suggest he died at the hands of MI6, 'it is still a legitimate line of inquiry'.

Daily Mail : Does spy-in-a-bag's iPhone hold the key to his death? Detectives believe it may have been used to contact his killer

Does spy-in-a-bag's iPhone hold the key to his death? Detectives believe it may have been used to contact his killer

By Chris Greenwood, Crime Reporter | May 4, 2012

Scotland Yard was last night preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.

Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.

Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.

One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.

The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.

Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.

The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.

Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.

Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.

He said: ‘A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.’

Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.

She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.

Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a ‘legitimate line of inquiry’.

Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.

Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.

But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned that the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving ‘careful consideration’ to any new ‘evidential opportunities’.

Daily Mail : 50 agents face DNA tests over spy-in-the-bag killing as coroner brands death 'unlawful' and puts MI6 in the frame

50 agents face DNA tests over spy-in-the-bag killing as coroner brands death 'unlawful' and puts MI6 in the frame

* 15 colleagues of Gareth Williams have already given DNA evidence
* Coroner: 'It is unlikely the spy's death will ever be satisfactorily explained'
* Dr Fiona Wilcox says lack of compelling evidence removes possibility of unlawful killing verdict but says it is probable his death was 'illegal'
* 'It would appear that many agencies fell short' during the investigation
* Coroner: British Secret Service's involvement 'still a legitimate line of inquiry'
* MI6 chief apologises 'unreservedly' to Mr Williams' family over the way the police inquiry was hampered by his colleagues
* Family pay emotional tribute to their 'special and adored son and brother' and blast MI6's 'reluctance and failure' in helping detectives

By Stephen Wright and Chris Greenwood | May 3, 2012

Police are taking DNA samples from up to 50 colleagues of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams.

Officers strongly suspect a member of the security services, working for either MI6 or GCHQ, was in the 31-year-old's flat on the night he died.

Fifteen of his colleagues have already given their DNA to police and officers plan to take swabs from dozens more.

Investigators hope detailed analysis of a scruffy green hand-towel recovered from a shelf in his kitchen could soon result in a forensic breakthrough.

Details of the extraordinary DNA sweep emerged as a coroner ruled that Mr Williams, whose naked body was found in a locked red North Face bag in the bath of his central London apartment, was probably 'unlawfully killed'.

In a dramatic narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox told Westminster coroner's court it was a 'legitimate line of inquiry' that the codebreaker was killed by a colleague, as he would only have let someone he trusted into his home.

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

Dr Wilcox said serious questions remain over an iPhone of Mr Williams's that was mysteriously wiped of all data just hours before he died in August 2010.

She added that the forgetfulness of some employees at MI6, where Mr Williams had been on secondment from GCHQ, the Government's listening post, 'stretched probability'.

She refused to rule out that a colleague in the shadowy world of intelligence was involved.

Yesterday Mr Williams's family accused MI6 of withholding vital clues and failing to make 'basic inquiries' into his whereabouts until a week after his disappearance.

And they called on the head of Scotland Yard, Bernard Hogan-Howe, to review the 21-month investigation personally.

Mr Williams's sister Ceri and their parents Ian and Ellen attacked the 'total inadequacies' of the inquiry.

In a statement released by their lawyer, they said: 'Our grief is exacerbated by the failure of his employers at MI6 to make even the most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare that any reasonable employer would have taken.

'We are also extremely disappointed over the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information.'

Last night Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, apologised 'unreservedly' for the failure of Mr Williams's colleagues to raise the alarm promptly, which meant the body was left to decompose for a week in the sweltering top-floor flat in Pimlico.

Mr Williams was a maths prodigy who graduated with first-class honours in computer science aged 17 and completed a PhD four years later. As well as being a cycling fanatic and successful fell runner, he had a wide-ranging passion for the arts and high-end fashion.

He also hoarded a £20,000 collection of designer women's clothing, browsed fetish websites and filmed himself dancing naked except for a pair of cowboy boots.

But in a painstaking two-hour examination of the evidence, Dr Wilcox rejected theories that the reclusive prodigy's eccentric private life had any link to his death.

She also said he probably did not die in a solo sex game that went catastrophically wrong, because he was not a risk-taker.

Dr Wilcox said she was 'sure that a third party placed the bag into the bath and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag'.

She told Mr Williams's family that she hoped the inquest would give them some comfort, adding that 'it would appear that many agencies fell short' during the investigation into his death, leaving 'most of the fundamental questions unanswered'.

Dr Wilcox concluded Mr Williams was alive when he got into the North Face holdall where his body was found.

She said she was certain someone else put it in the bath of his windowless ensuite bathroom, probably to contain bodily fluids, before closing the door behind them.

The coroner said the spy would have died quickly, either from hypercapnia, the fatal accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood, or from a mystery poison.

A range of poisons, including cyanide, insulin, chloroform and amyl nitrate could not be detected if they were used because of the advanced state of decomposition.

Detectives were last night already preparing to interview and take DNA samples from dozens of staff at MI6's London headquarters and GCHQ in Cheltenham.

Officers said human traces have been found on the hand towel recovered from Mr Williams's kitchen and the 'very promising' results of highly sensitive DNA testing could be ready within weeks.

After the inquest, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said there were several 'new lines of inquiry'.

She said: 'It is highly likely that a third party was involved in Gareth's death and I urge anyone who had contact with him to search their conscience and come forward.'

Last night Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt announced an urgent review of the new evidence and police blunders as a result of the inquest.

Daily Mail Comment : The spy in the bag and perils of secret justice

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The spy in the bag and perils of secret justice

By Daily Mail Comment | May 2, 2012

The inquest into Gareth Williams – the MI6 code breaker now known as the ‘spy in the bag’ – raised many deeply disturbing questions.

Why, given the hugely sensitive nature of Mr Williams’ job, did the intelligence service wait eight days to inform the police he was missing from work?

For what reason did MI6 withhold potentially crucial evidence – including nine computer memory sticks – from police investigating his possible murder?

Did the absence of forensic evidence, save for a tiny amount of DNA, suggest his flat had been professionally ‘cleaned’?

In delivering her verdict on this extraordinary case yesterday, Dr Fiona Wilcox said that most of the fundamental questions of how Mr Williams died remained, regrettably, ‘unanswered’.

Nevertheless, the coroner did state that, ‘on the balance of probabilities’, Mr Williams had been unlawfully killed.

She was also able to deliver, in her public judgment, the damning observation that MI6 had not always been helpful in its approach to the investigation.

The coroner added that, while the evidence did not prove suggestions that Mr Williams died at the hands of MI6, ‘it is still a legitimate line of inquiry’.

Of course, the lack of a conclusive verdict is unsatisfactory – not least for the dead man’s family, who fear he was killed by what they describe as a specialist ‘in the dark arts of the secret services’.

They are unlikely ever to forgive MI6 for not bothering to report Mr Williams missing for a week – by which time it was not possible for pathologists to establish if, for example, he had been poisoned.

But it is testament to Britain’s legal system that an inquest has at least endeavoured to hold the authorities to account in public.

As the Mail’s ‘No To Secret Courts’ campaign has highlighted, Ministers want chilling powers to hold such inquests in camera in the future. The hugely troubling case of ‘the spy in the bag’ is yet another reason why their plans must be fiercely resisted.

The mystery may not yet have been solved – but to have avoided publicly asking the questions would have been a terrible betrayal of his family, his service to the public and Britain’s treasured principle of open justice.

Daily Mail : Police investigating body-in-the-bag spy accused of giving special treatment to MI6

Police investigating body-in-the-bag spy accused of giving special treatment to MI6

* Police who searched Gareth Williams' office at the MI6 headquarters 'failed to document what they saw or seize key items'
* Lead detective only today made aware of nine memory sticks carrying 'potentially explosive' information

By Chris Greenwood | May 1, 2012

Scotland Yard was accused yesterday of undermining the inquiry into the death of spy Gareth Williams by giving MI6 special treatment.

On a day of drama at the inquest into Mr Williams’s death, a senior detective was accused of failing to be ‘completely impartial’ when he dealt with potentially vital evidence.

And coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox raised deep concerns over the failure of police to seize all of 31-year-old Mr Williams’s possessions from his MI6 office.

Another detective was forced to admit he only made a ‘cursory search’ of the office. Detective Constable Colin Hall was accused by barrister Anthony O’Toole, who represents the Williams family, of being ‘as helpful as a London pea souper’.

Mr O’Toole said: ‘If this had not been the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] and it was the Kray twins or someone else you would have gone into this in far more detail wouldn’t you?’

The final hours of evidence at the inquest into Mr Williams’s mysterious death were dominated by claims that police failed to put MI6 under the spotlight. Officers did not interview spies directly and their questions were channelled through counter terrorism detectives, who only replied with general and anonymous summaries.

The codebreaker’s naked and decomposing body was found in a padlocked North Face holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London, in August 2010.

The coroner revealed that fresh evidence, including nine memory sticks and another North Face holdall, had been discovered. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, told Westminster Coroner’s Court that she was only made aware yesterday of the memory sticks and an inventory of other items left at Mr Williams’s office.

And MI6 confirmed for the first time that his laptop was checked by spies before being handed to police.

Dr Wilcox said Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who acted as a ‘firewall’ between MI6 and police because of his high-level security clearance, had failed to pass on relevant information.

She said: ‘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?

‘If this had been information provided to you by any other agency it would have been seized by your officers, not left to those responsible to look at them and tell you what they contain, particularly given the public anxiety and concern around this death. You are not being completely impartial because an impartial investigator would have taken those exhibits and examined them himself.’

But Mr Broster insisted SIS has been ‘very helpful’. He added: ‘I have seen no information of relevance that somebody is involved. I am not saying a member of SIS is not involved, I don’t know.’

The inquest was adjourned until today when a verdict is expected.

Daily Mail : Warning call by GCHQ boss to police about Gareth aborting secret mission may hold key to his death

Warning call by GCHQ boss to police about Gareth aborting secret mission may hold key to his death

* Gareth Williams's spy bosses expressed concerns about his state of mind
* He'd been pulled from a case and missing from work for a week

By Robert Verkaik and Stephanie Condron | April 28. 2012

The handlers of ‘body in the bag’ spy Gareth Williams raised concerns about his state of mind on the day he was found dead inside his flat.

The inquest into Mr Williams’s death heard that a senior executive at GCHQ, the Government’s secret listening post, told police that the MI6 spy may have reacted badly after being removed from a covert operation.

A transcript of the call revealed that the executive added: ‘We are not sure how he’s taken that.’

The warning was passed on to officers searching for Mr Williams, who had been missing from work for more than a week.

He was expected at MI6’s headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, South London, on Monday August 16, 2010.

But his bosses did not raise the alarm until Friday and waited until after the weekend before deciding to call the police.

Mr Williams’s naked body was discovered in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London, on the evening of August 23.

The GCHQ warning has been seized on by Mr Williams’s parents as possible evidence of a cover-up about the truth of what happened to their son.

The intelligence services have always claimed the spy’s death had nothing to do with his secret work.

But the warning message appears to contradict this, as it suggests they were concerned about him after they had told him to withdraw from a secret operation.

Gareth’s parents, Ian and Ellen Williams, and sister Ceri, from Anglesey, North Wales, believe the ‘dark arts’ of an unnamed secret agency may have been involved in his death.

Evidence submitted to Westminster Coroner’s Court confirms that Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham, had been involved in covert operations in the months before he died.

The spy worked in a four-man team as an expert code breaker and shortly before his death had been in contact with two secret agents working in the field in the UK.

On August 11 he returned to London following a six-week visit to the US, where he had been part of a contingent of UK spies sent to a computer intelligence conference, known as the Black Hat.

The coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, said on Friday that the Las Vegas conference attracted criminal hackers who attend the briefings to keep up with the latest developments in computer technology.

But it is also used by security agencies from Britain and America to target hackers.

The FBI has been reported to have sent teams of undercover agents to the conference to break up hacking cells, and also to mount clandestine operations to recruit criminal hackers as informants.

If Mr Williams had gone to Las Vegas as part of an active intelligence operation he could have been exposed to dangers from criminal hacking gangs.

But GCHQ insists that its officers in the US faced no greater risk than they did in the UK.

His bosses also say Mr Williams, who was due to end his secondment with MI6 in September 2010, had not been working on an undercover operation at the time he went missing.

The eight-day delay in GCHQ and MI6 telling police he was officially missing has provoked accusations from his family that they knew something ‘horrible’ had happened to him.

The inquest heard of a transcript of the call, made at 4.41pm on the 23rd by senior GCHQ officer Helen Yelland, in which she said: ‘He was last spoken to on Friday 13th. He was expected into work all of last week and did not appear.

Both the landline and mobile phones are not picked up. The mobile is switched off. His sister was expecting to stay with him on Wednesday this week and she has not been able to contact him.’

The Metropolitan Police operator asked if there were any concerns, to which Ms Yelland replies: ‘He is going to be coming back to Cheltenham because he’s just been pulled back from a job he’s supposed to do and we are not sure how he’s taken that.’

Police suspect another person was involved in Mr Williams’s death and experts believe he was likely to have been unconscious or dead when he was placed in the bag.

Forensic experts are still examining Mr Williams’s mobile phone after it emerged on Friday that all the data on it had been wiped.

Detective Constable Robert Burrows told the inquest that he was unable to say when the iPhone, which was found in the living room of the flat, had been wiped before or after the spy’s death.

The inquest has also heard how traces of the date-rape drug GHB were found in Mr Williams’s body.

Forensic scientist Denise Stanworth said the traces were ‘probably’ naturally occurring, which is common after death, but admitted she could not rule out that it had been taken.

MI6 has apologised for failing to raise the alarm about his disappearance, conceding the error may have hampered police inquiries.

The inquest will tomorrow be told the results of an investigation into a second post-mortem examination ordered by the coroner’s office in the days after Mr Williams’s death.

The spy’s family want to know why the police were not informed of this post-mortem examination, as they would have been in an ordinary murder inquiry.

During the inquest, spies from MI6 and GCHQ have given evidence behind screens to protect their identities and Foreign Secretary William Hague has signed an order prohibiting the disclosure of details of Mr Williams’s work.

The family’s barrister, Anthony O’Toole, told the inquest that since MI6 performed such an ‘important job’ it was even more vital that Mr Williams’s team leader – known as Witness G – should have done more to raise the alarm about the spy’s absence from work.

It took Witness G five days before he visited Mr Williams’s flat.

The team leader has told the inquest he had been preparing to go into the field on a secret operation in the week the Welsh spy went missing.

The coroner has heard the dead spy was considered a ‘world-class’ intelligence officer by GCHQ. Stephen Gale, Mr Williams’s boss in Cheltenham, said the maths prodigy had won two awards for his code-breaking work.

Dr Wilcox has intimated that she is prepared to consider a verdict of unlawful killing if she believes another person was involved in the death.

The family want the coroner to explore the possibility that Mr Williams’s flat may have been wiped of other people’s DNA and the spy’s office computers tampered with.

The electronic equipment was handed to Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, SO15, on August 27, four days after the death came to light, the inquest heard.

Mr O’Toole noted there was not ‘any statement from any person at GCHQ to say that equipment was not tampered with’ in the interim period.

But Superintendent Michael Broster, who was responsible for SO15’s involvement in the investigation, insisted Mr Williams’s workplace had been ‘sealed and taped’.

Daily Mail : Party drug popular in clubbing and gay scene found in body of death riddle spy, inquest told

Party drug popular in clubbing and gay scene found in body of death riddle spy, inquest told

* Gareth Williams had traces of alcohol and date rape drug GHB in his body
* But levels likely to have been created naturally after death, says toxicologist
* Court earlier told how illicit searches on MI6 files left him open to blackmail
* But senior manager says no evidence he was targeted by foreign powers
* She apologies for 'communication breakdown' which meant 31-year-old was not reported missing for a week
* Codebreaker's family walk out of hearing in tears as spy chief gives evidence
* Bosses 'didn't call police for four hours' after officially deeming him missing
* May have been in fragile state of mind as 'he had just been taken off a job'

By Chris Greenwood | April 26, 2012

An illegal party drug was found in tests on body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams, an inquest heard yesterday.

Scientists said their investigation revealed a small trace of GHB, a dangerous sedative popular in the clubbing and gay scene.

They also refused to rule out poisoning because Mr Williams’s body was so decomposed that a host of potential killing agents including cyanide, insulin and chloroform would have been undetectable.

The spy’s family fear the failure of MI6 bosses to raise the alarm for seven days after he went missing deprived police of opportunities to solve the riddle of his death in August 2010.

His body quickly began to decay after being padlocked inside a sports holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat in central London.

His curled-up, naked body was found uninjured and he did not try to escape.

The fourth day of the inquest into his death also heard the high-flying code-breaker’s eccentric private life was no barrier to his secret work.

A senior MI6 officer suggested his superiors knew about his collection of women’s designer clothing, love of transvestite comedy and visits to bondage websites.

Speaking from behind a screen, a top official, known only as SIS F, said Mr Williams was known for his ‘world class’ work at GCHQ, the Government listening post.

The family’s lawyer Anthony O’Toole asked SIS F whether ‘revelations about Gareth’s private life might have rendered him unsuitable’ for MI6.

She replied: ‘There is no set template for what their lifestyle should be.

'Individuals have lifestyle and sexual choices and preferences which are perfectly legitimate.’

The inquest heard Mr Williams made a ‘small number’ of illicit searches on the MI6 database that could have left him vulnerable to blackmail by foreign agents.

But colleagues said there was no evidence he was targeted by a foreign power.

His family fear the ‘dark arts’ of the secret services may have been involved in his death or in a cover-up.

The MI6 officer apologised for the failure to act when punctual and reliable Mr Williams did not show for work.

Family members stormed out of the hearing sobbing after Mr O’Toole accused the secret service of ‘total disregard’ for his safety.

Denise Stanworth, a forensic scientist, said samples from Mr Williams’s body had been subjected to almost every test imaginable for evidence of suspicious substances and none was found.

Speaking about the party drug, she said she could not completely rule out that the spy had taken GHB but in her opinion it was unlikely.

She said it was far more likely to have been produced naturally following death.

The inquest continues.

Daily Mail : Lady's orange wig, lipstick and 'five regrets of the dying' newspaper cutting found alongside body of spy in the bag, and SOMEONE ELSE locked him inside

Lady's orange wig, lipstick and 'five regrets of the dying' newspaper cutting found alongside body of spy in the bag, and SOMEONE ELSE locked him inside

* Fragments of mystery DNA were found on bag holding body but were inconclusive and did not lead detectives anywhere, inquest hears
* Footage of Gareth Williams' body padlocked in a sports holdall in the bath
* Police release pictures of Mr Williams' flat as they found it
* Mr Williams' fingerprints were found in the flat, none were dusted on the bath's edge
* Court shown CCTV of his final days when he went shopping at Harrods

By Matt Blake and Chris Greenwood | April 24, 2012

DNA from a mystery third party was found on the padlocked bag in which the body of MI6 spy Gareth Williams was discovered, police said yesterday.

A Scotland Yard officer revealed that fragments of unidentifiable DNA were found on the zip toggle and small brass travel padlock alongside traces of the code-breaker’s blood.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said it showed that a third party must have padlocked Mr Williams, 31, in the bag and put it in the bath.

But she added that the riddle of how he died remains unsolved despite an exhaustive 21-month investigation.

Under questioning from a barrister representing his family, she admitted there was a surprising lack of forensic evidence in his flat. Anthony O’Toole said: ‘There is not one single scientific item in the flat that could lead to the identification of a third party, is there?’

Mrs Sebire replied: ‘I would not put it as strongly as that. There are unidentified components on the toggle.

‘There is further work to be done. I would not say forensic processing is at an end, although we have done the vast majority.

‘I have always been open-minded but it is my opinion that a third party was involved in that padlock being locked and Gareth being placed in the bath.’

The exchange took place during a dramatic second day of evidence at the inquest into the death of the intelligence service agent in August 2010.

His parents Ian and Ellen, from Anglesey, North Wales, walked out as a disturbing video of the interior of his immaculate flat in Pimlico, Central London, was screened.

It showed how his naked and decomposing body was found curled in a foetal position in a large red North Face holdall in the plain white bathroom.

Mr Williams was uninjured, the heavy duty bag was undamaged and his body position appeared 'calm' with his legs pulled up and arms folded over his chest.

Mrs Sebire told Westminster Coroner’s Court that if Mr Williams had got in the bag voluntarily she would have expected to find his fingerprints on the tiles. She would also have expected to find the fingerprints of whoever hoisted the bag into the bath.

But she added that there was no sign that the flat or the bag had been cleaned to destroy forensic evidence.

Asked if Mr Williams had tried to escape, Mrs Sebire said: ‘He was very muscular, he trained regularly. It is only my opinion but I would at least expect some tearing to the netting inside.’

There was no sign of a break-in at the two-storey flat, cash was left in a cupboard, a mobile phone on the living room table and a laptop on the floor.

Mrs Sebire said there was little mess, with books, CDs and clothes stacked neatly, although a dressing gown and quilt were discarded on the floor near the bathroom. ‘I found this difficult to explain because of his general tidiness,’ she said.

The inquest heard how a £20,000 collection of women’s clothing, including 26 pairs of shoes, some worth up to £1,000, were discovered in the flat. They included labels such as Christian Louboutin, Stella McCartney, Christian Dior and Chloe as well as wigs wrapped in net packaging which appeared unused.

Most of the items were boxed or wrapped in tissue paper and the only used items appeared to be four pairs of the size 6 and 6.5 shoes – Mr Williams’s size. A blonde and red woman’s party wig was left hanging from a chair. Lipstick, foundation and make-up were also found.

Mr Williams had kept a cutting from The Observer newspaper headlined ‘top five regrets of the dying’. The regrets detailed in the article – published on the last day he was seen alive – included failing ‘to live a life true to myself’.

Sian Jones, Mr Williams’s closest friend since they went to primary school, said she did not believe he was a transvestite. ‘I feel like he would have been able to confide in me... and I would not have judged him,’ she added.

She was asked if the spy was in love with her. Miss Jones said Mr Williams was very ‘fond’ of her and showered her with gifts of expensive clothes but they remained ‘just friends’.

The professional stylist said he had confided in her that he was unhappy in London and found it lonely because the MI6 office culture was ‘very cliquey’.

On Monday the inquest heard that Mr Williams, a keen cyclist, had applied to end his secondment to MI6 early and return to the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham, where he was a code-breaker.

The maths genius had been on secondment to SIS from GCHQ where he had worked since 2001.

But despite being available for operational deployment five months before his bizarre death he was desperate to leave London and had been due to return to Cheltenham a week after his body was found.

The newspaper cutting found near Gareth Williams' body was taken from an article printed in the Observer.

It was based on a book by a Australian palliative nurse Bronnie Ware who recorded the most common dying epiphanies of her patients.

They were:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not what others expected.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

His sister Ceri Subbe raised the alarm when she had not spoken to him for 10 days.

On August 23 an officer went to the top floor flat in Alderney Street, less than a mile to the agency headquarters, and found the decomposing body locked in a red North Face holdall.

Today the court saw footage of the large holdall, with Mr Williams inside, bulging in the spotless bathroom with a 15mm Yale brass padlock placed through the two zips where they eyelets matched where they closed at the top of the bag.

The other three North Face bags in the flat were locked with similar locks.

DCI Sebire confirmed that the call from Mrs Subbe was the first the police had heard of his disappearance despite the spook not showing for a meeting on August 16.

She took the family through his last days after he returned from a conference which he extended into a holiday in America on August 11 2010.

That day he shopped at Selfridge before being spotted on CCTV the next day at Harvey Nichols, Waitrose, and Harrods.

On August 13 he popped into the MI6 office before speaking to his sister then going on to watch 'tranny superstar' Jonny Woo at the Bistrotheque in Bethnal Green alone.

Over the next two days he was spotted shopping in Fortnum and Masons, Benetton and Harrods before eventually being seen returning to his flat at 3.05pm with bags of shopping. He was not seen again.

Despite the fears of the family that an agent of the 'dark arts' of the secret service had got rid of any evidence of what happened to him DCI Sebire today reassured the court that she had secured the crime scene and her team has 'primacy' in the investigation and no-one had entered the flat without her permission.

Earlier, his mother, Ellen, walked out on inquest proceedings amid family distress at delays in evidence.

Ellen Williams left the courtroom frustrated about legal submissions holding up the hearing into her son’s death, her lawyer said.

Proceedings were delayed by more than 30 minutes for a second day as a coroner denied media applications to allow a court artist to take notes.

The court has heard how the spy, whose body was discovered in a padlocked bag, was desperate to leave his intelligence post and complained about ‘friction’ at MI6 headquarters.

His family revealed that the 31-year-old was a ‘scrupulous risk assessor’ and a meticulous genius who colleagues compared to a Swiss clock.

But he had become disenchanted with a heavy drinking ‘office culture’, the London ‘rat race’ and work politics at the spy agency’s central Thames-side HQ.

He applied to end his secondment early and return to the GCHQ Government listening station in Cheltenham, where he worked as a highly prized code-breaker.

But just one week before he was due to leave, his naked and decomposing body was found in a large sports holdall in the bath of his home, sparking a huge police investigation.

On Monday, his grieving family attended the first day of a long-awaited inquest into his mysterious death.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox pledged to hold a ‘full and fearless’ inquiry as she heard how Mr Williams wanted to escape the ‘rat race’ of the capital and was frustrated that MI6 had been dragging its feet over the move.

The court heard how the spy was extremely conscientious and his family said he would never let anyone into his flat apart from them.

Meanwhile, MI6 was accused of failing to raise the alarm when he missed a key meeting one week before his body was found.

Revelations about his personal life and claims that no third-party fingerprints or DNA were found in his home fuelled speculation around the circumstances of his death.

The spy's sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest her brother was excited when he began what was supposed to be a three-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the Government listening station based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

But he missed the countryside and became disillusioned with the atmosphere at MI6's Vauxhall Cross headquarters in London.

'He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office,' Mrs Subbe said.

She added: 'The job was not quite what he expected. He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with.'

The inquest, in Westminster, heard details of the spy’s life, including how he went to university aged just 16, joining the University of Bangor’s computer science department.

It was also told how the successful cyclist and fell runner followed the arts and fashion and had a £20,000 collection of women’s designer clothing in his wardrobe.

Mrs Subbe said her brother was ‘the most scrupulous risk-assessor’ she had ever known. She said he would meticulously check his equipment before rock climbing, cycling and fell running.

The inquest, which is expected to last eight days, continues.

Daily Mail : MI6 spy found dead in a bag 'disliked the office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions' and dreamed of escaping the rat race, sister tells inquest

MI6 spy found dead in a bag 'disliked the office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions' and dreamed of escaping the rat race, sister tells inquest

* Gareth Williams was extremely 'security conscious' and would not have let strangers inside his flat
* He may have been considering leaving the security services to start up his own business
* Detectives say criminal charges are still a possibility, despite no suspects
* Four intelligence agents give evidence behind anonymity screens to avoid 'real risk of harm' to national security and international relations

By Chris Greenwood | April 23, 2012

A spy whose body was discovered in a padlocked bag was desperate to leave his intelligence post and complained about ‘friction’ at MI6 headquarters, his family said yesterday.

They revealed 31-year-old Gareth Williams was a ‘scrupulous risk assessor’ and a meticulous genius who colleagues compared to a Swiss clock.

But he had become disenchanted with a heavy drinking ‘office culture’, the London ‘rat race’ and work politics at the spy agency’s central Thames-side HQ.

He applied to end his secondment early and return to the GCHQ Government listening station in Cheltenham, where he worked as a highly prized code-breaker.

But just one week before he was due to leave, his naked and decomposing body was found in a large sports holdall in the bath of his home, sparking a huge police investigation.

Yesterday, his grieving family attended the first day of a long-awaited inquest into his mysterious death.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox pledged to hold a ‘full and fearless’ inquiry as she heard:

* Mr Williams wanted to escape the ‘rat race’ of the capital and was frustrated that MI6 had been dragging its feet over the move.
* The spy was extremely conscientious and his family said he would never let anyone into his flat apart from them.
* MI6 was accused of failing to raise the alarm when he missed a key meeting one week before his body was found.
* A sergeant described the moment he cut open the red North Face holdall and found the body of Mr Williams curled up inside.
* A constable who discovered the bag and raised the alarm noticed underwear neatly folded on a nearby bed and a woman’s wig hanging on a chair.

The death of Mr Williams in August 2010 triggered a painstaking investigation, worldwide media frenzy and a raft of conspiracy theories.

Revelations about his personal life and claims that no third-party fingerprints or DNA were found in his home fuelled speculation around the circumstances of his death.

His parents, Ian and Ellen Williams, listened as his sister Ceri Subbe told the inquest how he never spoke about his top-secret intelligence work.

Choking with emotion, she outlined the astonishing academic achievements that led him to his highly specialist job and passions for sport, fashion and the arts.

But Mrs Subbe said he disliked the office culture at the landmark MI6 headquarters on the south bank of the Thames.

She said: ‘He missed the countryside and longed to ride his bicycle in the open air without smog and the constant fear of being run over by a bendy bus.

‘He disliked the 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.’ Mrs Subbe said she last spoke to her brother on August 13, when he said he was looking forward to going to see a transvestite comedian.

She later found out he missed a meeting at MI6 that he was due to chair, but no one investigated why.

On August 23 PC John Gallagher was asked to conduct a ‘welfare check’ on Mr Williams’s flat when he failed to keep in touch and they could not raise him.

The officer described how the property was clean, tidy and unremarkable until he came across the holdall in the en-suite bathroom. PC Gallagher said: ‘I noticed that the side nearest the door had a round bulge.

‘I noticed there was a padlock with the two zips joined together. At this point I am realising it is something serious.’

He called Sergeant Paul Colgan, who used a knife to cut a three-inch hole in the bag, confirming a body was inside and alerting the murder squad.

Sgt Colgan said the heavy-duty bag concealed the smell of the decomposing body but once the hole was made the ‘smell became more than apparent’.

When Mr Williams’s sensitive job was discovered, detectives from the force’s Counter Terrorism Command were informed.

The inquest, in Westminster, heard details of the spy’s life, including how he went to university aged just 16, joining the University of Bangor’s computer science department.

It was also told how the successful cyclist and fell runner followed the arts and fashion and had a £20,000 collection of women’s designer clothing in his wardrobe. Mrs Subbe said her brother was ‘the most scrupulous risk-assessor’ she had ever known. She said he would meticulously check his equipment before rock climbing, cycling and fell running.

She added that her brother never told her he was being followed or felt threatened, saying: ‘I cannot think as to why anybody would want to harm him.’

The inquest, which is expected to last eight days, continues.

Daily Mail : Coroner to investigate the riddle of the spy in a bag nearly two years after his death

Coroner to investigate the riddle of the spy in a bag nearly two years after his death

* A hearing into Gareth William's death to be held in April
* His body was found in a padlocked bag in a bath

By Rebecca Camber | January 30, 2012

An inquest into the death of an MI6 spy is to be held nearly two years after his body was discovered in a locked holdall.

The bizarre death of Gareth Williams, who was found in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat, has baffled detectives.

Despite a series of toxicology tests and an exhaustive investigation into the 31-year-old’s background and his movements, police have been unable to establish what led to his death in August 2010.

Now Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner for Westminster, has announced she will hold a full hearing into the death of the spy in April.

She will hold a pre-inquest review on March 29 at Horseferry Road Coroner’s Court, with a full inquest expected to begin three weeks later.

The hearing is expected to call as many as 40 of Mr Williams’s colleagues from GCHQ and MI6 to give evidence, although their testimony is likely to be heard in secret to protect their identities.

The spy’s badly decomposed body was found on August 23 at his flat in Pimlico, barely a mile from the headquarters of MI6 in Vauxhall.

The property was used by MI6 as a safe house. Mr Williams, a cycling enthusiast, had not showed up at work for several days. But it was only when his sister rang police from her home in Chester to say she had not heard from him in over ten days that an officer went to the flat.

There he discovered Mr Williams’s naked body zipped and padlocked in a red North Face holdall. There were no signs of a struggle.

On a table were two iPhones, a number of SIM cards and an Apple notebook computer, suggesting that robbery had not been a motive.

There have been a number of conspiracy theories about Mr Williams’s death, including the possibility of an assassination by a foreign power.

Detectives have, however, discounted many of the more lurid suggestions.

At the time of his death, the mathematician had been seconded from GCHQ in Cheltenham to MI6 to work on top-secret computer systems to detect and prevent cyber-attacks on Britain’s banks and infrastructure and eavesdrop on terrorist communications.

Daily Mail : Russian Embassy car spotted near 'body in bag' spy's home days before he was murdered

Russian Embassy car spotted near 'body in bag' spy's home days before he was murdered

By Robert Verkaik | August 13, 2011

Cars registered to the Russian Embassy were spotted near the home of a British spy just days before his body was discovered in a locked holdall at his London flat.

The unexplained presence of Russian diplomats in the area will add to suspicions that the MI6 officer was killed because of his work.

Gareth Williams is believed to have been working on spy technology tracking the movements of Russian money into Europe.

The 31-year-old was last seen alive on August 15 last year – the same day a Kremlin car was identified near the officer’s Pimlico flat.

In the days before Mr Williams’s death, two cars with Russian diplomatic number plates were seen parked or driving close to his flat in Pimlico, Central London.

The vehicles’ details were logged by a former KGB agent who fled to London 12 years ago after defecting to the West and who lives near Mr Williams’s former home.

The 51-year-old, trained in surveillance and counter-surveillance, believes that the sudden appearance of the cars raises immediate suspicions.

He said: ‘I still have to worry about my own security, so when I saw these cars I was very concerned and at the time made a detailed note of each of the sightings. I hadn’t seen any Russian Embassy cars in the area before this and I haven’t seen any since.’

The former agent, who has just realised how important his sightings are after reading about the case, observed the vehicles on his daily walk to local shops which took him past the flat.

On August 15 the agent logged a dark blue BMW 3 Series bearing the diplomatic number plate 251D198 seen being driven slowly along a road 50 yards from the flat. Mr Williams’s naked body was finally discovered eight days later locked inside a large holdall in the bath at his top-floor flat.

CCTV images show him entering Holland Park Underground station at 3pm on August 14, three days after he returned from a holiday in the US, and he was spotted shopping in the West End and Knightsbridge.

Earlier, around midday on August 12, the Russian car had been logged by the former agent, parked close to the junction with the road where Mr Williams lived, with the driver inside and the engine running.

The Russian Embassy, where the car is based, is four miles away at Kensington Gardens.

The following day, the agent noticed another Russian diplomatic car, a blue BMW 3 Series bearing the diplomatic number plate 251D306.

This time the car was spotted in the multi-storey car park directly behind Mr Williams’s flat.

The agent saw the driver clearly and described him as male and aged 35 to 45 with a brown moustache.

He added: ‘I saw him because he had to get out of the car to pay for a ticket. To my mind, these suspicious appearances show that the Russians were working in the area and were keeping someone under close surveillance.’

It has since been claimed that Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from the Government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ, was working on equipment that tracked the flow of money from Russia to Europe.

Further suspicions that Mr Williams’s death is linked to Russia were raised when it emerged that his former flat is owned by private company New Rodina.

In Russian, ‘rodina’ means ‘motherland’ and the name The Rodina Society was used as a cover operation for KGB activity in the West during the Cold War.

The inquest into Mr Williams’s death – which sparked several outlandish conspiracy theories – resumes next month.

Up to 40 spies questioned by police could give evidence anonymously. No one has been arrested in connection with Mr Williams’s death.

Post-mortem tests have failed to determine how he died and detectives say it would have been impossible for him to lock himself in the bag. No evidence of drugs, alcohol or poison has been found.

A spokeswoman for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency said: ‘We are unable to help with identifying any cars with diplomatic number plates.’

A Whitehall source said police were investigating the case.

The Russian Embassy declined to respond.

Daily Mail : Did Russian mafia kill the body-in-a-bag spy? MI6 man found dead in holdall in London, was developing secret technology to track gangsters' laundered cash

Did Russian mafia kill the body-in-a-bag spy? MI6 man found dead in holdall in London, was developing secret technology to track gangsters' laundered cash

By Abul Taher and Robert Verkaik | June 25, 2011

The MI6 agent found dead in a holdall at his London flat was working on secret technology to target Russian criminal gangs who launder stolen money through Britain.

The revelation adds weight to claims that Gareth Williams was killed because of his secret work and raises the possibility that the Russian mafia has targeted British spies.

Mr Williams was found locked inside a large North Face holdall in the bath at his top-floor flat in Pimlico, Central London, on August 23 last year.

It was initially suggested that the 31-year-old died accidentally at the hands of a mystery bondage sex partner he may have met on London’s gay scene.

But now security sources say Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from the Government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ, was working on equipment that tracked the flow of money from Russia to Europe.

The technology enabled MI6 agents to follow the money trails from bank accounts in Russia to criminal European gangs via internet and wire transfers, said the source.

‘He was involved in a very sensitive project with the highest security clearance. He was not an agent doing surveillance, but was very much part of the team, working on the technology side, devising stuff like software,’ said the source.

He added: ‘A knock-on effect of this technology would be that a number of criminal groups in Russia would be disrupted.

‘Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams.’

Last year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Mr Williams, a keen cyclist from Anglesey, North Wales, was involved in another ‘secretive’ project, developing devices that can steal data from mobile phones and laptops using wireless technology.

A close friend also revealed that Williams was training to take on a new identity when he died.

Tory MP and security expert Patrick Mercer said last night: ‘The revelation that Gareth Williams was involved in investigating money-laundering throughout Eastern Europe throws new light on to his death.

'I am sure the police would want to investigate these facts as thoroughly as they have done the details of his private life.’

Neither GCHQ nor the Metropolitan police would discuss the new information.

The suggestion that Mr Williams died when a sex game got out of hand was raised when investigators found he enjoyed going to drag cabaret shows, had £15,000 worth of unworn women’s designer clothing in a wardrobe at his Alderney Street home, and had visited bondage websites.

But his family reject claims that their fitness-fanatic son was gay and have been angered at the way the police allowed his private life to dominate their inquiry.

The inquest into Mr Williams’ death – which sparked several outlandish conspiracy theories – will resume in September, when as many as 40 spies who have been questioned by police could give evidence anonymously.

A battery of post-mortem tests have so far failed to determine how he died and detectives say it would have been impossible for him to lock himself inside the bag.

No evidence of drugs, alcohol or poisons has been found but police said anyone zipped inside the bag would have suffocated within 30 minutes.

Coroner Paul Knapman adjourned an inquest in February while Scotland Yard detectives await the results of a fresh round of forensic tests.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire admitted the likelihood of tracing a Mediterranean-looking couple seen at Mr Williams’s home weeks before his death is diminishing.

Since the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Russian mafia gangs have infiltrated all parts of the Russian state and its economy.

They now control vast business and property interests outside Russia which are used to launder their fortunes, often made from state corruption.

The growing threat to the West posed by East European criminal gangs was confirmed last week when a major Ukrainian hacking ring was disrupted.

The 16-strong gang had funnelled £45 million from Western banks into accounts in Cyprus and Latvia, using a computer virus called Conficker.

One British source said: ‘Much of the Russian government at various levels, national and regional, operates like a kleptocracy, with bureaucrats visibly on the take.

‘Obviously we are worried if this money is pouring into London, and then into buying property or other assets such as companies or investments.

‘The fact is that London remains the financial centre of choice for most Russians.’

London and the surrounding area has one of the largest Russian populations of any city outside the former USSR, with up to 400,000 Russians living in the South East.

The capital has been nicknamed Moscow-on-Thames and Londongrad because of its population of wealthy emigrees, including respected tycoons close to strongman premier Vladimir Putin, such as Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, as well as some of the Kremlin’s most outspoken enemies, such as the billionaire Boris Berezovsky.

Daily Mail : Body-in-bag spy's teacher says lurid police claims about his private life were a 'decoy'

Body-in-bag spy's teacher says lurid police claims about his private life were a 'decoy'

By Abul Taher | January 23, 2011

A former tutor of the MI6 spy found dead in a padlocked sports bag has claimed that lurid allegations about his private life were a ‘decoy’.

Cheryl Eastap said suggestions from anonymous police and security sources that Gareth Williams was gay and a cross-dresser – denied by his family and friends – were ‘hurtful’.

And she hinted that the leaks may have been made to make it appear that his death was an accident rather than something more sinister.

Ms Eastap taught the 31-year-old GCHQ code-breaker at Central St Martin’s College in London, where he completed a part-time course in clothing design weeks before his body was found at his flat.

‘The police should not have leaked all these things about him. It was hurtful to his family and it was a decoy. I don’t think he was gay or a cross-dresser. Maybe he collected dresses – fashion students do,’ she said, referring to the fact that £15,000 of designer costumes were found in Williams’s Central London flat.

Ms Eastap said Williams did not need the outfits for her course. ‘Students have to buy their own materials, but the dresses they found in his flat had nothing to do with my course. He did not need them.’

Although Williams’s body was found five months ago, no one has been arrested over his death or questioned as a suspect, despite a high-profile investigation by Scotland Yard, with the assistance of MI5 and MI6.

In the days after Williams’s body was discovered, lurid reports appeared quoting unnamed sources which alleged he was a secret homosexual who visited the capital’s gay bars.

The sources said bondage equipment was found in his Pimlico flat as well as telephone numbers for gay escorts. The claims were later officially denied by the Metropolitan Police.

But last month police revealed that they had found women’s clothing and wigs at his flat. They added that Williams visited bondage websites and had a ticket for a drag comedy night.

Last month The Mail on Sunday interviewed Williams’s childhood sweetheart Sian Lloyd-Jones, 33, who said Williams usually bought expensive dresses for her and his younger sister, Ceri.

Miss Lloyd-Jones said the dresses could not have been for Williams as they were too small for him, and that he would have told her or his sister if he was gay.

Ms Eastap also dismissed news¬paper reports last week that Williams might have locked himself in the North Face holdall as some kind of ‘homework’ for her course, which was exploring confined spaces.

A Scotland Yard spokesman declined to comment on whether the leaks came from police, MI5 or MI6. He added: ‘The investigation is ongoing.’

Daily Mail : 'Spy in the bag' inquest delayed as police chase new leads

'Spy in the bag' inquest delayed as police chase new leads

By Mail On Sunday Reporter | January 16, 2011

The mystery over the MI6 spy found locked in a sports bag has taken a new twist after his inquest was delayed.

The hearing into the death of Gareth Williams, 31, was due to take place at Westminster Coroner’s Court on February 15, but it has now been adjourned and no new date has been set.

The postponement to allow further investigations by police will raise fresh questions about the baffling case.

Detectives are following new leads about a couple who called at his flat before he died. They have received several possible names for the man and woman who visited the codebreaker’s MI6-owned flat in Pimlico, London, in June or July last year.

Mr Williams’s body was found at the apartment inside a padlocked North Face holdall on August 23. Two post-mortems failed to establish how he died, while toxicology tests found no evidence of drugs, alcohol or poisons in his system.

At a Press conference last month, detectives issued e-fit pictures of the man and woman, both believed to be in their 20s and of Mediterranean appearance.

They were let into the block of four flats by a tenant on the ground floor. The couple told her they had keys to Mr Williams’s flat, number four, but said they were there to visit someone called Pier Paolo.

Daily Mail : No more leaks about this spy Gareth Williams... just the truth

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: No more leaks about this spy Gareth Williams... just the truth

By Mail On Sunday Comment | December 26, 2010

A spy dies in sad, complicated circumstances during the summer doldrums, causing grief for his family and triggering a welter of media speculation.

Five months later, despite intensive efforts by the police and security ser­vices, we are no nearer to discovering why the body of Gareth Williams ended up in a sports bag in an MI6 safehouse.

Lurid claims have been made about his lifestyle and alleged sexual proclivities – many traceable to sources in the investigation – only to be swiftly repudiated.

The aim appears to be to suggest that his demise was linked to his private life.

Now we are told that he was not a GCHQ analyst who spent his time geekily buried in his books: he confided to his (female) best friend that he was in the process of acquiring a second identity, which suggests that his professional life was far more hazardous than we have been led to believe.

As with the death of weapons inspector David Kelly – which has never been the subject of an inquest – the suspicion ­lingers that we are being denied the full story. The rash of conspiracy theories has been the inevitable result.

Next month there will be an inquest into the death of Gareth Williams, when we should be entitled to hear the truth about how and why he died. At least we hope that is what will happen. The recent record is not encouraging.

The hearing into the death of barrister Mark Saunders, killed by the police two years ago, was undermined by the fact that the police gave their evidence anonymously. They treated it so casually that some officers even incorporated song lyrics into their testimony.

Too often ‘security concerns’ are cited as a reason to limit access to the truth, undermining the basic constitutional principle that the Judiciary should operate separately from the Executive.

In the case of Mr Williams, we owe it to him, his family and his colleagues who risk their lives daily in the interests of our country, to hold a rigorous and fully independent inquest into his death.