DAILY STAR SUNDAY : ‘SPY IN BAG’ OFFICER IS TAKEN OFF THE CASE

‘SPY IN BAG’ OFFICER IS TAKEN OFF THE CASE

Jonathan Corke | November 11, 2012

THE detective who tried to solve the “spy in the bag” riddle has been replaced – while colleagues who failed to tell her about evidence in the case have escaped a ­disciplinary rap.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire believed a third party was involved in MI6 worker Gareth Williams’ mysterious death two years ago in a central London flat.

But it emerged at the code-breaker’s inquest that evidence had been ­withheld from her for 21 months.

Mr Williams’ body was ­discovered in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in August 2010. Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s counter- terrorism SO15 unit, who liaised with MI6, failed to tell Det Chief Insp Sebire that nine computer memory sticks and a black bag belonging to the 31-year-old had been recovered.

She was only informed of the find at the inquest in May this year.

We can now reveal she was moved off the case after the inquest – and replaced by Det Chief Insp Matt Bonner.

But after our investigation, which the police tried to thwart, we have learned that no Met officer has faced disciplinary proceedings over failings in the probe which emerged at the inquest.

Detective Superintendent Mick Broster of SO15 was slammed by coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox over the way he handled the memory sticks and bag evidence.

The officer said he had been assured by MI6 that the items, which were found in Mr Williams’ work locker, were not relevant to the inquiry.

Sources close to Mr Williams, who was originally from Anglesey, North Wales, fear the case will never be solved and has been badly hampered by police and MI6 failures.

Gulf News : ‘I lost my youth in prison because of police blunder'

‘I lost my youth in prison because of police blunder'

Sam Hallam released after eight years in jail

Daily Mail, May 21, 2012

London: A shocking picture of the police blunders that caused a London teenager to spend nearly eight years wrongfully imprisoned for murder was revealed on Saturday for the first time.

Sam Hallam, just 17 at the time of his arrest in 2004, was freed on Wednesday by the Court of Appeal after it heard fresh evidence which demolished every aspect of the prosecution case.

In an interview on Saturday, Hallam also revealed that the police officer in charge of his botched case, Mick Broster, was the same detective whose subsequent investigation into the mysterious death of "body in the bag" MI6 agent Gareth Williams was strongly criticised by a coroner earlier this month.

Hallam, now 24, said: "When I was first arrested, I assumed I'd be home in a day or two, because I had faith in the system, and they had no credible evidence.

"Instead I went to prison and lost my youth, all because of the mistakes and errors made by the police and the courts. "They had the evidence all along that proved I wasn't lying.

"The Met must think Mick Broster is doing something right, because they promoted him, but he's not. Although the Williams case was also really important, he just went on making mistakes. There seems to be a pattern here.

"I'm not surprised he botched the ‘body in the bag' spy case. He's the one who stole eight years of my life for a murder I couldn't have done."

Hallam was convicted on the strength of flimsy witness statements, amongst other weak evidence.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force had nothing to add to a statement issued on Thursday, in which it expressed "regret: that Hallam had been wrongly imprisoned.

Express : DETECTIVE CRITICISED OVER TWO MAJOR CASES

DETECTIVE CRITICISED OVER TWO MAJOR CASES

By Danny Boyle and Roddy Ashworth | May 20, 2012

THE detective in charge of a botched murder case that saw a man wrongfully jailed also led the investigation into the death of MI6 agent Gareth Williams, it emerged last night.

Sam Hallam was freed last week after spending more than seven years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Mr Hallam was 18 when he was the victim of mistaken identity following the killing of a trainee chef in a gang attack at Clerkenwell, London.

Superintendent Mick Broster(corr) was heavily criticised for his handling of Mr Hallam’s case and for the probe into Mr Williams’s mysterious death by a coroner earlier this month.

Mr Hallam, 24, told a Sunday newspaper: “He’s the one who stole my youth for a murder I couldn’t have done.

“They had the evidence all along that proved I wasn’t lying.”

Daily Mail : I'm not surprised the detective in the 'Body In The Bag' spy case botched it. He's the one who stole eight years of my life for a murder I couldn't have committed

I'm not surprised the detective in the 'Body In The Bag' spy case botched it. He's the one who stole eight years of my life for a murder I couldn't have committed

By David Rose | May 19, 2012

Sam Hallam's wrongful life sentence triggered his grief-stricken father's suicide. Finally cleared last week, he tells his deeply shocking story.

A shocking picture of the police blunders that caused a London teenager to spend nearly eight years wrongfully imprisoned for murder is revealed today for the first time.

Sam Hallam, just 17 at the time of his arrest in 2004, was freed last Wednesday by the Court of Appeal after it heard fresh evidence which demolished every aspect of the prosecution case.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Sam also revealed that the police officer in charge of his botched case, Mick Broster, was the same detective whose subsequent investigation into the mysterious death of ‘body in the bag’ MI6 agent Gareth Williams was strongly criticised by a coroner earlier this month.

Sam, now 24, said: ‘When I was first arrested, I assumed I’d be home in a day or two, because I had faith in the system, and they had no credible evidence.

‘Instead I went to prison and lost my youth, all because of the mistakes and errors made by the police and the courts.

‘They had the evidence all along that proved I wasn’t lying.

‘The Met must think Mick Broster is doing something right, because they promoted him, but he’s not. Although the Williams case was also really important, he just went on making mistakes. There seems to be a pattern here.’

‘I’m not surprised he botched the “body in the bag” spy case. He’s the one who stole eight years of my life for a murder I couldn’t have done.’

Mr Broster, who was a detective chief inspector at the time of Sam’s arrest but subsequently promoted to superintendent, was heavily criticised in a three-year probe into Sam’s case.

Because the prosecution finally gave in last week and dropped its opposition to his appeal, much of the fresh evidence unearthed in the investigation from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and Thames Valley Police was never disclosed in court.

But the Mail on Sunday has obtained exclusive details of the case.

‘Chaotic' inquiries didn't follow leads

We CAN reveal:

* Mr Broster and his deputy, Detective Inspector Chris Jones, did not follow national police guidelines on how to sift and record evidence. Their own case files suggest they did not read vital witness statements. Yet Mr Broster declined to be interviewed by Thames Valley Police, and failed to answer some written questions.

* According to the Thames Valley officer who led the new probe, the Met investigation was ‘chaotic’ and ‘uncontrolled’. Flimsy, unreliable evidence pointing to Sam was pursued, while other, apparently more credible suspects were eliminated, with no reason being recorded. One was a youth found with the possible murder weapon, who was later jailed for seven years for possessing a sub-machine gun and dealing crack and heroin.

* Sam could have been released last year, but had to stay in prison because the Crown Prosecution Service repeatedly insisted it intended to contest his appeal – then changed its mind halfway through the hearing last week. Yet the CPS was given all the fresh evidence last July, while prosecution barrister David Hatton advised that the CPS might have to ‘reconsider its position’ many months ago.

The delay had tragic consequences. It meant Sam was unable to visit his grandmother, Audrey, before she died of cancer in February. The Prison Service refused to let him attend her funeral.

Sam’s other grandmother, Dolly Cohen, also died since his trial, and in 2010, his father Terry took his own life, aged 56, because ‘he just couldn’t take any more’.

Sam’s mother, Wendy Cohen, said the suicide was direct result of the pressures of dealing with their son’s wrongful imprisonment.

Sam turned down offers of payment from other newspapers to talk exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, the newspaper which has championed his cause.

In his interview, Sam said he found the deaths of his father and grandmothers ‘too painful to discuss’.

A slight, shy man, he became visibly emotional when the subject came up. ‘I’m only just starting to grieve,’ he said. ‘I’m finding it very difficult. When I was walking out of the court last week, I was dazed and terrified. I was hyperventilating, and I thought my legs were going to give way.’
Case built on flimsy evidence

Sam has always insisted he was nowhere near the fight between rival gangs on October 11, 2004, in Hoxton, East London, in which Essayas Kassahun, 20, a trainee chef, was hit on the head by a sharp object. He fell into a coma and died two days later.

‘I knew some of the people on both sides, from school and just from living in the area,’ Sam said yesterday. ‘They weren’t friends, but it’s a close community: everyone knows who everyone is. But all the people who did know me said the same thing: that I wasn’t there.’

Presiding over last week’s appeal, Lady Justice Hallett pointed out that although the six other youths who stood trial for the attack all admitted they were present, only Sam ever said he was not involved at all.

There was no forensic or CCTV evidence that suggested he was lying. As for the identification evidence that did put him there, it was, the judge added, ‘flaky’, based at best on the ‘fleeting glimpses’ snatched by two witnesses, Phoebe Henville and Bilel Khelfa.

‘I only knew Phoebe by sight, but not to talk to,’ Sam said. ‘Bilel was at my school, but not in my year.’

He added that he was not even aware that the fight had happened for two days afterwards.

But his nightmare began shortly after Kassahun died on October 13, when Henville, who was with her friend Sarah Beattie, pointed to Sam in a street around the corner from his home.

He said: ‘A few minutes later I ran into them again, and one of them said to me, “Are you proud of yourself? He’s dead now.” I didn’t know what they were talking about.’

Recalling these events, Sam broke down for a moment, holding his face in his hands. ‘I’m sorry’ he said. ‘I just hate going over it. I went over it all so many times when I was still inside. Now I wish I could start to forget it.’

A rumour was going around the area that the first name of one of the murderers was Sam, and when they encountered Mr Hallam, Beattie told Henville that his name was Sam Hallam.

Henville had already been interviewed by police once, making no mention of him. But now she made a new statement, claiming she had recognised him as one of the killers.
Back at home: Sam Hallam outside his house in Hoxton with his mother Wendy Cohen - he spent more than seven years behind bars for a murder he insists he did not commit and had his conviction quashed by judges today

Khelfa, a close friend of Kassahun, had also been interviewed by detectives for hours.

Despite being desperately keen to help find the attackers, he mentioned nothing about Sam, nor anyone who resembled him.

But after talking to Henville, he too changed his story, claiming he had seen Sam standing over Kassahun with a baseball bat with a screw or nail protruding from its end.

He claimed he only mentioned this now because although his friend was lying in a coma, previously he had not taken the police investigation seriously – something that Lady Justice Hallett found ‘incredible’.

‘Verdict was the worst day of my life’

Sam was arrested on October 20. But he had faith that he would soon be cleared, given that he had never been in trouble with the police. At the time, he was working for his father in his kitchen-fitting business: ‘We were so close. I was his little helper, his handyman,’ he says proudly.

But although he was shocked to be charged and remanded in custody, he was sure the jury would find him not guilty – especially when Khelfa said in the witness box that Sam had not been at the fight at all, and even Henville admitted she was doubtful.

‘When Bilel retracted his statement and Phoebe said she wasn’t sure, I thought it was going to be thrown out,’ Sam said.

‘Everything was in my favour. I thought the case had collapsed. On the last day I packed all my stuff and took it to court because I thought I was going home.’

But his faith was misplaced. A year after the murder, Sam and another man, Bullabeck Ringbiong, were convicted.

‘It was the worst day of my life,’ Sam said. ‘When they announced the verdict, it felt as if my life was over. I couldn’t stand up. Everything went blurry, and I was shaking.

‘And then my own lawyers told me I had no grounds of appeal. So I thought, “That’s it.” ’

He was sent to Feltham Young Offenders Institution, a notoriously violent and insecure place in West London. ‘It was a tough environment,’ he said with a shudder. ‘Every day was awful. There may have been worse days and better days, but even the best days were terrible.’

‘From the start, this all smelled wrong’

Somehow, he managed to raise his hopes for his first, unsuccessful appeal in 2007, which was based on a legal argument that the evidence had been too weak to put before a jury.

By then, he had been transferred to a prison in Aylesbury, and Wendy went to visit him the day after it was dismissed.

‘It’s all been horrible, but that was the most horrible time of all,’ she said. ‘I still don’t know how he was holding himself together.’

Paul May, a veteran campaigner against miscarriages of justice, was already advising the family. After the failed appeal, he helped to organise a campaign for Sam.

He traced new witnesses who said he had not been at the fight, and in 2008, submitted an application to the CCRC. There it landed on the desk of investigator Glenn Mathieson. ‘From the start, the case smelled wrong,’ he said. ‘There was so little evidence.’

He obtained the entire case file from the Met, and as he worked through it, spotted an opening: crucial documents, which the police and CPS had failed to disclose to the defence.

They revealed that although there was indeed a rumour that a Sam had been at the murder, the police had initially been given the name of a different Sam entirely.

Mr Mathieson established not only that this person was real, he had close links with Ringbiong, the other man convicted of the murder.

His discovery prompted the CCRC to ask Thames Valley to carry out a full investigation. The conclusions reached by its team, led by Detective Chief Inspector Steve Tolmie, were devastating.

Yesterday Mr Tolmie, himself a seasoned murder squad chief told The Mail on Sunday. ‘The incident was chaotic, with a large number of young people, poor lighting, and poor quality CCTV.

‘The investigation required someone to take charge and ownership, and to give it a clear direction. That did not happen.’

Police flouted evidence guidelines

One reason was that Mr Broster was leading a further 14 major inquiries, most of them murders, at the same time – something Mr Tolmie described as ‘not acceptable for anyone’.

He said: ‘In the early stages, a case like this should take up 100 per cent of your time: you can’t afford to be dealing with anything else. That should be taken into account by the bosses – they should ensure you clear your calendar for as long as it takes.’

Mr Tolmie explained that long-standing national guidelines, which are drilled into detectives during their training and set out in thick manuals, are supposed to ensure the ‘quality control’ which was so conspicuously lacking in Sam’s case.

For example, every witness statement, interview or other inquiry document comes with a front ‘control sheet’, which the senior investigating officer and his deputy are meant to sign when they review the document. In the Hallam file, there are more than 800 such control sheets – not one of which was signed by Mr Broster or Mr Jones.

‘I suppose they could say they did check the documents but didn’t sign them,’ Mr Tolmie said. ‘But why would they do that?

‘This is the way you avoid errors. You simply have to be in control of the statements. The evidence suggests they weren’t.’

They also broke the rule that requires a log to be kept of all the documents which might have to be disclosed to the defence.

And after the first 48 hours, they failed to keep a ‘policy book,’ where they should have recorded all their decisions and the reasons why they took them.
Why was another suspect released?

One of the gaps in the record concerns a man called Tyrone Isaacs, who was arrested by the original inquiry. When interviewed, he made no comment.

At his home, police found a broomstick with a nail in it and a mobile phone without a back, of the same type as one stolen during the fight from Louis Colley, who was attacked with Kassahun but not killed.

A forensic lab found ‘a small dark hair’ and ‘debris that could include skin flakes’ around the nail on the broomstick. Unfortunately, by the time Thames Valley had it examined in 2009, it proved impossible to isolate a DNA sample, to see if this matched Kassahun.

Isaacs was released and the stick was returned to him, and the absence of a policy book meant no one could explain why this decision was taken. Just 14 months later, Isaacs was arrested and later convicted of possessing an Mac-10 submachine gun, two handguns and ammunition.

Similarly, the lack of records made it impossible to discover why the Met never examined Sam’s mobile phone. Had they done so, he would not have been convicted, because it contained photos that disproved the prosecution’s claim that he had concocted a false alibi.

They claimed this was evidence of his guilt to corroborate the ‘flaky’ identifications.

The Met claimed it could not ‘interrogate’ his phone because it was a new model, but as Lady Justice Hallett pointed out, all they needed to do was switch it on, press menu, and then go to photos.

They also had Sam’s number, which meant they could have established whether he was at the fight using ‘cell site analysis’ – a technique they employed with regard to other suspects.

'Even in prison, no one doubted me'

Last Thursday, just before the court handed down its judgement, Sam encountered Mr Tolmie and shook his hand.

‘It’s a moment I will always remember,’ Mr Tolmie said. ‘I’m used to investigating a crime in order to lock someone up.

‘The more I looked into this, the clearer it became that something wasn’t right. Justice has now been done.’

For Sam, the only good thing about going to prison was that ‘I don’t think I met anyone there who ever doubted me. Even the guards came out and wished me luck when I left to go to the appeal.’

From the moment the CCRC and Thames Valley began to investigate, his hopes were renewed. ‘Just to have someone looking at it was very encouraging,’ he said.

‘When I first met them and Steve Tolmie, they told me they were only doing their jobs. But it was my life, my freedom, and I cannot thank them enough.’

In July last year, the CCRC referred the case to the Court of Appeal. The Mail on Sunday’s Live magazine was given unprecedented access to the four-hour meeting which took that decision, and published an article in September.

Even though the CPS were made aware of the new evidence at the time, they persisted in their intention to fight the appeal right until the last minute.

Outside the court that released her son, Wendy said: ‘I knew this would happen, he should never have been in there. My family has gone through hell, it is like we were all being tortured.

Finally free, Sam told The Mail on Sunday that he ‘doesn’t yet know how I’ve changed, and until I settle down, I’m not going to. And for now, I don’t have a clue what I’m going to do’.

He added: ‘In prison, you know when dinner time is, when you’re going to bed, when you’re getting up. Now I have choices, and I don’t know what I’ll be doing in ten minutes, let alone tomorrow.’

Back home, surrounded by his family and the five close friends who continued to visit him every month of his incarceration, he says he is ‘starting to feel better’.

‘I thought it was going to feel strange, sleeping in a proper bed,’ he said. ‘It didn’t. Last night I had a bath, for the first time in more than seven years. It was wonderful.’

At the same time, he had missed so much. ‘When I was arrested, my little sister Daisy was eight. Now she’s a young woman, about to go to college. So much has changed.’ He added that he was determined to seek retribution from those who caused his ordeal.

‘The original police investigation was shockingly inept,’ his solicitor, Matt Foot, said yesterday. ‘The Mail on Sunday has now shown it was even worse than we imagined. We shall be exploring all the options to hold the police and those responsible to account for this dreadful miscarriage of justice.’

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the force had nothing to add to a statement issued on Thursday, in which it expressed ‘regret’ that Sam had been wrongly imprisoned.

Commander Simon Foy, in charge of all Met homicide cases, said he was unable to make more detailed comments.

---

HOW THE BLUNDERING OFFICER IS A CONSULTANT ON THE SIDE

Superintendent Mike Broster has been touting for consultancy work, despite being heavily criticised over his handling of the Sam Hallam and Gareth Williams cases.

The 49-year-old is using the high-level security clearance that allowed him to interview MI6 and GCHQ officers in the ‘body in the bag’ inquiry as a selling point to possible employers who view his profile on the LinkedIn website.

He makes clear he is available for ‘consulting offers, job inquiries and business deals’, alongside his CV setting out his experience.

On the site for professional contacts, Mr Broster boasts of his ‘proven track record in achievement at the highest level’ – even though the coroner in the Williams case and official investigators in the Sam Hallam case criticised him over the handling of evidence and witness statements.

The detective is leaving the Metropolitan Police later this year, where he is currently serving with the counter-terrorism command.

On his LinkedIn profile, he says: ‘I currently lead and direct a number of teams involved in counter-terrorism investigations and have led on a number of recent high-profile inquiries.

He adds that he had ‘vast experience of working with partner agencies nationally and internationally [and] of homicide and serious crime investigations both within London and nationally, reactively and proactive’.

At the inquest into the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams, Westminster coroner Fiona Wilcox said Mr Broster’s failures had hampered the inquiry and questioned his impartiality, a charge he denied.

After the investigation which led to the wrongful jailing of Sam Hallam, he was criticised for not following reasonable lines of enquiry and not being in control of all the evidence.

A Met spokesman said Mr Broster’s website was a private matter and that police officers are allowed to perform secondary jobs with the permission of the Met Commissioner.

NOLA : Naked spy died at hands of mystery killer, British coroner says

Naked spy died at hands of mystery killer, British coroner says

The Associated Press | May 5, 2012

LONDON -- Even after a coroner's verdict, it remains a mystery: A naked spy found dead in a locked bag, lurid details of a kinky sex life and allegations that someone in Britain's spy agencies may have been involved in his death.

A British coroner ruled Wednesday that another person was likely involved in Gareth Williams' death -- a finding that puts more pressure on police to uncover the cyberwarfare expert's killer and continue to investigate possibilities that include whether he could have died in a sex game gone awry or in a more sinister scenario that involved his counterterrorism work.

In Britain, coroners are asked to investigate unexplained deaths, and their findings can often carry weight as police investigations proceed.

Although Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the death of Williams, 31, will ever be "satisfactorily explained," she said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act." She also said it was possible that someone from one of Britain's spy agencies was involved.

Williams, described as an introverted math genius, worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ. But he was attached to the MI6 foreign spy agency when his remains were found in the bathtub at his London apartment on Aug. 16, 2010, just a few days after returning from a trip to the United States.

Forensic experts found about 20,000 thousand pounds, or $32,000, worth of luxury women's clothing, shoes and wigs in his apartment. Police also discovered that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia -- a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

William's landlord testified during the coroner's hearing that she once found him handcuffed to his bed. She said he had appeared embarrassed after asking for help.

Still, Wilcox said there was no immediate evidence of a sexual encounter gone wrong, of suicidal intent, or that Williams' death was linked to a supposed interest in bondage. She said, however, that tales about his sex life could have been fueled in an attempt to "manipulate the evidence."

In the past, spy recruits were often cautioned that their sex lives could make them vulnerable to blackmail.

The case has frustrated Scotland Yard detectives who have been investigating the case for 21 months now and say that the secrecy surrounding Williams' job has thwarted their efforts.

"Obviously a lot of information has come out through the course of this inquest which we have not been party to," lead detective Jackie Sebire said.

But Wilcox also criticized the police detectives.

Time and resources were wasted, she said, when forensic teams investigating a DNA sample taken from Williams's hand later turned out to belong to one of the forensic scientists. She also questioned the handling of William's iPhone, which contained deleted images of him naked in a pair of boots.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who was the police liason with MI6, said he had seized it from the spy's workplace and kept it until the next day when he gave it to another officer.

"I find this is either not what occurred ... or it demonstrates disregard for the rules governing continuity of evidence," Wilcox said.

Wilcox also criticized officers who interviewed Williams' colleagues without taking any formal statements.

"I find that this did affect the quality of evidence that was heard before this court," she said.

Still, the coroner said she had seen no evidence to indicate his death was linked to his work.

When the case emerged, some had speculated that he could have been the target of Russian criminal gangs or an al-Qaida extremist. Other media reports had said there had been a break-in at the property where he lived -- a building sometimes used by MI6 to house its agents.

Wilcox said while there wasn't evidence to support a specific verdict of unlawful killing -- which would need a high burden of proof -- it was her opinion that the spy was probably unlawfully killed.

She said while it appeared unlikely, speculation that British intelligence agencies may have had a role in the death continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry."

MI6 waited a week to investigate why Williams hadn't shown up for work -- a delay that made it difficult for Williams' family to identify his badly decomposed body.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a statement following the corner's verdict that he apologized "unreservedly" to the Williams family for the spy agency's failure.

During the coroner's hearing, MI6 accepted that Williams disliked the agency's boozy culture of post-work drinking and tedious bureaucracy, and had requested to return to his job at GCHQ.

One MI6 officer claimed that Williams hadn't been reported as missing because colleagues assumed he was preparing for his return to the southern England headquarters of the eavesdropping service.

Wilcox said it appeared unlikely that Williams could have climbed inside the duffel bag and locked it himself. Two different specialists attempted to recreate the feat without success. Williams was discovered in the fetal position inside the bag with two keys to the bag's padlock underneath his buttocks.

Pathologists told the inquest that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but said his cadaver was too badly decomposed to be certain.

Williams' family, who have been left distraught by parts of the inquest, did not speak outside court but offered a statement.

The family, from Wales, described Williams as a "special and adored son and brother" and said they "cannot describe the depth of the sorrow his absence leaves in our lives."

The police investigation is ongoing.

By Paisley Dodds, Associated Press
David Stringer contributed to this report.

Express : What Does MI6 Have To Say About The Spy In The Bag?

WHAT DOES MI6 HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE SPY IN THE BAG?

By James Gillespie | May 5, 2012

THE bizarre case of Gareth Williams has thrown the spotlight on an intelligence service whose shadowy work leads some critics to ask whether it has become a law to itself.

There is an address in South London where even the police can’t go. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the officer leading the investigation into the baffling death of MI6 agent Gareth Williams – the so-called “Spy in the Bag” case – must have wished her powers extended to 85 Vauxhall Cross. But they don’t.

That address is the home of MI6 and although Sebire is a highly-experienced murder detective she doesn’t have security clearance to even enter the building much less question its inhabitants.

Instead her investigation depended on the mediation of Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of SO15, the counter-terrorism branch, which works closely with the intelligence services.

Only in the final stages of the inquest into Williams’s death this week did it emerge that no verbatim notes were taken of interviews with his MI6 colleagues and that a black holdall and nine memory sticks had been found at his desk but not handed over to the investigating officers.

Now 50 MI6 staff are facing DNA tests after the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox, in a narrative verdict, ruled that it was likely Williams was “unlawfully killed”. Investigators are understood to believe that a colleague either from MI6 or the Government’s secret listening post at GCHQ was in the Pimlico flat when Williams died.

For his family – sister Ceri and parents Ian and Ellen – the inquest has raised as many questions as it has answered. And the most disturbing question of all is: does MI6 think it’s above the law?

The family has accused the intelligence service of withholding vital clues and failing to make “basic inquiries” until a week after Williams disappeared. “We are also extremely disappointed over the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information,” they added.

Dr Wilcox echoed those concerns when she said that the forgetfulness of some employees at MI6, where Williams was on secondment from GCHQ, “stretched probability” and she refused to rule out the possibility that someone from the world of intelligence was involved.

From the moment the 31-year-old’s body was discovered in a North Face bag in the bath of his flat the response of MI6 has been puzzling. It took staff seven days even to report Williams – a conscientious time-keeper – missing then they appeared keen for police to be first into the apartment that MI6 has used for many years as temporary accommodation for employees.

The flat’s heating had been turned up high, despite the warmth of August, speeding up the decomposition of the body. The placing of the bag containing Williams into the bath prevented the giveaway leakage of fluids through the floor.

There were suggestions that the flat had been “swept” by someone who was forensically aware, to remove as many clues as possible.

Dr Wilcox said there was no evidence to suggest MI6 was involved in the death but “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry” and she added that “many agencies fell short” in the aftermath.

Sir John Sawers, MI6 chief, has apologised “unreservedly”, saying that lessons had been learned. But have they?

The problem may be that deep within MI6, in its culture and attitudes, lies a belief that the law is for other people.

The very nature of its work (MI6 deals with foreign intelligence, MI5 with domestic) means it is often on the boundaries of legality. The service is already under investigation for its part in sending Libyan dissidents into the hands of Muammar Gaddafi’s secret police.

Conservative MP Andrew Tyne, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, this week called on Foreign Secretary William Hague to investigate whether MI6 officers had briefed journalists over the Libyan case – in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The 1994 Intelligence Services Act allows MI6 officers to carry out acts abroad that if done in Britain would be in breach of criminal law. It would be hardly surprising if that attitude spreads to their staff at home.

Michael Smith, author of SIX: The Real James Bonds, says: “MI6 would recoil at any suggestion that it sees itself as above the law but the inherent secrecy of organisations like MI6 does tend to make them think that keeping everything they do secret, even the slightest thing, is so important that it transcends everything else.

“We’ve definitely seen that here, which is why the coroner and some police officers are so angry, justifiably so.”

But who are the people who spend their days working in the modernistic building on the banks of the Thames at 85 Vauxhall Cross?

There are about 2,500 people working for MI6 of whom about half are support staff.

The others are divided into two types: Intelligence Branch (IB) officers and General Service officers.

General Service officers asses reports.

It is the IB officers who are the real James Bonds. They train in the "killing houses" of the SAS and SBS at Hereford and Poole and have their own firing range at the MI6 training school at Fort Monckton on the Solent.

Within their shadowy world there are as many tensions and disagreements as in any workplace but these are hidden. In the Williams case a senior MI6 officer identified as F blamed his subordinate G for a "breakdown in communications" but G was not disciplined and no one will ever know who they are.

But Williams was a computer expert on secondment from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. What sort of people work there?

“Geeks,” said one who knows GCHQ staff but did not want to be identified. “They are brilliant in languages, maths or computers but they tend to be the sort of people who don’t mix easily. At university they are always the top ones in their class but they’re loners. A bit awkward.”

That description certainly fits Williams. He was a fitness fanatic who loved competitive cycling but also had a £20,000 collection of women’s clothing in his flat. When it came to the inquest, friends were few and far between.

HOWEVER those who did know him believe the picture painted during the inquiry was misleading. Some have claimed the clothes were gifts for female friends and talk of him visiting claustrophilia websites turned out to be based on four visits in two years. Hardly evidence of a dangerous obsession, as Dr Wilcox pointed out.

Perhaps the truth about what happened to Williams has fallen victim to MI6’s rather ambivalent attitude to the law.

“The secret world lives in a bubble,” says Smith. “It very often seeks to keep secret even things that are freely available on the internet.”

Another intelligence services expert, author Michael Burleigh, says: “After imagining that it could outmanoeuvre Plod, meaning highly-competent detectives, MI6 needs to think about how it lost track of its ‘vital’ employee – for tracking people is what it allegedly does on a global stage.

“It needs also to think about how it can allay the understandable distress of the Williams family while helping DCI Sebire, who has every right to feel short-changed.”

By protecting its right to secrecy every step of the way in the case of Gareth Williams, MI6 may actually be doing nothing more than what it does best: keeping secrets. What it does not appear to have done is to have helped significantly in finding out the truth of what happened in that Pimlico flat.

And MI6 seems to have shown scant regard for the others involved, not least Williams’s sister and his parents.

Because MI6 appears to think of itself as being above the law it hasn’t convinced anyone that it did the right thing.

It has just made itself look guilty.

Telegraph : Tensions building between police and spies over Gareth Williams death

Tensions building between police and spies over Gareth Williams death

MI6 fear Scotland Yard is trying to make it a scapegoat for failings in the investigation into the death of the spy found dead in a bag, senior Whitehall sources said yesterday.

By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 4, 2012

Tensions are growing between the intelligence services and police following criticism by the coroner who investigated the death of Gareth Williams.

Concluding the inquest on Wednesday, Dr Fiona Wilcox said that “on the balance of probabilities” Mr Williams was “unlawfully killed” by a mystery third party.

Dr Wilcox criticised the delays in spotting Mr Williams was missing and apparent failures in the handling of potential evidence.

She also said raised that prospect that another spy may have been involved in the death and said it was a "legitimate line of inquiry" for police.

It emerged yesterday that officers were planning to take DNA samples of up to 50 spies as the inquiry in to Mr Williams’ death continues.

A senior Whitehall source said the intelligence services were "frustrated" by the suggestion they had not co-operated fully with the police.

The 31-year-old’s naked decomposing body was discovered in a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his Pimlico home in London in August 2010.

It had been there for a week without anyone raises concerns that the spy, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, had gone missing.

The inquest heard how nine memory sticks that may have belonged to the codebreaker and a bag similar to the one he was found dead in were discovered his office but never handed over to Met Police.

The coroner criticised MI6 and Det Supt Michael Broster, the head of the Met counter-terrorism team that acted as a conduit between the investigating officers and the intelligence services.

However, while MI6 has apologized for the flaws surrounding Mr Williams wellbeing, it has insisted it at no point withheld evidence.

A lawyer for the family has previously suggested someone expert in the “dark arts” of the secret service was linked to the death.

Scotland Yard refused to comment on what future inquiries may be made as a result of the review or whether there are any intentions to interview more intelligence officers.

A small number of them were originally spoken to by police but no formal statement was ever made and signed.

Forensic experts are still examining whether there is DNA on a towel found in the kitchen and hope to have a result within weeks.

An iPhone that was reset the day before Mr Williams is believed to have died also continues to be a focus for the police.

There is no evidence of any calls being made to or from it before it was effectively wiped but it was backed up to a laptop on the same day.

Dr Wilcox questioned whether it may have provided clues such as an arrangement to meet someone over the internet.

However, technology experts believe police failed to properly examine the phone because information could have been retrieved.

FOX : British spy likely killed by mystery person, coroner says

British spy likely killed by mystery person, coroner says

May 3, 2012

Even after a coroner's verdict, it remains a mystery: A naked spy found dead in a locked bag, lurid details of a kinky sex life and allegations that someone in Britain's spy agencies may have been involved in his death.

A British coroner ruled Wednesday that another person was likely involved in Gareth Williams' death — a finding that puts more pressure police to uncover the cyberwarfare expert's killer and continue to investigate possibilities that include whether he could have died in a sex game gone awry or in a more sinister scenario that involved his counterterrorism work.

In Britain, coroners are asked to investigate unexplained deaths, and their findings can often carry weight as police investigations proceed.

Although Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the death of Williams, 31, will ever be "satisfactorily explained," she said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act." She also said it was possible that someone from one of Britain's spy agencies was involved.

Williams, described as an introverted math genius, worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ. But he was attached to the MI6 foreign spy agency when his remains were found in the bathtub at his London apartment on Aug. 16, 2010, just a few days after returning from a trip to the United States.

Forensic experts found some 20,000 thousand pounds worth of luxury women's clothing, shoes and wigs in his apartment. Police also discovered that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia — a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

William's landlord testified during the coroner's hearing that she once found him handcuffed to his bed. She said he had appeared embarrassed after asking for help.

Still, Wilcox said there was no immediate evidence of a sexual encounter gone wrong, of suicidal intent, or that Williams' death was linked to a supposed interest in bondage. She said, however, that tales about his sex life could have been fueled in an attempt to "manipulate the evidence."

In the past, spy recruits were often cautioned that their sex lives could make them vulnerable to blackmail.

The case has frustrated Scotland Yard detectives who have been investigating the case for 21 months now and say that the secrecy surrounding Williams' job has thwarted their efforts.

"Obviously a lot of information has come out through the course of this inquest which we have not been party to," lead detective Jackie Sebire said.

But Wilcox also criticized the police detectives.

Time and resources were wasted, she said, when forensic teams investigating a DNA sample taken from Williams's hand later turned out to belong to one of the forensic scientists. She also questioned the handling of William's iPhone, which contained deleted images of him naked in a pair of boots.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who was the police liason with MI6, said he had seized it from the spy's workplace and kept it until the next day when he gave it to another officer.

"I find this is either not what occurred ... or it demonstrates disregard for the rules governing continuity of evidence," Wilcox said.

Wilcox also criticized officers who interviewed Williams' colleagues without taking any formal statements.

"I find that this did affect the quality of evidence that was heard before this court," she said.

Still, the coroner said she had seen no evidence to indicate his death was linked to his work.

When the case emerged, some had speculated that he could have been the target of Russian criminal gangs or an Al Qaeda extremist.

Other media reports had said there had been a break-in at the property where he lived — a building sometimes used by MI6 to house its agents.

Wilcox said while there wasn't evidence to support a specific verdict of unlawful killing — which would need a high burden of proof — it was her opinion that the spy was probably unlawfully killed.

She said while it appeared unlikely, speculation that British intelligence agencies may have had a role in the death continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry."

MI6 waited a week to investigate why Williams hadn't shown up for work — a delay that made it difficult for Williams' family to identify his badly decomposed body.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a statement following the corner's verdict that he apologized "unreservedly" to the Williams family for the spy agency's failure.

During the coroner's hearing, MI6 accepted that Williams disliked the agency's boozy culture of post-work drinking and tedious bureaucracy, and had requested to return to his job at GCHQ.

One MI6 officer claimed that Williams hadn't been reported as missing because colleagues assumed he was preparing for his return to the southern England headquarters of the eavesdropping service.

Wilcox said it appeared unlikely that Williams could have climbed inside the duffel bag and locked it himself.

Two different specialists attempted to recreate the feat without success. Williams was discovered in the fetal position inside the bag with two keys to the bag's padlock underneath his buttocks.

Pathologists told the inquest that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but said his cadaver was too badly decomposed to be certain.

Williams' family, who have been left distraught by parts of the inquest, did not speak outside court but offered a statement.

The family, from Wales, described Williams as a "special and adored son and brother" and said they "cannot describe the depth of the sorrow his absence leaves in our lives."

The police investigating is ongoing.

The Australian : More questions than answers after the inquest into MI6 spy Gareth Williams' death

More questions than answers after the inquest into MI6 spy Gareth Williams' death

Fay Schlesinger and Fiona Hamilton | From: The Times | May 3, 2012

THE death of the MI6 spy Gareth Williams is likely to have been "criminally mediated" by another person who locked him a sports holdall and placed it in a bath, a coroner has ruled.

The ruling came as MI6 and the police were accused by the coroner, Fiona Wilcox, of serious failings in the investigation.

The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), Sir John Sawers, apologised for adding to the "anguish and suffering" of the code-breaker's family, after his managers did not report him missing for more than a week, potentially allowing evidence to be lost.

Scotland Yard began a review of the 21-month inquiry last night, after the coroner and family levelled criticism at the relationship between the police counter-terrorism command, SO15, and the secret services.

The coroner found that Mr Williams died in the early hours of August 16, 2010, at the MI6-owned flat in Pimlico, Central London, where he lived.

He was probably alive when he entered the bag but succumbed either to poison or suffocation inside the holdall, Dr Fiona Wilcox said after a seven-day inquest.

She said: "I am satisfied ... that 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 on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully."

The inquest had focused on whether Mr Williams would have been able to lock himself inside the 81cm by 48cm bag.

After seeing footage of confinement experts trying to manoeuvre their bodies inside, Dr Wilcox said the the absence of foot and finger prints on the bath and tiles made her certain someone else put the bag in the bath.

The toggles were arranged with peculiar neatness, while someone may have tried to speed up the body's decomposition by turning on the heating despite the warm August weather, and disguised the smell using the bag itself, a screen across the bath and the closed ensuite bathroom door.

There was no evidence pointing to a culprit, and it was unlikely the death would ever be satisfactorily explained, the coroner said, though police said that they were following new leads that had emerged during the inquest.

During a two-hour narrative verdict, Dr Wilcox debunked a string of theories, many of which had some basis in evidence but had been embellished through lurid speculation in the media. There was no evidence that Mr Williams was a transvestite; the $A30,000 of unworn women's clothes in his wardrobe reflected an interest in high fashion, the coroner said. Some may have been gifts for his sister and friends.

Visits to bondage websites represented a tiny proportion of his online browsing and could not be seen as indicative of an active interest or having any link to his death, the Coroner said.

Dr Wilcox said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Mr Williams's death, because he socialised with very few people and would only allow those he knew to enter his flat. But she said "there was no evidence to support that he died at the hands of" spies.

Evidence of Mr Williams's death being linked to his work were also rejected by the coroner, as he was considered a "low-risk" employee. He was on a three-year secondment to MI6 from the Government's listening post in Cheltenham, GCHQ. He had not enjoyed the "rat race" in London, but was buoyant about a return to Cheltenham scheduled for a week after his death.

The coroner ruled out suicide and said: "I find that if he had got into the bag and locked himself in, he would have taken a knife in with him. He was a risk assessor." Speaking of the lack of prints in the bath, she added: "In relation to the prints found within the bathroom, in my view what was more significant was what was not found."

She said that "many agencies fell short", including the LGC Forensics, a contractor that chased a false lead for months after an administrative error. The Met's SO15 officers failed to take formal statements from Mr Williams's colleagues, some of whom later showed a remarkably poor memory of events. The coroner cast aspersions on evidence from Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who acted as a conduit between MI6 and the Met, after hearing that he seized an iPhone from Mr Williams's office containing a video of him naked but for a pair of boots, and kept it until the next day.

Dr Wilcox said: "I find this is either not what occurred - in which case how did he acquire this phone? - or it demonstrates disregard for the rules governing continuity of evidence."

Mr Broster had also faced censure for allowing MI6 to analyse and assess the relevance of evidence, including nine memory sticks whose existence was only revealed to the investigation's senior officer this week.

On MI6's failure to report the code-breaker's absence from work for a week, Dr Wilcox said she could "only speculate as to what effect this had" on the investigation. She said that evidence given anonymously by Mr Williams's MI6 line manager, Witness G, had "stretched bounds of credibility". Referring to the manager's recollection of attempting to contact Mr Williams on the day after the "punctual" worker failed to arrive at the office, the coroner said "there was no phone call".

Speaking through their solicitor, Mr Williams's family called on the Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to review the investigation. They said they were "extremely disappointed" at the secret services' "reluctance and failure" to make relevant information available. They also attacked the "total inadequacies" of the inquiry by SO15 into MI6.

The SIS said that Sir John Sawers "recognises that the Service's failure to act more swiftly when Mr Williams was first became absent has contributed to the anguish of his family. Gareth Williams was a man of remarkable talents which he devoted to public service. The work that Gareth undertook during his career ... made a real contribution to the security of this country."

An MI6 spokesman said: "We fully co-operated with the police and will continue to do so during the ongoing investigation. We gave all the evidence to the police when they wanted it; at no time did we withhold any evidence."

Martin Hewitt, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met, said that investigations into Mr Williams's death were continuing.

Independent : Spy Gareth Williams was probably the victim of a 'criminally mediated' unlawful killing

Spy Gareth Williams was probably the victim of a 'criminally mediated' unlawful killing

Kim Sengupta | May 3, 2012

Gareth Williams, the MI6 officer whose naked body was found in a padlocked bag, was probably the victim of a “criminally mediated” unlawful killing in which poison may have been used. That was the verdict reached yesterday at the end of a highly charged inquest into the death marked by accusations of an official cover up.

The discovery of 31 year old Mr Williams’ body, in a North Face holdall, in the en-suite bath of his flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, south west London, due to his profession as an intelligence cypher expert had resulted in international interest and speculation about what happened.

The conclusion reached yesterday by coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, effectively pointed towards murder by a “third party” who had apparently managed to eliminate any evidence of their complicity. However, because of a series of blunders, one of the most high profile murder investigations in recent times may never be solved.

“It is unlikely this death will ever be satisfactorily explained” Dr Wilcox, told a packed hearing with Mr Williams’ family, representatives of intelligence services, and senior Scotland Yard officers among those attending. “Most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered”.

She continued: "I find it more likely than not that Gareth entered the bag alive and then died very soon afterwards either from the toxic effects of carbon dioxide and heat before he was able to make a concerted effort to escape from some unknown poison dioxide and heat. “I am satisfied so that I am sure that a third party on the balance of probabilities locked the bag placed the bag in to the bath where it was found.”

The Coroner maintained that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the intelligence services were involved in the death of 31 year old Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ at the time, although she stressed "there was no evidence to support that he died at the hands” of a government agency.

But there had been repeated revelations of shortcomings in the inquiry and this week Westminster Coroner’s Court heard that potentially critical evidence, including nine memory sticks belonging to Mr Williams and a bag of the same make in which he was found, was only handed to police this week, 21 months after his killing in August 2010.

Dr Wilcox had been particularly severe in her criticism of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism command (SO15) which had been tasked with liaising between the murder squad and MI6. At one stage she accused a senior officer, Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of collusion with MI6 and “not being impartial” in the case.

The inquest had also heard that Mr Williams’ immediate superior at the intelligence service did not raise an alert for seven days after he had failed to turn up for work and basic procedures in such a situation were not adhered to. The resulting delay of seven days, decomposition of the body in the Summer heat, enclosed in a holdall, meant that vital forensic evidence was lost and Mr Williams’ parents could not view their dead son.

At the end of proceedings the inquest heard an unprecedented personal apology from Sir John Sawers, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] to Mr Williams’ family.

In a statement Sir John acknowledged that the “Service’s failure to act more swiftly when Gareth first became absent from work has contributed to the anguish and suffering of his family.

“On behalf of the whole organisation, we regret this deeply and apologise unreservedly. Lessons have been learned, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences".

Sir John continued: "Gareth Williams was a man of remarkable talents, talents which he devoted to public service. The work that Gareth undertook during his career both at Cheltenham and London made a real contribution to the security of this country and of its citizens. Gareth continues to be mourned by his friends and colleagues."

Members of Mr Williams’ family, in particular his mother, had been unable to sit through some of the more harrowing evidence. Yesterday, in a statement read out by their solicitor, Robyn Williams, they said, "To lose a son and brother in such circumstances as have been outlined during the course of this inquest only compounds the tragedy.

"Our grief is exacerbated by the failure of his employers at MI6 to take even the most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare, which any reasonable employer would have taken. We are also extremely disappointed at the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information.

"We would like to ask Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe to look into and review how this investigation will proceed in light of the total inadequacies of the SO15 investigation into MI6 during the course of this inquiry."

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sabire, in charge of the team investigating Mr Williams death, said” "I've always been satisfied a third party may have been involved in his death and the coroner has confirmed that in her finding today. "The inquest has raised several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry. I urge anyone who knew Mr Williams or had contact with him to search their conscience and come forward with any information about what had happened.”

3 News (NZ) : Coroner: Spy Gareth Williams likely slain by mystery killer

Coroner: Spy Gareth Williams likely slain by mystery killer

By Paisley Dodds | May 3, 2012

Even after a coroner's verdict, it remains a mystery: A naked spy found dead in a locked bag, lurid details of a kinky sex life and allegations that someone in Britain's spy agencies may have been involved in his death.

A British coroner has ruled that another person was likely involved in Gareth Williams' death - a finding that puts more pressure on police to uncover the cyberwarfare expert's killer and continue to investigate possibilities that include whether he could have died in a sex game gone awry or in a more sinister scenario that involved his counterterrorism work.

In Britain, coroners are asked to investigate unexplained deaths, and their findings can often carry weight as police investigations proceed.

Although Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the death of Williams, 31, will ever be "satisfactorily explained," she said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act". She also said it was possible that someone from one of Britain's spy agencies was involved.

Williams, described as an introverted math genius, worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ. But he was attached to the MI6 foreign spy agency when his remains were found in the bathtub at his London apartment on August 16, 2010, just a few days after returning from a trip to the United States.

Forensic experts found some £20,000 worth of luxury women's clothing, shoes and wigs in his apartment. Police also discovered that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia - a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

William's landlord testified during the coroner's hearing that she once found him handcuffed to his bed. She said he had appeared embarrassed after asking for help.

Still, Wilcox said there was no immediate evidence of a sexual encounter gone wrong, of suicidal intent, or that Williams' death was linked to a supposed interest in bondage. She said, however, that tales about his sex life could have been fuelled in an attempt to "manipulate the evidence".

In the past, spy recruits were often cautioned that their sex lives could make them vulnerable to blackmail.

The case has frustrated Scotland Yard detectives who have been investigating the case for 21 months now and say that the secrecy surrounding Williams' job has thwarted their efforts.

"Obviously a lot of information has come out through the course of this inquest which we have not been party to," lead detective Jackie Sebire said.

But Wilcox also criticised the police detectives.

Time and resources were wasted, she said, when forensic teams investigating a DNA sample taken from Williams's hand later turned out to belong to one of the forensic scientists. She also questioned the handling of William's iPhone, which contained deleted images of him naked in a pair of boots.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who was the police liason with MI6, said he had seized it from the spy's workplace and kept it until the next day when he gave it to another officer.

"I find this is either not what occurred ... or it demonstrates disregard for the rules governing continuity of evidence," Wilcox said.

Wilcox also criticised officers who interviewed Williams' colleagues without taking any formal statements.

"I find that this did affect the quality of evidence that was heard before this court," she said.

Still, the coroner said she had seen no evidence to indicate his death was linked to his work.

When the case emerged, some had speculated that he could have been the target of Russian criminal gangs or an al-Qaida extremist. Other media reports had said there had been a break-in at the property where he lived - a building sometimes used by MI6 to house its agents.

Wilcox said while there wasn't evidence to support a specific verdict of unlawful killing - which would need a high burden of proof - it was her opinion that the spy was probably unlawfully killed.

She said while it appeared unlikely, speculation that British intelligence agencies may have had a role in the death continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry".

MI6 waited a week to investigate why Williams hadn't shown up for work - a delay that made it difficult for Williams' family to identify his badly decomposed body.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a statement following the corner's verdict that he apologised "unreservedly" to the Williams family for the spy agency's failure.

During the coroner's hearing, MI6 accepted that Williams disliked the agency's boozy culture of post-work drinking and tedious bureaucracy, and had requested to return to his job at GCHQ.

One MI6 officer claimed that Williams hadn't been reported as missing because colleagues assumed he was preparing for his return to the southern England headquarters of the eavesdropping service.

Wilcox said it appeared unlikely that Williams could have climbed inside the duffel bag and locked it himself. Two different specialists attempted to recreate the feat without success. Williams was discovered in the foetal position inside the bag with two keys to the bag's padlock underneath his buttocks.

Pathologists told the inquest that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but said his cadaver was too badly decomposed to be certain.

Williams' family, who have been left distraught by parts of the inquest, did not speak outside court but offered a statement.

The family, from Wales, described Williams as a "special and adored son and brother" and said they "cannot describe the depth of the sorrow his absence leaves in our lives".

The police investigating is ongoing.

AP

Scotsman : Gareth Williams inquest: The seven unanswered questions

Gareth Williams inquest: The seven unanswered questions

May 3, 2012

Scotland Yard has vowed to pursue all new evidence which has emerged. But a source close to the inquiry said officers were still “some way off a breakthrough”.

Here is how the inquest has tried but failed to solve the riddle.

Q: Were secret agents specialising in the “dark arts” responsible for Mr Williams’s death in his Pimlico home?

A: Detectives have said from the start that third-party involvement was likely.

The fact there were no fingerprints at all in the flat suggested it had been professionally cleaned up. There were also nine computer memory sticks and a bag withheld by MI6.

Det Supt Michael Broster said: “I am not saying that a member of SIS [MI6] is not involved. I don’t know.”

Q: How was Williams able to get inside a holdall in his bathtub before padlocking himself in?

A: Bag expert Peter Faulding said even world-famous escapologist Harry Houdini would have struggled to squeeze himself in.

Mr Faulding tried and failed to carry out the task more than 300 times. But William MacKay, who made more than 100 attempts with a yoga-practising assistant, said: “I would not like to say that it could not be done.”

Q: Could a third party have been present when he died, despite no trace of DNA or fingerprints?

A: Forensic experts said it was entirely possible that someone could break in and kill Mr Williams without leaving any evidence.

Det Insp Sebire says she remains convinced someone was there. Forensic expert Ros Hammond said there were hopes of a breakthrough “within a matter of weeks” from DNA tests on a towel discovered in his kitchen.

Q: Why was there no sign of a struggle on his body? Could he have been drugged?

A: Poisoning and asphyxiation are the “foremost contenders” in causing Mr Williams’ death, pathologists said. But experts believe there would have been signs of damage to his fingers and hands if he had struggled to get out of the bag within the three minutes it would have taken to suffocate.

The fact that Mr Williams was dead for up to ten days before his post-mortem examination meant many poisons and/or bruise marks could have disappeared.

Q: Why did it take colleagues at MI6 more than a week to realise he was missing?

A: MI6 offered a range of excuses including his recent return from a trip to Las Vegas, delays on the trains and his imminent return to GCHQ.

Colleagues apologised to the family for the potential damage the mistakes did to the police inquiry.

Q: Has information been withheld because it could jeopardise secret security operations?

A: Family lawyer Anthony O’Toole was blocked on several occasions from asking detectives and MI6 about the use of an apparently unvetted estate agent to let Mr Williams’s flat. Relatives suspect the decision may have compromised the safety of the property. In addition, more than ten employees linked to GCHQ and MI6 were allowed to give evidence behind a screen to protect their identities.

Q: Could Mr Williams’s private life have had any significance in his death?

A: He had shown an interest in escapology and self-bondage. He once tied himself to his bed and had to be cut free.

But Det Con Simon Warren said Williams’s interest in bondage footage on his computer was “an isolated [incident] among other data”.

Telegraph : Police to take DNA samples from MI6 spy's colleagues as coroner says death was probably a crime

Police to take DNA samples from MI6 spy's colleagues as coroner says death was probably a crime

DNA samples from up to 50 colleagues of Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy found dead in padlocked holdall, are being taken by police after a coroner concluded he was probably "unlawfully killed".

By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 3, 2012

• Police to take DNA samples from up to 50 of spy's colleagues
• Gareth Williams was probably unlawfully killed - coroner
• 'Criminally mediated' - third party locked bag and placed in bath
• Spy probably died of poison or carbon dioxide inside bag
• Clothes did not fit codebreaker and probably bought as gifts
• Little evidence death due to bondage games
• Family calls on Met chief to review the case and SO15 'failings'
• MI6 chief Sawers apologises for delay in raising alarm

Officers suspect a member of the secret services was in the 31-year-old codebreaker's flat when he died and have already taken DNA swabs from 15 of his colleagues.

Investigators said that a green hand towel recovered from a shelf in Mr Wiliiams's kitchen could provide a breakthrough in the unsolved case after human traces were found on it.

The development came as coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox concluded that Mr Williams’s death most likely involved a third party and he was either poisoned or suffocated.

She said the possibility that a member of the intelligence services was involved in the maths prodigy’s death remained a “legitimate line of inquiry” for police.

The head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, apologised to Mr Williams’s family for failing to report him missing for a week.

In a statement, family members said the delay had “exacerbated” their grief. They also criticised the intelligence service for its “failure and reluctance” to make information available.

The Metropolitan Police announced an urgent review of the case after concerns were raised over how some evidence was handled by MI6 and counter-terrorism officers during the two-year investigation.

Martin Hewitt, a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, said the force was still investigating weak traces of DNA of at least two other people found in the flat in an attempt to identify a suspect.

Tests on whether there is a DNA sample on a towel found in Mr Williams’s kitchen could also be concluded within weeks.

There is also an investigation into whether a telephone that had been reset shortly before Mr Williams died could have held any clues. The coroner wondered whether it may have contained evidence of an arrangement to meet someone.

The naked, decomposing body of Mr Williams, a codebreaker on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the signals intelligence agency, was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, London, in August 2010.

Despite an intensive police investigation, no one has been arrested and the circumstances surrounding his death have remained a mystery.

At the end of an eight-day inquest, Dr Wilcox concluded that a third party was most likely involved, adding: “The cause of death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated. I am therefore satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully.”

Recording a narrative verdict at Westminster coroner’s court, she said that Mr Williams was probably alive when he entered the bag and died either from an “unknown poison” or was overcome by carbon dioxide in the tight space.

She criticised the way MI6 and Det Supt Michael Broster, of the Met’s counter-terrorism unit, had handled aspects of the case.

Det Supt Broster acted as a link between the intelligence service and the Met team investigating the death, headed by Det Chief Insp Jackie Sebire.

It emerged this week that nine memory sticks potentially belonging to Mr Williams and a sports bag similar to the one in which he was found were discovered at MI6 but never disclosed to DCI Sebire.

There were also concerns over what precautions were taken to ensure his belongings were secured at work following his death.

An MI6 spokesman added: “We fully cooperated with the police and will continue to do so during the ongoing investigation. We gave all the evidence to the police when they wanted it; at no time did we withhold any evidence.”

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

Police said they hoped the hand towel found in Mr Williams's flat would yield "very promising" results when it undergoes sensitive DNA testing in the coming 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."

This Is London : Police to take DNA from 50 MI6 agents who may have visited ‘spy in bag’ Gareth Williams

Police to take DNA from 50 MI6 agents who may have visited ‘spy in bag’ Gareth Williams

Justin Davenport and Paul Cheston | May 3, 2012

Scotland Yard is to take further DNA and fingerprint samples from MI6 colleagues of Gareth Williams, who was found dead in a bag at his flat.

Detectives said they are pursuing at least three leads and will take samples from anyone who might have entered the flat in Pimlico, where the spy’s naked body was discovered in the padlocked North Face holdall in a bath in August 2010.

One source close to the investigation said: “We will follow the evidence and we will not be taking no for an answer.”

Officers suspect that a member of the security services working for either MI6 or GCHQ was with Mr Williams in the flat on the night he died.

Efforts will focus on traces of DNA left on a toggle of the bag and DNA found on a hand towel — and a mobile telephone which had been re-set to factory settings an hour and a half before Mr Williams was last known to have used his computer.

Forensic science experts who helped with the DNA breakthrough in the Stephen Lawrence investigation that led to two murder convictions are now examining the items.

So far 15 of Mr Williams’s colleagues at GCHQ and MI6 have voluntarily provided DNA and fingerprints to police.

A coroner ruled yesterday that the 31-year-old spy from Anglesey was “probably unlawfully killed”.

In a narrative verdict at Westminster coroner’s court, Dr Fiona Wilcox said the cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been “criminally mediated”.

She said it was a legitimate line of inquiry that the GCHQ codebreaker — who was on secondment to MI6 — could have been killed by a colleague because he only let trusted people into his home.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, appealed to people who “knew Gareth or who had contact with him to search their conscience” and come forward with information.

Scotland Yard has launched a review of the handling of the evidence after it emerged that a senior counter terrorism officer did not tell colleagues investigating the death about items found in Mr Williams’s desk at MI6 headquarters.

The inquest heard how Detective Superintendent Mick Broster, who acted as the liaison between homicide officers and MI6, did not reveal that nine memory sticks and a holdall similar to the one in which the spy’s naked body was found, had been discovered at his desk.

Anyone with information is asked to ring 020 8358 0200 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

NZ Herald : Body in bag case: Spy likely slain by mystery killer

Body in bag case: Spy likely slain by mystery killer

May 3, 2012

Even after a coroner's verdict, it remains a mystery: A naked spy found dead in a locked bag, lurid details of a kinky sex life and allegations that someone in Britain's spy agencies may have been involved in his death.

A British coroner ruled that another person was likely involved in Gareth Williams' death - a finding that puts more pressure police to uncover the cyberwarfare expert's killer and continue to investigate possibilities that include whether he could have died in a sex game gone awry or in a more sinister scenario that involved his counterterrorism work.

In Britain, coroners are asked to investigate unexplained deaths, and their findings can often carry weight as police investigations proceed.

Although Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the death of Williams, 31, will ever be "satisfactorily explained," she said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act." She also said it was possible that someone from one of Britain's spy agencies was involved.

Williams, described as an introverted math genius, worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ.

But he was attached to the MI6 foreign spy agency when his remains were found in the bathtub at his London apartment on August 16, 2010, just a few days after returning from a trip to the United States.

Forensic experts found some 20,000 thousand pounds ($40,000) worth of luxury women's clothing, shoes and wigs in his apartment. Police also discovered that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia - a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

William's landlord testified during the coroner's hearing that she once found him handcuffed to his bed. She said he had appeared embarrassed after asking for help.

Still, Wilcox said there was no immediate evidence of a sexual encounter gone wrong, of suicidal intent, or that Williams' death was linked to a supposed interest in bondage. She said, however, that tales about his sex life could have been fueled in an attempt to "manipulate the evidence."

In the past, spy recruits were often cautioned that their sex lives could make them vulnerable to blackmail.

The case has frustrated Scotland Yard detectives who have been investigating the case for 21 months now and say that the secrecy surrounding Williams' job has thwarted their efforts.

"Obviously a lot of information has come out through the course of this inquest which we have not been party to," lead detective Jackie Sebire said.

But Wilcox also criticised the police detectives.

Time and resources were wasted, she said, when forensic teams investigating a DNA sample taken from Williams's hand later turned out to belong to one of the forensic scientists. She also questioned the handling of William's iPhone, which contained deleted images of him naked in a pair of boots.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who was the police liason with MI6, said he had seized it from the spy's workplace and kept it until the next day when he gave it to another officer.

"I find this is either not what occurred ... or it demonstrates disregard for the rules governing continuity of evidence," Wilcox said.

Wilcox also criticised officers who interviewed Williams' colleagues without taking any formal statements.

"I find that this did affect the quality of evidence that was heard before this court," she said.

Still, the coroner said she had seen no evidence to indicate his death was linked to his work.

When the case emerged, some had speculated that he could have been the target of Russian criminal gangs or an al-Qaida extremist. Other media reports had said there had been a break-in at the property where he lived - a building sometimes used by MI6 to house its agents.

Wilcox said while there wasn't evidence to support a specific verdict of unlawful killing - which would need a high burden of proof - it was her opinion that the spy was probably unlawfully killed.

She said while it appeared unlikely, speculation that British intelligence agencies may have had a role in the death continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry."

MI6 waited a week to investigate why Williams hadn't shown up for work - a delay that made it difficult for Williams' family to identify his badly decomposed body.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a statement following the corner's verdict that he apologised "unreservedly" to the Williams family for the spy agency's failure.

During the coroner's hearing, MI6 accepted that Williams disliked the agency's boozy culture of post-work drinking and tedious bureaucracy, and had requested to return to his job at GCHQ.

One MI6 officer claimed that Williams hadn't been reported as missing because colleagues assumed he was preparing for his return to the southern England headquarters of the eavesdropping service.

Wilcox said it appeared unlikely that Williams could have climbed inside the duffel bag and locked it himself. Two different specialists attempted to recreate the feat without success. Williams was discovered in the fetal position inside the bag with two keys to the bag's padlock underneath his buttocks.

Pathologists told the inquest that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but said his cadaver was too badly decomposed to be certain.

Williams' family, who have been left distraught by parts of the inquest, did not speak outside court but offered a statement.

The family, from Wales, described Williams as a "special and adored son and brother" and said they "cannot describe the depth of the sorrow his absence leaves in our lives."

The police investigating is ongoing.

- AP

Irish Independent : MI6 spy Gareth Williams: An enigma, in life and death

MI6 spy Gareth Williams: An enigma, in life and death

By Michael Burleigh | May 3, 2012

THE south bank district of Vauxhall, London, is famous for two principal reasons. After long spells at 54 Broadway in Victoria and Century House across Westminster Bridge, SIS (or MI6) took possession of its new headquarters at 85 Vauxhall Cross in 1995.

Staff dubbed Sir Terry Farrell’s vast cream and green-coloured ziggurat “Legoland”. It is also known as Babylon-on-Thames, for there are 60 terraces, as well as cameras surveying spiked railings from every angle. Staff enter and leave as inconspicuously as possible through electronic gates.

These look on to an establishment across the road called Roman Chariots Spa. For Vauxhall is also well known as “VoHo”, because of its dense concentration of gay clubs.

Some of these – The Hoist and The Spike, within the cavernous railway arches – cater to a specialist clientele which may well include adventurous heterosexuals. Their names indicate what happens within. A cottage craft industry has also sprung up in the area, including a black-painted Master of Leather shop offering bespoke harnesses and studded belts, when it opens after dark.

By some terrible coincidence, elements of these two worlds appear to have met in the macabre case of Gareth Williams. His decomposing body was found in a red North Face bag in the bath of his flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico on August 23 2010 – circumstances which have given rise to speculation that he died as a result of a bondage-related sex game.

The last evidence that he was alive was a week earlier, on August 16, when he logged on to a cycling time-trial website. The top floor flat was registered to New Rodina, a front for the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, for it was used by people visiting Vauxhall Cross, half a mile across the Thames. At the time, Williams was seconded from the Cheltenham-based communications intelligence agency GCHQ to SIS in Vauxhall Cross. It is mooted that he was involved in securing the computer systems of the Bank of England from hostile cyber-raiders. He was certainly well qualified. Having passed his GCSEs aged 10, Williams graduated with a First in maths from Bangor aged 17. Four years later, with a PhD under his belt, he was recruited by GCHQ. They sent him on an advanced maths course at Cambridge.

In many respects, the 31 year-old had a healthy extracurricular life. Raised on Anglesey, he adored the rugged outdoors. He loved cycling, climbing and fell-running and was extremely fit, lithe and strong. But he would appear to have had idiosyncratic sexual interests, though these have been downplayed by the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox, in her narrative account of his unexplained death.

Although his friends and family have put a favourable construction on the evidence, claiming that he was generous to his small coterie of girlfriends, Williams’s possessions included a woman’s wig and £20,000 of carefully stored designer clothes, though not necessarily in sizes that would have fitted him. A few days before his death he attended a show by the “Trannie Superstar” Jonny Woo, who blends fashion with transvestism for a variety of clubs and corporate clients. Police investigating Williams’s death also discovered a short film in which he “gyrated” for the camera, wearing nothing but leather boots; the coroner accepted that he derived a sexual thrill from women’s footwear, while noting that this might not be uncommon.

Several years before Williams’s death, his Cheltenham landlord and landlady had to cut through knots to free him when his cries for help led them to discover him tied up in his boxers on his bed. “Gareth, we cannot have you doing this,” exclaimed a perplexed Brian Elliot. The Elliots and Williamses never mentioned the incident again, though the Elliots decided that it did not involve escapology related to Williams’s secret work.

These snapshots from his private life suggest why a man in touch with his feminine side may have been unhappy at Vauxhall Cross, with its strong quotient of hard-drinking public schoolboys and ex-military types telling tales of derring-do in foreign parts. He had been granted a transfer back to GCHQ shortly before his death, and evidently felt ill at ease in London and alienated by SIS’s culture of red tape.

Certainly, Williams seems to have slipped through the net of modern human resources scrutiny. Although he was as punctual “as a Swiss clock”, Williams’s absence – including from a meeting he was supposed to chair – does not seem to have alarmed his SIS managers, an oversight for which Sir John Sawers, the head of SIS, apologised yesterday. But just as seriously, an organisation that positively vets its staff seems to have been surprised by Williams’s on-off interest in bondage and transvestism. In the past, SIS officers were supposed to report to their superiors anything which might be useful to blackmailers.

It is plausible that with SIS having to process a workforce that doubled after 9/11, no such attention was paid to a man who came in through the back door of GCHQ. How very modern, too, of his SIS line manager to claim that lifestyle and sexual preferences “would not in themselves pose a problem”. One is only surprised that they do not make available leaflets on safer autoerotic sex. Of course, people able to conduct double lives – like Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt or Kim Philby in earlier times – are as ideal for the secret services as those with unmemorable faces. But while homosexuality is unexceptional nowadays (and anyway there is no suggestion that Williams was gay), would an interest in bondage be a problem if the person sought to conceal it?

Then there is the investigation. Det Chief Insp Jackie Sebire is the detective charged with clearing up Williams’s death. Although a highly experienced homicide detective, she lacked security clearance to even enter SIS’s Vauxhall Cross headquarters; evidence, if one needs it, of the absurd levels of secrecy practised by Britain’s deep state. This meant that Sebire’s investigation relied upon the “mediation” of Det Supt Michael Broster, of SO15, the counter-terrorism branch, which works closely with the security services.

Imagine Sebire’s surprise that no verbatim notes were taken of interviews with Williams’s colleagues; and that the existence of nine memory sticks, and a black holdall, in or under his SIS desk, was revealed only in the final stages of the coroner’s inquest. Not that other agencies are entirely blameless, since the DNA evidence seems to have been contaminated by a scientific incompetent who put his palm on the bag in which Williams was found.

In addition to clumsy obstructions in the path of the police investigation, there are several disturbing aspects of this case. The coroner was rightly mystified by how the bag containing Williams got into the bath without his leaving foot or handprints on it. Getting into the bag would have been hard enough; it would have been incredibly difficult to fit a heavy and rigid body into it. So Williams was alive when he went in.

It could be that to focus on Williams’s alleged sexual proclivities exaggerates what were merely the tentative inclinations of a fundamentally private man. That is certainly how Williams’s friends and family feel. After all, in 1990 the young defence expert and former RAF helicopter pilot, Jonathan Moyle, was said to have died while engaged in autoerotic strangulation in a cupboard of his hotel room in Santiago, Chile. The fact that he was wearing a nappy indicates he fully intended to live, if you think about it. Details like the orange segment in his mouth were given prominence, as if he had died in a sex game that went wrong.

But Moyle appears to have uncovered illicit helicopter sales by the Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen to Saddam’s Iraq. Like Neil Heywood, the Briton poisoned recently in China, he seems to have poked his nose into some very murky business with undue self-confidence. A reconvened British inquest in 1998 found that Moyle had been unlawfully killed, probably by the needle mark in his leg that was missed by the initial police investigation.

As with the death of the government weapons expert David Kelly, speculation about another party’s involvement in Gareth Williams’s death will run and run. Suicide has been explicitly ruled out. After imagining that it could out-manoeuvre “Plod”, meaning highly competent detectives, MI6 needs to think about how it lost track of its “vital” employee – for tracking people is what it allegedly does on a global stage – and how it can allay the understandable distress of the Williams family while helping DCI Sebire, who has every right to feel short-changed. SIS director Sawers’s apology is a start, for otherwise we would be hearing much more speculation about whatever happened in Alderney Street. Does anyone remember the new dawn of greater transparency?

- Michael Burleigh

Sky (Au) : Lawyer claims MI6 involvement in death

Lawyer claims MI6 involvement in death

May 2, 2012

A lawyer representing the family of MI6 spy Gareth Williams whose body was found in a holdall has suggested the secret services may have been involved in his death.

Anthony O'Toole, the Williams' family lawyer, made the accusation in open court during the 31-year-old GCHQ code breaker's inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court.

The allegation came after it emerged MI6 failed to hand over nine computer memory sticks to Scotland Yard.

A black North Face holdall - similar to the one which Mr Williams was found dead in at his flat - was eventually passed to police.

The Metropolitan Police team investigating Mr William's death did not have direct access to his office.

Instead, the force's counter-terror SO15 branch, which has specialist security clearance, acted as a conduit between MI6 and the investigation team.

Two officers from the SO15 unit - Superintendent Michael Broster and Detective Constable Colin Hall - searched Mr Williams' MI6 office.

They only took three items - his phone, some notes and a copy of his birth certificate.

Asked why he did not take the memory sticks, Supt Broster said he did not think they were relevant - and admitted MI6 were left to examine them.

Mr O'Toole said: 'So if the person who killed Gareth Williams was a member of SIS (MI6) you would do nothing to investigate because you believed that organisation to be trustworthy?'

Supt Broster insisted MI6 had been fully co-operative.

The officer was also criticised by Coroner Fiona Wilcox, who told him he was offering 'total non-sequitur' reasons for failing to pass on evidence.

'I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case,' she said.

Mr O'Toole also accused DC Hall of failing to take the probe seriously.

'If this had not involved SIS and it was the Kray twins you were investigating, you would have gone into this in far more detail,' he told the officer.

Members of Mr Williams' family shook their heads as DC Hall revealed his search of Mr Williams' office was called off shortly after the spy was found dead.

Mr Hall said 'there was stuff in there of a sensitive nature' in the bag but, when asked what, he said he could not remember.

Mr O'Toole added: 'That's about as helpful as a London pea souper.'

Earlier, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the police officer in charge of the investigation, returned to give evidence to the inquest and told the coroner she had no knowledge of the memory sticks, or the bag, until this morning.

'Had I known about their existence, I would have expected them to be disclosed and any relevant information to be sent to my team,' she said.

It is not clear what relevance if any the sticks and the bag have to the investigation into Mr Williams' death, but DCI Sebire said that MI6 should have told her about their existence.

It was also disclosed that MI6 searched some of Mr Williams' 'electronic media' without telling the police.

'What I knew was that Gareth's email accounts had been checked but I did not know that other media had been checked,' DCI Sebire said.

Meanwhile, a forensic scientist has been asked to appear again at the inquest, and a new MI6 witness has been asked to give evidence anonymously.

The inquest is due to conclude on Wednesday, but there is a chance now it could continue for longer.

The painstaking investigation has drawn a 20-month blank for detectives.

On Monday, Ros Hammond, a police forensic scientist, expressed hope that tests on a green towel found in the kitchen of Mr Williams' Pimlico apartment could yield a breakthrough within a matter of weeks.

The inquest also heard from a forensic Scientist and from the pathologists who carried out three separate post-mortems on Mr Williams' body.

They told the court all their examinations had proved to be inconclusive, and spoke of the difficulties they encountered because Mr Williams' body was badly decomposed.

A period of up to 10 days passed between when they believe he died and when his body was first examined.

However Benjamin Swift, a Home Office pathologist, said that although the cause of death was 'unascertained', he believed that poisoning or asphyxiation such as suffocation were 'probably rather than possibly' to blame.

Tests on the Mr Williams body did not reveal signs of any poisons, but the experts said that they could not rule out the possibility that a poison could have disappeared as the body decomposed.