Sydney Morning Herald : MI6 spy's death may have been linked to interest in bondage

MI6 spy's death may have been linked to interest in bondage

Vikram Dodd | December 24, 2010

LONDON: British detectives believe the death of the MI6 spy Gareth Williams will be solved by getting an insight into his private life after they revealed he had visited bondage websites and a drag club and had £15,000 ($23,000) worth of unworn designer womenswear in his wardrobe.

Mr Williams's decomposed body was discovered in a padlocked bag in his apartment, about a kilometre from MI6 headquarters in London where he was a senior analyst.

Police believe he died a week earlier, early on August 16, and that someone else was present. Tests have shown no signs of a struggle or forced entry and no sign that he was drugged.

Scotland Yard's detectives gave their best account of Mr Williams's death. They revealed:

He used his iPhone to visit websites on bondage and escaping from bondage.

He must have been padlocked into the bag by someone else as it was impossible for him to have locked himself inside.

Once in the bag, with the keys inside, he could have survived for only 30 minutes.

Four days before his death, he went to a drag club called Bistrotheque in east London to see an act called Jimmy Woo, and had tickets for two similar performances at a pub in Vauxhall, near MI6 headquarters.

When Mr Williams's remains were found by police on August 23, they also discovered £15,000 of unworn women's clothing, wigs and shoes in his wardrobe.

Speculation has been rife that Mr Williams's highly secretive work might explain his death. He worked as an expert on codes at the government's eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, in the west of England, before moving to MI6 on a secondment.

But Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, the head of homicide at Scotland Yard, said: ''This is not linked to his work - it's his private life.''

He said police had been reluctant to make public details of Mr Williams's private life, knowing it could prove distressing to his family, but were doing so now because his lifestyle could be important to solving whether his death was a sex game gone wrong, manslaughter or murder.

Superintendent Campbell said: ''Somebody must have been there to secure him in the bag on a voluntary or involuntary basis. If someone was there and it was a voluntary activity gone wrong, why not cut him free or call an ambulance?

''The alternative scenario is there is maybe something more sinister to it. We just don't know.''

Sydney Morning Herald : Bondage link to dead spy

Bondage link to dead spy

December 23, 2010

A British spy whose body was found padlocked inside a bag at his London flat in August visited bondage websites before his death and had a huge stash of women's designer clothes, police said on Wednesday.

Police probing the mysterious death of Gareth Williams, 30, a codebreaker for Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, said they remain convinced that someone else had helped to put him inside the holdall.

The revelations come after the inquiry increasingly focused on the reclusive intelligence agent's private life and moved away from speculation that his death was linked to his job.

Scotland Yard detective Hamish Campbell told reporters that investigators believed someone involved with the bondage or gay scene had "linked in" with Williams.

"We are very sure that someone else was in that flat. We want to know the circumstances when you would leave somebody in that position, by accident or design," he added.

Williams's had visited five bondage sites - including hogtie.com, boundanna.com and artofconstriction.com - between the end of 2009 and last July, said detective Jackie Sebire, who is leading the inquiry.

"The sites primarily feature women and there are guides on how to do certain things," Sebire told reporters.

No bondage equipment was found in the flat, she added.

Williams also visited a drag cabaret in east London four days before his death and held tickets to two more, she said.

In addition, Williams had £15,000 ($23,230) worth of unworn women's designer clothing including tops, dresses and shoes in his wardrobe, plus a number of women's wigs, said Sebire.

Labels included Stella McCartney and Christian Louboutin.

She said the clothes could have been linked to two fashion courses he attended at the famed Central St Martin's College in London in 2009 and 2010 - neither of which British intelligence knew he had attended.

Sebire said that an expert who examined the red North Face bag in which Williams's naked body was found on August 23 had concluded that he could not have locked it himself. The keys were found inside the bag.

Police were trying to trace a couple of Mediterranean appearance known to have visited his flat in late June or July.

Williams was last seen alive on August 15.

He died just days before completing a one-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, Britain's electronic "listening post" which monitors communications for intelligence purposes, located in Cheltenham, southwest England.

AFP

Sydney Morning Herald : Spy sex game may have caused death

Spy sex game may have caused death

September 13, 2010

A British spy may have locked himself inside a sports bag and suffocated during a sex game gone wrong, newspaper reports say.

A female police officer climbed into the large bag and locked herself in from the inside during a re-enactment of the events that are believed to have led to the MI6 intelligence officer's death, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported.

Gareth Williams, 31, was found naked inside the $250 North Face bag in the bath in his top-floor Pimlico apartment on August 24.

Police have worked for several weeks to determine the cause of death.

Initial toxicology tests showed no traces of alcohol or drugs in Mr Williams's system.

The results of further tests will not be known for at least a fortnight.

The latest theory is that the fitness fanatic managed to zip up the bag and padlock it from the inside for sexual kicks, the paper reported.

It is believed he might have panicked and suffocated after being unable to re-open the bag.

A key for the padlock was found next to his body, lending weight to speculation his death was an accident, the newspaper reported.

Erotic asphyxiation is defined as the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal.

A police spokesperson told the Mail: "It would be inappropriate to comment at this stage of the investigation. We are keeping an open mind about the case."

Mr Williams's family has accused the government of orchestrating a "dirty tricks" campaign to discredit him after reports that he was gay and a cross-dresser.

Police have denied claims that gay magazines, bondage gear and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near his body.

Investigators have also dismissed allegations of financial irregularities and that a top-secret laptop computer had gone missing from his flat.

Crucially, there was no evidence of violence and no cuts or bruises on his body, nor any sign of a break-in at his flat.

Mr Williams had worked out of the Government Communications Headquarters at Cheltenham, known as Britain's biggest listening post, but was on year-long secondment to MI6.

The 5000-strong GCHQ eavesdrops on global communications and monitors terrorist threats.

Yet during the past year, Mr Williams had moved to London and it was colleagues at MI6, across the Thames from his elegant London flat, who reported him missing.

Nobody knows what he was working on but the city apartment has been described as a far cry from the granny flat he had lived in at Cheltenham and to which he was to return on September 3.

The Cheltenham flat was "floral carpets, silk flowers and potpourri", London's Independent reported.

Mr Williams was from Anglesey in North Wales. He lived on his own and did not have a partner.

He has been described as a child prodigy who had a degree in maths at 17 and went on to obtain a PhD.

He had the highest security clearance available to an intelligence officer and was part of a secretive cell that created devices that could steal data from mobiles and laptops.

Mr Williams returned from a "planned holiday" in the United States on August 11, less than two weeks before his body was found.

Investigators found he had made several shopping trips to London's West End and Knightsbridge on August 14 and 15, the Mail on Sunday reported.

Mr Williams stopped by department store Harrods, then walked towards a nearby Dolce & Gabbana store, although he did not go in.

It was the last time he was seen alive.

Sydney Morning Herald : Family of dead spy furious at smears

Family of dead spy furious at smears

August 29, 2010

LONDON: The family of the British spy murdered in London have attacked ''completely false'' smears about his private life.

As police focused inquiries on Gareth Williams's close friends and associates, it was disclosed that the MI6 worker's parents were ''furious'' about claims that he had a double life.

His family suggested that reports he was homosexual or a cross-dresser were part of a deliberate campaign of misinformation designed to distract attention from the facts of the case.
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Police dismissed reports of bondage equipment being found in the London flat where the body of Mr Williams, 31, (pictured) was discovered, along with claims that his mobile phone contained numbers for male escorts.

Detectives began a second forensic sweep of the crime scene.

The question police are trying to clarify is why the killer ''or a partner'' placed Mr Williams's body in a large sports bag in the bath.

Police are working on the assumption that it is a murder but have not ruled out that Mr Williams could have died in a bizarre accident or from an accidental drugs overdose.

Mr Williams's parents, Ellen and Ian, who live in Holyhead, Wales, were said to be ''absolutely devastated'' and ''raw with emotion''.

William Hughes, the victim's uncle, said they were also ''very, very angry'' about reports of secrets in his private life.

''It is completely false,'' Mr Hughes said. ''The lad had been away from home for a long time. We did not know much about his private life but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay.''

The body of the agent, who worked for the Government Communications Headquarters listening station in Cheltenham and was on secondment to MI6, was found by police on Monday.

An autopsy was inconclusive.

Sydney Morning Herald : Cause of death still a mystery in case of 'brilliant' MI6 agent

Cause of death still a mystery in case of 'brilliant' MI6 agent

Paola Totaro | August 27, 2001

Speculation is becoming more feverish over the reason for the gruesome death of Gareth Williams, writes Paola Totaro in London.

IT BEARS all the hallmarks of a Cold War thriller - an athletic young recluse living in a chic London flat, a mysterious job working ''with codes'' and a violent death by unknown hands.

The murder of Gareth Williams - a 30-year-old communications officer seconded to the British Intelligence Service from GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), Britain's eavesdropping centre - has thrust a very private life into the glare of the public spotlight.

Williams was found in his top-floor Pimlico apartment on Tuesday night in a gruesome scene akin to a crime novel. His body, thought to have been decomposing for up to two weeks, was found stuffed into a large sports holdall, which had been placed in the bath.

Reports that he had been stabbed and dismembered have been denied but police appear to have confirmed that his mobile phone was found carefully laid alongside several SIM cards.

Speculation that he had been murdered because of his work erupted immediately: for the past few years, Williams had worked with GCHQ, Britain's biggest listening post. The 5000-strong organisation in Cheltenham eavesdrops on global communications and monitors terrorist threats.

Yet during the past year, he had moved to London and it was colleagues at MI6, across the Thames from his elegant London flat, that reported him missing.

Nobody knows what he was working on but the city apartment has been described as a far cry from the granny flat he had lived in at Cheltenham and to which he was to return on September 3.

The Cheltenham flat was ''floral carpets, silk flowers and potpourri'', according to an account in London's Independent. His imminent return to the little flat near GCHQ has now been linked to the possibility that the reason for Williams's death may have been rather more banal, and the work of a jealous lover.

Yet the spy connection has continued apace amid revelations that the chic property in Pimlico - rented to a succession of people with Cheltenham GCHQ links - was owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands called New Rodina, the term for motherland in Russia.

Neighbours are well-heeled, including former Conservative home secretaries Sir Leon Brittan and Michael Howard.

Williams's long-time Cheltenham landlady, Jenny Elliott, 71, has spent the past 48 hours talking to London's feverish press, describing the perfect tenant over 10 years, quiet, reclusive, seemingly without friends and visited by family only once.

Girlfriends were never seen, although he worked late into the night: ''All I heard was a tape recorder being rewound or listened to over and over, although he must have had his earphones in because I couldn't make out what it was,'' she told The Independent.

''He was an extremely intelligent person but would not talk about his job as it was a secret. All he told me was it was something to do with codes,'' she told the Telegraph. ''It's a real tragedy what's happened. Gareth was a really nice guy who was polite and mild-mannered and wouldn't hurt a fly. He was a cycling fanatic and was forever off on some bike ride or another.''

Williams was a maths graduate who began a masters in advanced mathematics at St Catherine's College, Cambridge. His family described him as ''brilliant'' and he had attended a special primary school, and university one day a week while at secondary school. In 2001, during the notoriously gruelling masters degree, he failed an exam and left the course, immediately beginning working at GCHQ.

His parents, from Anglesey, flew back to Britain from a foreign holiday to identify their son's body. A first autopsy on Wednesday failed to establish a cause of death, AFP reported. Further tests are under way.

Police will describe the death only as ''suspicious and unexplained'' and inquiries are also focusing on his lifestyle. It is believed he was on annual leave while he was missing, perhaps explaining the time it took to report his disappearance.

Sydney Morning Herald : UK police probe private life of dead spy

UK police probe private life of dead spy

August 27, 2010

The private life of a British code breaker found dead in his flat is being investigated amid speculation that he could have died during a sex game gone wrong.

Detectives investigating the murder of Gareth Williams are looking into the possibility that he lived a double life and may have known his killer.

A report in The Times on Friday claims that bondage gear and equipment associated with sado-masochism were removed from the 30-year-old's London apartment by police looking for clues.

Williams' decomposing body was found stuffed into a bag in the bath of his central London government flat on Monday.

But the mystery over his final hours deepened after a post-mortem examination failed to identify a cause of death.

Further tests will determine if Williams was asphyxiated or poisoned, as well as if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

A pathologist found Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police refused to categorise the death as a murder, despite the bizarre circumstances, as they insist he may have died innocently.

One line of inquiry is that he is the victim of a sex game that went wrong and questions remain over why he was not discovered sooner.

Williams was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of MI6 from his job at national "listening post", the GCHQ intelligence agency in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Police believe Williams' body could have lain undiscovered for up to a fortnight and it is thought he was on holiday at the time of his death.

They suspect the key to the case could lie in his private life and are examining his mobile phone and financial records as well as CCTV cameras around his home.

Sources played down speculation that the murder was linked to his secretive line of work.

Investigators suspect Williams might have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat.

On Thursday, Williams' parents travelled to London with his sister from their home in Anglesey, Wales, to speak to police and formally identify his body.

Further details of Williams continued to emerge on Thursday, as friends described him as an extremely bright, quiet and determined man.

Childhood friend Dylan Parry, 34, said Williams was academically gifted but socially naive and could be easily led.

He told the London Evening Standard: "He was the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level."

© 2010 AAP

Sydney Morning Herald : Police try to unlock secrets of murdered British spy

Police try to unlock secrets of murdered British spy

Paola Totaro | August 27, 2010

IT BEARS all the hallmarks of a Cold War thriller - an athletic recluse living in a chic London flat, a mystery job working with codes and a violent death at the hands of strangers.

The murder of Gareth Williams, 30, a communications officer seconded to the British intelligence service from GCHQ, the UK's leviathan eavesdropping centre, has thrust a very private life into the glare of the public spotlight.

The man was found in his top-floor Pimlico apartment on Tuesday night. His body, probably decomposing for up to two weeks, was stuffed into a large sports holdall that had been placed in the bath. Reports that he had been stabbed and dismembered have been denied, but police appear to have confirmed that his mobile telephone was found carefully laid out alongside several SIM cards.

Speculation that he had been murdered because of his work erupted immediately. For the past few years, the man had worked with GCHQ, a 5000-strong organisation in Cheltenham that eavesdrops on global communications and monitors the terrorist threat.

But during the past year he had moved to London and it was colleagues at MI6, just across the Thames from his flat, that reported the man missing.

It is not clear what he was working on, but the apartment has been described as a far cry from the granny flat he had lived in at Cheltenham and to which he was to return on September 3.

His imminent return to the little flat near GCHQ has now been linked to the possibility that Mr Williams's death may have been rather more banal and the result of a jealous lover.

And yet the spy connection continues amid revelations that the Pimlico apartment - rented to a succession of people with Cheltenham GCHQ links - was owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands called New Rodina, the term for motherland in Russia.

Neighbours include former Conservative home secretaries Sir Leon Brittan and Michael Howard.

The man's long-time Cheltenham landlady, Jenny Elliott, 71, has spent the past 48 hours talking to the press, describing the perfect tenant: quiet, reclusive and seemingly without friends. ''All I heard was a tape recorder being rewound or listened to over and over,'' she told The Independent.

''He was an extremely intelligent person but would not talk about his job, as it was a secret. All he told me was it was something to do with codes,'' she told The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Williams was a maths graduate who began a master's in advanced mathematics at St Catherine's College, Cambridge. His family described him as brilliant.

In 2001, during his master's, he failed an exam and left the course, and immediately began working at GCHQ, apparently seconded to MI6 a year ago.

His parents, from Anglesey, flew back from a foreign holiday to identify their son's body. A post mortem, including toxicology tests, is under way.

Police will only described the man's death as ''suspicious and unexplained''. Inquiries are focusing not only on his work but his lifestyle. It is believed he was on annual leave during the period he was missing, perhaps explaining the long time for his disappearance to be reported.

His landlady said he had told her he wanted to come back to Cheltenham because he ''missed the countryside''.