Scotsman : Gareth Williams death: Plans for DNA screenings as MI6 told to co-operate

Gareth Williams death: Plans for DNA screenings as MI6 told to co-operate

May 9, 2012

MI6 was warned today it is not above the law as Britain’s top police officer revealed proposals for mass DNA screenings in the long-running Gareth Williams investigation.

• Met Police Commissioner angered by communication breakdown
• MI6 under scrutiny after Gareth Williams inquest
• DNA screenings planned on a ‘voluntary basis’

An independent forensics review will form a central part of fresh efforts to solve the 21-month inquiry into how the codebreaker’s body ended up in a holdall, Scotland Yard’s Commissioner said.

Bernard Hogan-Howe has also told detectives to deal directly with the intelligence agency in a break with protocol at the Metropolitan Police.

Homicide detectives were previously forced to involve counter-terror colleagues in a bid to obtain statements and evidence from MI6.

But Mr Hogan-Howe was angered by the “unacceptable” breakdown in communication which saw evidence fail to come to the senior investigating officer until last week at an inquest.

When asked what powers he had to ensure MI6 co-operated, he told reporters: “It’s the law.”

He said mass screening in the case would be carried out on a “voluntary” basis.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: “Of course it may well be that Gareth Williams’ death has nothing to do with employment. All we need to do is to make sure that all areas of his life were fully explored.”

Members of the secret services have come under fresh scrutiny after the coroner at last week’s inquest said she was sure a third party locked Mr Williams inside the red holdall in which his naked body was found in his bathtub.

Giving her verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox said the 31-year-old was probably killed and it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death.

Scotsman : Gareth Williams inquest: Spies are far cry from the world of James Bond

Gareth Williams inquest: Spies are far cry from the world of James Bond

May 3, 2012

THE inquest provided a rare insight into the highly secretive world of Britain’s national security agencies.

But the picture of life working for government intelligence painted at the hearing was a far cry from the glamorous and dangerous world of MI6’s most famous fictional employee, James Bond.

It was bureaucracy and office politics rather than a succession of beautiful women, car chases and lucky escapes from certain death that made Mr Williams want to leave the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), as MI6 is known.

His line manager said he decided to quit because he was getting bogged down in the red tape of “process risk mitigation”. The SIS’s headquarters are in Vauxhall, south London, which is also home to one of London’s liveliest gay scenes.

But his boss – given the codename “SIS F” – indicated that what the maths prodigy got up to in his private life would not necessarily have stopped him carrying out his top-secret work.

She said: “There’s no set template as to what [an employee’s] lifestyle should be. Individuals have lifestyles and sexual choices which are perfectly legitimate. Our concern in the vetting process is to identify whether anything in the individual’s background, lifestyle, creates a risk for him.”

The inquest also undermined the image of MI6 as an ultra-slick agency able to locate anyone anywhere in the world within minutes. Mr Williams failed to turn up for a meeting at work at 3pm on August 16, 2010, but the SIS did not report him missing to police until 23 August.

SIS F blamed the week-long delay in alerting Scotland Yard on a “breakdown in communication”.

It is hard to imagine such an error getting past Miss Moneypenny, the super-efficient secretary to 007’s boss, M.

Scotsman : Gareth Williams profile: Maths genius with a solitary lifestyle

Gareth Williams profile: Maths genius with a solitary lifestyle

May 3, 2012

Gareth Williams crammed his life with secrets – in and out of work.

The 31-year-old excelled as a spy, producing “world-class” code-breaking intelligence for MI6 and the eavesdropping station GCHQ.

Colleagues, friends, family and police queued up to pay tribute to his extraordinary ability, which saw him land a first-class mathematics degree aged 17.

But the teetotal fitness enthusiast lived a solitary personal life that was dramatically removed from the world of espionage.

Police, who painstakingly pieced together his unlikely interests, discovered a fiercely private bachelor fascinated by women’s clothes and drag-queen culture.

He enrolled on a fashion course and collected £20,000 of unworn designer women’s clothing at his pristine flat, including 26 pairs of designer women’s shoes. Small and medium-sized dresses were hung up in his wardrobes, along with women’s wigs, including one Mr Williams had bought on a recent trip to Las Vegas.

Internet searches by Mr Williams and a video taken on his Apple iPhone suggested he wore the shoes.

The flamboyant interests were a far cry from the rigid discipline of work, where he was fast-tracked through the ranks at GCHQ before arriving at MI6 on secondment.

Stephen Gale, his boss at GCHQ’s Cheltenham base, said Mr Williams stunned fellow intelligence specialists with his code-breaking talents when he landed his first job at 21.

He cycled around the Gloucestershire hills “like a red bullet” but won the respect of his colleagues for his “warm smile” and sense of humour under pressure, Mr Gale said. Bosses were so impressed that they paid for him to gain further qualifications in advanced mathematics at Cambridge University.

Mr Williams had won two awards at GCHQ, one for a “Herculean effort” in his top-secret work, Mr Gale added.

But the keen cyclist and fell runner missed the countryside after arriving in London.

Sister Ceri Subbe said: “He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office.”

Ms Subbe said her brother was immensely close with his family, from Anglesey.

“In terms of a big brother figure, Gareth was perfect,” she said.

“It’s impossible to do justice to Gareth’s impressive character without meeting him.”

Mr Williams and Ms Subbe “had a truly magical time” during their last meeting for “dainty finger sandwiches” at the Ritz hotel, she said.

Scotsman : Gareth Williams inquest: Crucial evidence lost as MI6 dithered

Gareth Williams inquest: Crucial evidence lost as MI6 dithered

May 3, 2012

The bizarre circumstances of Gareth Williams’s death left detectives faced with a perplexing case, but mistakes made after he died hardly helped in the quest for answers.

A week elapsed before MI6 raised the alarm over the spy’s disappearance. With his undiscovered body decomposing, crucial evidence could well have been lost.

Various reasons for the delay were offered, based on false assumptions about the agent’s whereabouts. One MI6 line manager said he thought Mr Williams must be stuck on a train when he missed a meeting seven days before his remains were found.

Other colleagues believed for days he might be packing for his return to GCHQ from his MI6 secondment.

Scientists were left with little to go on when trying to establish how the spy died and could not rule out poisoning, despite lacking hard proof.

The slow response of the secret services was not the only error feared to have hampered the inquiry. As the inquest neared its end, MI6 and a senior detective were accused of failing to disclose vital evidence.

Nine computer memory sticks and a black bag were overlooked for 21 months after the death. The North Face bag – similar to the one in which the agent was found dead – was discovered by officers under his desk at MI6’s London HQ.

MI6 also examined computer equipment belonging to Mr Williams without telling police.

Det Con Colin Hall, of the Met’s counter-terror SO15 branch, said his search of headquarters offices was called off shortly after the death was discovered.

The case was then plagued by further false steps when forensic teams mistakenly identified what they thought was a significant spot of DNA on Mr Williams’s hand in 2010. It took them until March this year to realise it matched a scientist at the crime scene. Human error was blamed, with the wrong number for the sample being logged on a computer.

Scientific adviser Ros Hammond, of LGC Forensics, said she had never witnessed this sort of mix-up.

Scotsman : ‘Flash car contests’ and drinking culture at MI6, inquest told

‘Flash car contests’ and drinking culture at MI6, inquest told

April 24, 2012

AN MI6 codebreaker found dead in a sports bag had been unhappy living in London and complained about “friction” at the intelligence agency, an inquest has heard.

Gareth Williams, 31, hated the post-work drinking culture and “flash car competitions” at the Secret Intelligence Service, his sister said.

He was due to move back to the West Country a week after his naked body was discovered padlocked inside a holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, on 23 August, 2010.

The inquest into Mr Williams’s death began yesterday with evidence that Scotland Yard murder detectives were not able to speak to his MI6 colleagues directly.

Instead, specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 counter-terrorism command had to carry out the interviews and produce anonymous statements.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell said police were not shown any internal inquiry by MI6 into what happened to the brilliant codebreaker.

The spy’s sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest her brother was excited when he began what was supposed to be a three-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the government listening station at Cheltenham. But he missed the countryside and became disillusioned with the atmosphere at MI6’s Vauxhall Cross headquarters in London.

“He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office,” Mrs Subbe said. “The job was not quite what he expected. He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with.”

In April 2010 Mr Williams applied to return to GCHQ earlier than planned. MI6 “dragged their feet” in approving his request but eventually agreed.

Mr Williams, of Anglesey, north Wales, failed to turn up for a meeting at MI6 on 16 August, 2010, the inquest heard.

Mrs Subbe said she discussed her brother’s absence with one of his colleagues. “He is very conscientious,” she said. “The person I spoke to agreed, and said Gareth was like a Swiss clock – very punctual, very efficient, and it was very unlike him not to attend a meeting.”

The discovery of the spy’s body curled up in a large holdall at his top-floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, sparked a painstaking investigation, worldwide media frenzy and several outlandish conspiracy theories.

Mrs Subbe was asked about £20,000 of women’s clothes found in her brother’s flat after his death, but said it was “not particularly” surprising and suggested they could have been a gift. She told the inquest she did not believe Mr Williams would let a potential killer in his flat, adding: “I cannot emphasise enough his conscientiousness”.

Four intelligence agents will give evidence to the inquest anonymously after coroner Fiona Wilcox said there was a real risk of harm to national security and international relations if they were exposed.

Mr Williams was a mathematics prodigy who passed his O-levels aged ten, his A-levels a few years later, and studied at Bangor University when he was 16. He was a keen fell runner and mountaineer.

His sister said he was “the most scrupulous risk-assessor” she had known.

She said he would turn back a few hundred yards from the summit of mountains if there was the hint of adverse weather conditions.

Mrs Subbe said her brother never told her he was being followed or felt threatened in any way, adding: “I cannot think as to why anybody would want to harm him.”

Family members want to know why the alarm was not raised when Mr Williams initially failed to turn up to work.

By the time officers arrived at his flat, his body was so decomposed that evidence had been lost. Dr Wilcox has indicated she may want to see a practical demonstration of how Mr Williams might have got into the bag and locked it himself.

The inquest continues.

Scotsman : Murdered spy used bondage sites and kept female outfits worth £15,000

Murdered spy used bondage sites and kept female outfits worth £15,000

December 22, 2010

AN M16 codebreaker whose decomposing body was found zipped inside a holdall in his flat visited bondage websites in the months before his death, police have revealed.

Gareth Williams viewed webpages showing people bound and tied, which included do-it-yourself guides.

Detectives also found a 15,000 collection of unworn women's designer clothing, including tops, dresses and shoes in the 31-year-old's wardrobe.

They revealed he visited a drag cabaret in east London four days before his death and held tickets to two more.

One witness has also come forward to say he was at a popular gay bar in Vauxhall several months before his death.

Police also released two e-fits of a couple who they said were visiting Mr Williams's Alderney Street home in late June or July.

The casually-dressed Mediterranean couple, in their twenties, were buzzed through the communal entrance by a neighbour.

They suggested they had been given a key by "Pierre Palo" and were on their way to flat four.

Mr Williams's body was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat on 23 August. The keys were inside.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the inquiry, said she is convinced someone helped put him in there. She said police believe they will get to the bottom of the intensely private spy's death by studying his personal life.

Speaking at New Scotland Yard, she said: "We remain completely open-minded about how he died.

We are appealing to someone who is out there to come forward and tell us more."

The GCHQ codebreaker, who had been on secondment to the spy agency, was found dead by police after concerns were raised about his welfare.

The mysterious circumstances of his death sparked a frenzy of speculation.

No evidence of drugs, alcohol or poisons were found during a battery of tests conducted by toxicologists.

Mrs Sebire revealed the police have forensic evidence that other people were in the flat who they have so far been unable to trace.

She added that an expert, brought in to examine the red North Face branded holdall Mr Williams was found in, concluded he could not have locked it himself.

The zip was held shut by a common travel-style Yale padlock through holes in two zip fasteners.

Tests found the temperature inside the bag would have risen to 30C within three minutes.

An expert on survivability in confined spaces from the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said Mr Williams would have suffocated in 30 minutes.

Mrs Sebire said Mr Williams probably died in the early hours of 16 August, a week before he was found. She said there was no sign of injury, apart from bruising to his elbows, which might have taken place some time before his death.

Mr Williams, of Anglesey, North Wales, was last seen alive on 15 August, eight days before he was found dead in the 400,000 property.

Speaking about his private life, Mrs Sebire said a collection of six boxes of unworn designer clothing were found in a wardrobe. She said items by Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, and Louboutin had been bought at London boutiques and online.

The senior detective said the clothing was in various sizes, all small, and a number of women's wigs were also found.

But she added there was no evidence that Mr Williams was "obsessed" with bondage and no other pornography was found.

Scotsman : Further tests aim to reveal how MI6 spy died

Further tests aim to reveal how MI6 spy died

By Rory Reynolds | August 29, 2010

INVESTIGATORS are attempting to determine the exact cause of death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams, police said last night.

However, tests to establish whether the 30-year-old was poisoned, drugged or asphyxiated may not be completed until later this week and this will delay attempts to piece together exactly how he died. A post-mortem examination last week proved inconclusive.

Williams was last seen alive eight days before his corpse was found stuffed in a bag at his flat in Pimlico, London. A confirmed sighting of Williams, who was on a year-long secondment from GCHQ, was made on 15 August in London, officers said. But police would not say whether the sighting was made on CCTV or came from another source.

The inquiry is being led by the Metropolitan Police's Homicide Command with the support of security-vetted Counter Terror Command unit SO15. In an unusual move, Scotland Yard has denied rumours circulated by the security services about Williams' private life.

Intelligence community sources had claimed Williams was gay, had paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism in his flat and was linked to male escorts. However, police say the claims are unsubstantiated, sparking speculation that elements in the intelligence community have attempted to carry out a smear campaign against Williams.

Scotsman : Britain today: Spy 'could have died during sex game'

Britain today: Spy 'could have died during sex game'

August 27, 2010

The private life of British code breaker Gareth Williams, who was found dead in his flat, is being investigated amid speculation that he could have died during a sex game.

There were reports today that bondage gear was removed from the 30-year-old's London apartment by police looking for clues.

Scotsman : Spotlight on private life as spy murder mystery deepens

Spotlight on private life as spy murder mystery deepens

By John Fahey | August 27, 2010

Detectives investigating the murder of a British code-breaker were last night examining whether he lived a double life.

The spotlight was on the private life of GCHQ mathematics prodigy Gareth Williams, as investigators hunted for clues to identify his killer.

The 30-year-old's 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 has since deepened after a post-mortem examination failed to identify a cause of death.

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

A pathologist found that Mr Williams had not been stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police have refused to categorise the case as a murder inquiry, despite the bizarre circumstances, as they insist he may have died innocently. One line of inquiry is that he is the victim of sex game that went wrong, and questions remain over why he was not discovered sooner.

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

Police believe Mr Williams's 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.

Investigators suspect that Mr Williams might have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat in smart Alderney Street, Pimlico.

His home has been the subject of a fingertip search, amid fears that top-secret work material could have gone missing.

Mr Williams's parents, Ian and Ellen, travelled to London with his sister Ceri today from their home in Anglesey to speak to police and formally identify his body.

A man who answered the door of their home said: "As you can imagine, it is hard enough at the moment, and we have nothing to say."

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

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

Mr Parry, a volunteer at Westminster Cathedral, went to school with Mr Williams at Uwchradd Bodedern secondary in Anglesey, North Wales.

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

Mr Parry added that his friend was someone "people could easily take advantage of", that he was "naive" and a poor judge of character.

Fellow cyclists, including members of clubs in Cheltenham and Holyhead, paid tribute to Mr Williams for his skills after he clocked up a series of records.

One said: "People sometimes thought he was dense because he spoke rather slowly and sometimes seemed distracted. How wrong can you get?"

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said:: "I never spoke to him about his job or his private life. It was his cycling that we knew about."

Scotsman : Inside the secret life of British spook

Inside the secret life of British spook

By TOM PETERKIN AND MARK SMITH | August 26, 2010

THE Victorian splendour of the Pimlico flat where Gareth Williams' body was found in the most gruesome circumstances is in stark contrast to the spartan digs he inhabited while working in Cheltenham.

The sparse decor and modest kitchen of that Gloucestershire home is far removed from the two-storey flat within a five-storey townhouse in one of the most expensive parts of London.

Alderney Street, Pimlico, is also the home of two former home secretaries Michael Howard and Lord Brittan.

In Cheltenham, Mr Williams' flat with its single bed and small gas fire adjoins a property lived in by his landlady, Jenny Elliott. His bedsit is above the garage of Mrs Elliott's home and is conveniently close to the GCHQ complex.

Bereft of fancy furnishings, family portraits or homely touches, his digs give little clue about Mr Williams' background. Although the flat appears unsophisticated, it looks as if it has been tidied in anticipation of Mr Williams' return.

Yesterday Mrs Elliott said he had lived in a flat for 10 years and was preparing to return on 3 September.

"He phoned me a few weeks ago to say he was coming back," she said.

She described him as "a lovely guy, very friendly, very well-mannered and polite, and no trouble at all".

Mrs Elliott added: "He was often away. He went to America to work a lot and often combined it with a holiday because he hated flying."

Although a former Cambridge student, there was little in his background to suggest that Mr Williams would be a natural entrant into the world of spying.

He was brought up on Anglesey, attending Bodedern secondary school.

A talented pupil, he had extra tuition at both primary and secondary school before studying at Cambridge University.

He went to St Catharine's College to undertake a postgraduate certificate in mathematics in 2000 but dropped out a year later. His parents still live on Anglesey but it is understood they have been taken by police to London.

There have been a number of questions raised over the flat in Pimlico. The property was rented from a company called New Rodina, but details of the company ownership are hidden because it is registered in the British Virgin Islands and not listed with Companies House.

Land registry documents show only that the property was bought in 2000 with a mortgage from RBS.

Scotsman : Race to solve secret of grisly murder in an MI6 'safehouse'

Race to solve secret of grisly murder in an MI6 'safehouse'

By TOM PETERKIN | August 26, 2010

POLICE were last night investigating the murder of a British spy whose decomposing body lay for two weeks stuffed inside a large sports holdall in the bath of a smart London flat.

The discovery of the body of the former University of Cambridge student, named as Gareth Williams, led to feverish speculation about the nature of his death, with detectives trying to establish whether or not it was connected to his work with the intelligence agencies.

Mr Williams, in his 30s, was employed as a communications officer at the GCHQ "listening post" in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

But at the time of his murder, it is understood he was on secondment to Vauxhall Cross, the riverside headquarters of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, about half a mile from the flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico.

Officers discovered Mr Williams after breaking into the flat on Monday afternoon when the alarm was raised by colleagues who had not seen him for "some time".

They found his body, as well as his mobile phone and several sim cards, laid out nearby at the top-floor flat.

A Home Office pathologist yesterday began a post mortem examination to learn exactly how Mr Williams, died.

The officer was described by one Pimlico neighbour as "extremely friendly".

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

One source said: "The suggestion there is terrorism or national security links to this case is pretty low down the list of probabilities."

Whatever the cause of his death, Mr Williams' murder is a severe blow to MI6 and follows last month's court case that saw former MI6 worker Daniel Houghton admit charges of unlawfully disclosing top-secret material.

The Houghton case resulted in questions being raised about the suitability of the people being recruited by MI6.

Last night, the murder led to intelligence experts suggesting that if it was found Mr Williams had put himself in a dangerous situation, then more questions about MI6 vetting procedures would be posed. Writing in The Scotsman, Professor Anthony Glees, an academic specialising in intelligence matters, suggested that "these processes are not working as well as they should".

Professor Glees added: "It is always possible that Mr Williams was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

But Prof Glees, the director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham (BUCSIS), added: "It is peculiar if this flat was, as I suspect, a Secret Intelligence Service safehouse, that someone got into the house to commit the crime without being invited in. That would be very worrying."

According to Prof Glees, if a dangerous individual had entered the Pimlico flat because Mr Williams was speaking to him in a professional capacity, then there would have been someone else from the secret services present.

"Cases like this tend to have something to do with a person's private life - whether that it is something to do with unusual sexual activity or drug dealing," Professor Glees said.

The Pimlico flat's proximity to MI6's HQ and the fact that it is owned by a company called New Rodina, registered in the British Virgin Islands, led Professor Glees to surmise it was a secret services safehouse. The word rodina means "motherland" in Russian and Bulgarian.

The property was bought for £675,250 in 2000 and remortgaged twice.

Before Mr Williams' secondment to London, he had lived in a flat in Cheltenham for the last ten years. He was preparing to return there next month.

In London, neighbours described Mr Williams as an "extremely friendly" and athletic man who enjoyed cycling and had a strong Welsh accent.

Laura Houghton, 30, a secretary, said: "His windows were always shut and curtains were often closed. I could never tell if anyone was in.

"It was strange that we never saw him come and go. I just assumed he worked away."

Eileen Booth, 73, who lives opposite, said detectives told her the murder might have taken place two weeks ago.

"A few years ago, I would definitely have known who it was that had been killed. But nobody knows each other these days," she said.

The scene of the murder is a two-storey flat on a prestigious street among a row of expensive five-storey Victorian townhouses.

Residents of the prestigious street include former home secretaries Michael Howard and Lord Brittan. Public documents revealed several current and former residents of the freehold block have links to London and Cheltenham.

Last night, Mr Williams' parents were on their way to London. His uncle William Hughes said he had no idea of the type of work the spy did.

"He worked for GCHQ for many years. I knew he was working in London doing something," Mr Hughes said.

"He would never talk about his work and it felt rude to ask, really."