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

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

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

By Daniel Miller | May 6, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Star : COPS ‘WILL SOLVE’ SPY IN BAG DEATH

COPS ‘WILL SOLVE’ SPY IN BAG DEATH

May 6, 2012

POLICE have vowed to solve the mystery surrounding the death of the “spy in the bag” amid claims of a Secret Service cover-up.

Detectives are convinced MI6 spies are not telling all they know about Gareth Williams, 31, who was found naked in a padlocked holdall two years ago.

Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has the backing of Britain’s top cop, Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, to force them to come clean.

They have even threatened to drag in Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is overseer of MI6.

Spooks believe Mr Williams was either killed by a Russian or Chinese spy trying to turn him into a double agent, or that he died during a bizarre sex game that was part of his personal life that failed to show up in vigorous vetting.

A police insider said: “Scotland Yard will not give this up without a fight.”

NZ Herald : Body in a bag: Doubts over spy's state of mind

Body in a bag: Doubts over spy's state of mind

April 30, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The GCHQ warning has been seized on by Mr Williams' parents as possible evidence of a cover-up about the truth of what happened to their son. The intelligence services have always claimed the spy's death had nothing to do with his secret work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it is also used by security agencies from Britain and America to target hackers. The FBI has been reported to have sent teams of undercover agents to the conference to break up hacking cells, and al so to mount clandestine operations to recruit criminal hackers as informants.

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

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

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

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

The inquest heard of a transcript of the call, made at 4.41pm on the 23rd by senior GCHQ officer Helen Yelland, in which she said: He was last spoken to on Friday 13th. He was expected into work all of last week and did not appear. Both the landline and mobile phones are not picked up. The mobile is switched off. His sister was expecting to stay with him on Wednesday this week and she has not been able to contact him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MI6 has apologised for failing to raise the alarm about his disappearance, conceding the error may have hampered police inquiries. The inquest will tomorrow be told the results of an investigation into a second post-mortem examination ordered by the coroner's office in the days after Mr Williams' death.

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

During the inquest, spies from MI6 and GCHQ have given evidence behind screens to protect their identities and Foreign Secretary William Hague has signed an order prohibiting the disclosure of details of Mr Williams' work. The family's barrister, Anthony O'Toole, told the inquest that since MI6 performed such an important job it was even more vital that Mr Williams' team leader known as Witness G should have done more to raise the alarm about the spy's absence from work.

It took Witness G five days before he visited Mr Williams' flat. The team leader has told the inquest he had been preparing to go into the field on a secret operation in the week the Welsh spy went missing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Daily Mail

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

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

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

By Robert Verkaik and Stephanie Condron | April 28. 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SMH : British spy found in sports bag 'wanted out of MI6'

British spy found in sports bag 'wanted out of MI6'

Martin Evans, Tom Whitehead, London | April 25, 2012

THE British spy found dead in a padlocked sports bag in his London apartment in August 2010 hated the "flash car and drinking" culture of MI6 and complained of "friction" at work, his family told an inquest.

Gareth Williams, 31, told his sister, Ceri Subbe, he wanted to leave London because he did not like the "rat race" lifestyle and was unhappy working for the security services. He had applied to cut short his three-year secondment to MI6 and return to GCHQ, an intelligence agency that monitors communications, in Cheltenham but felt his superiors were "dragging their feet", Mrs Subbe told the hearing.

A date for his return was fixed for September 2010. His body was discovered in his Pimlico flat a week before he was due to return.
Advertisement: Story continues below

The spy's parents, Ian and Ellen, were on holiday in Canada, celebrating Mrs Williams' 50th birthday when they learned of their son's death.

The long-awaited inquest was opened at Westminster Coroner's Court on Monday to investigate the "highly controversial" death of Mr Williams. Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, has promised a "full, fair and fearless" inquiry in which no evidence will be heard behind closed doors. Up to 40 witnesses are due to give evidence, including intelligence officers, police, forensic experts and friends.

The family believes that a third party was involved in Mr Williams' death.

The naked and decomposing body of the maths prodigy, a cipher and codes expert, was discovered in a sports bag that had been locked from the outside and placed in the bath at his flat.

Lawyers for Scotland Yard said there was still a "real possibility" that criminal proceedings could arise.

Mrs Subbe described her brother as "the most scrupulous risk-assessor" she had ever known.

She said he would never have let anyone into his flat who had not been cleared by security.

She said he would turn back a few hundred metres from the summit of mountains if there was "the hint of adverse weather conditions", adding: "Better to be safe than sorry."

She said her brother never told her he was being followed or felt threatened in any way. "I cannot think as to why anybody would want to harm him."

The inquest heard how Mr Williams failed to turn up for a meeting at work on August 16 but the alarm was not raised until August 23 - by his family. After his death, Mrs Subbe described how she had spoken to a colleague about the missed meeting, "He said Gareth was like a Swiss clock - very punctual, very efficient, and it was very unlike him not to attend a meeting."

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, from the Metropolitan Police's homicide unit, said the force's SO15 counter-terrorism unit was called to assist, but its officers would not have had access to the flat without permission from the crime scene manager.

Four intelligence officers will be allowed to give evidence from behind a screen in the coming days after Dr Wilcox granted an application to keep their identity a secret. The request came from MI6 and GCHQ, backed by Foreign Secretary William Hague, amid concerns over a risk to national security if they were exposed.

The coroner will also allow some evidence to remain secret, including any information from foreign intelligence agencies, ongoing operations or details of secret service officers, methods and tactics.

TELEGRAPH

Windsor Star : Details emerge about life of murdered MI6 spy

Details emerge about life of murdered MI6 spy

The Daily Telegraph | April 24, 2012

The British spy found dead in a padlocked sports bag in his London apartment hated the "flash car and drinking" culture of MI6 and complained of "friction" at work, his family told an inquest Monday.

Gareth Williams, 31, told his sister, Ceri Subbe, he wanted to leave London because he did not like the "rat race" lifestyle and was unhappy working for the security services. He had applied to cut short his three-year secondment to MI6 and return to Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham but felt his superiors were "dragging their feet," Subbe told the hearing.

A date for his return was finally fixed for September 2010. His body was discovered in his Pimlico flat a week before he was due to return.

The long-awaited inquest was opened at Westminster Coroner's Court Monday to investigate the "highly controversial" death of Williams.

Dr. Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, has promised a "full, fair and fearless" inquiry in which no evidence will be heard behind closed doors. Up to 40 witnesses are due to give evidence at the hearing, including intelligence officers, police, forensic experts and friends.

The family believes that a third party was involved in Williams's death. Their lawyer has previously suggested experts in the "dark arts of the secret services."

The naked and decomposing body of the math prodigy, who was a cipher and codes expert, was discovered in a sports bag that had been locked from the outside and placed in the bath at his Pimlico flat in August 2010.

Police attended the flat after being alerted by his family, who were concerned that they had not heard from him for more than a week. The discovery led to worldwide speculation and conspiracy theories over how he died.

Lawyers for Scotland Yard said there was still a "real possibility" that criminal proceedings could be brought in connection with the death.

The first witness on the stand yesterday was Subbe, who said her brother had grown increasingly frustrated with his city life and wanted to leave.

Williams joined MI6 on a three-year secondment from GCHQ in 2009 but by March the following year his "enthusiasm had begun to fade," Subbe said.

In a statement, she told the hearing: "He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office."

In her oral evidence, she added that her brother, a keen cyclist, was a "country boy, and the city life did not quite suit him."

In an emotional statement, Subbe told the inquest that her brother had a wide range of hobbies including fell running, cycling, art and fashion.

Subbe was unaware of other aspects of her brother's life, however. He did not tell her that he had completed two sixweek fashion courses at St. Martin's College in London or that he had amassed more than $32,000 worth of female clothing at his flat.

Asked if she was surprised, she said: "I am not surprised. He was very generous with gifts."

Subbe suggested that he may have simply been collecting the clothing due to his interest in fashion and his desire to buy high-quality items. The hearing was told that the last time Subbe had spoken to her brother was on Aug 13, when he mentioned that he was planning to visit a comedy club with a friend where a transvestite performer was appearing.

Subbe described her brother as "the most scrupulous riskassessor" she had ever known.

She said he would never have let anyone into his flat who had not been security cleared.

Const. John Gallagher found Williams's body after being asked to make a check at an address in Alderney Street. He was let in by a member of staff from an estate agent that managed the rented property and found a pile of unopened mail, but otherwise the flat was tidy. In the bedroom, the duvet was half on the floor and there was a pile of neatly folded clothes on the bed.

In the living room he noticed a mobile phone on the dining room, with a woman's wig hanging on a chair. The lights were on despite it being 5 p.m. on a summer evening.

Gallagher told the hearing that when he entered the en suite bathroom he noticed a smell that he associated with dead bodies and saw a red North Face bag in the bath. "I lifted the bag up around six or seven inches," he said. "It was quite heavy and that is when I noticed a red fluid seeping out of the bag." After making a small incision in the bag, Gallagher said it was apparent it contained a decomposing body.

Four intelligence officers will be allowed to give evidence from behind a screen in the coming days after Dr. Wilcox granted an application to keep their identity a secret. The request came from MI6 and GCHQ, backed by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, amid concerns over a risk to national security.

The coroner will also allow some aspects of the evidence to remain secret, including any information from foreign intelligence agencies, ongoing operations or details of secret service officers, methods and tactics.

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Telegraph : Body in bag spy Gareth Williams 'hated London and wanted to leave MI6’

Body in bag spy Gareth Williams 'hated London and wanted to leave MI6’

The spy found dead in a padlocked holdall hated the “flash car and drinking” culture of MI6 and complained of “friction” at work, his family told an inquest on Monday.

By Martin Evans and Tom Whitehead | April 23, 2012

Gareth Williams, 31, told his sister, Ceri Subbe, he wanted to leave London because he did not like the “rat race” lifestyle and was unhappy working for the security services. He had applied to cut short his three-year secondment to MI6 and return to GCHQ in Cheltenham but felt his superiors were “dragging their feet”, Mrs Subbe told the hearing.

A date for his return was finally fixed for September 2010. His body was discovered in his Pimlico flat a week before he was due to return.

The spy’s parents, Ian and Ellen, were on holiday in Toronto, Canada, celebrating Mrs Williams’s 50th birthday when they learned of their son’s death.

CHARGES STILL POSSIBLE

The long-awaited inquest was opened at Westminster Coroner’s Court on Monday to investigate the “highly controversial” death of Mr Williams.

Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, has promised a “full, fair and fearless” inquiry in which no evidence will be heard behind closed doors. Up to 40 witnesses are due to give evidence at the hearing, including intelligence officers, police, forensic experts and friends.

The family believe that a third party was involved in Mr Williams’s death. Their lawyer has previously suggested experts in the “dark arts of the secret services”.

The naked and decomposing body of the maths prodigy, who was a cipher and codes expert, was discovered in a holdall that had been locked from the outside and placed in the bath at his Pimlico flat in August 2010.

Police attended the flat, which is less than a mile from MI6 headquarters, after being alerted by his family, who were concerned that they had not heard from him for more than a week. The discovery led to worldwide speculation and conspiracy theories over how he died.

Lawyers for Scotland Yard said there was still a “real possibility” that criminal proceedings could be brought in connection with the death.

DESPERATE TO LEAVE LONDON

The first witness to take the stand was Mrs Subbe, who said her brother had grown increasingly frustrated with his city life and wanted to leave.

Mr Williams joined MI6 on a three-year secondment from GCHQ in 2009 but by March the following year his “enthusiasm had begun to fade”, Mrs Subbe said.

In a statement, she told the hearing: “He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office.”

In her oral evidence she added that her brother, a keen cyclist, was a “country boy and the city life did not quite suit him”.

“Also, I think the job was not quite what he had expected,” she said. “There was a lot more red tape than he was comfortable with but more than anything he just wanted to get back to the countryside.”

In an emotional statement, Mrs Subbe told the inquest that her brother had a wide range of hobbies including fell running, cycling, art and fashion.

She said he was happiest when walking in the mountains or riding his bicycle in the countryside.

The hearing was also given a glimpse of the “incredibly close” family life of Mr Williams. Mrs Subbe said her brother returned home once or twice a month and they had a “truly magical time” during her last meeting with him in London. They had champagne in Mayfair before more champagne, cakes and “dainty finger sandwiches” at the Ritz hotel. “In terms of a big brother figure, Gareth was perfect,” she said.

THE £20,000 COLLECTION OF WOMEN’S CLOTHES

Mrs Subbe was unaware of other aspects of her brother’s life, however. He did not tell her that he had completed two six-week fashion courses at St Martin’s College in London or that he had amassed more than £20,000-worth of female clothing at his flat.

Asked if she was surprised, she said: “I am not surprised. He was very generous with gifts.”

Mrs Subbe suggested that he may have simply been collecting the clothing due to his interest in fashion and his desire to buy high-quality items. The hearing was told that the last time Mrs Subbe had spoken to her brother was on Aug 13, when he mentioned that he was planning to visit a comedy club with a friend where a transvestite performer was appearing.

HE PUT SAFETY FIRST

Mrs Subbe described her brother as “the most scrupulous risk-assessor” she had ever known.

She said he would never have let anyone into his flat who had not been security cleared.

He would turn back a few hundred yards from the summit of mountains if there was “the hint of adverse weather conditions”, adding: “Better to be safe than sorry.” She 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.”

The inquest heard how Mr Williams failed to turn up for a meeting at work on Aug 16 but the alarm was not raised until Aug 23 — by his family.

After his death, Mrs Subbe described how she had spoken to a colleague about the missed meeting, adding: “He said Gareth was like a Swiss clock — very punctual, very efficient, and it was very unlike him not to attend a meeting.”

DISCOVERY OF THE BODY

Pc John Gallagher found Mr Williams’s body after being asked to make a welfare check at an address in Alderney Street. He was let in by a member of staff from an estate agent that managed the rented property and found a pile of unopened mail, but otherwise the flat was tidy. In the bedroom, the duvet was half on the floor and there was a pile of neatly folded clothes on the bed.

In the living room he noticed a mobile phone on the dining room table alongside two sim cards, with a woman’s wig hanging on a chair. The lights were on despite it being 5pm on a summer evening.

Pc Gallagher told the hearing that when he entered the en suite bathroom he noticed a smell that he associated with dead bodies and saw a red North Face holdall in the bath. “I lifted the bag up around six or seven inches,” he said. “It was quite heavy and that is when I noticed a red fluid seeping out of the bag.”

He called for assistance and a colleague, Det Sgt Paul Colgan, inspected the bag. The detective told the hearing that after making a small incision in the holdall it was obvious that it contained a body.

COUNTER TERRORISM OFFICERS CALLED IN

Det Ch Supt Hamish Campbell, from the Met’s homicide unit, said the Met’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit was called to assist, but its officers would not have had access to the flat without permission from the crime scene manager.

He was not aware of any unauthorised inquiries being carried out by any agencies outside the homicide squad.

In a written statement submitted to the inquest, Vanessa Scott, who worked for the estate agent that managed the flat, said it was owned by a company based in St Hellier and “the Secretary of State” took over the tenancy in September 2003.

It was not clear to which department she was referring but the Foreign Secretary has responsibility for MI6. Jack Straw held the post at that time.

ANONYMITY FOR SPIES

Four intelligence officers will be allowed to give evidence from behind a screen in the coming days after Dr Wilcox granted an application to keep their identity a secret. The request came from MI6 and GCHQ, backed by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, amid concerns over a risk to national security if they were exposed.

The coroner will also allow some aspects of the evidence to remain secret, including any information from foreign intelligence agencies, ongoing operations or details of secret service officers, methods and tactics.

Telegraph : Secret meeting between MI6 and police hours after discovery of spy Gareth Williams's death

Secret meeting between MI6 and police hours after discovery of spy Gareth Williams's death

The head of MI6 met Britain’s most senior policeman hours after the discovery of the body of a spy inside a locked holdall.

By Patrick Sawer and Gordon Thomas | April 22, 2012

Sir John Sawers, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, held a secret meeting Sir Paul Stephenson, the then commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to discuss how Scotland Yard would handle the investigation into Gareth Williams’s death.

MI6 feared that detectives would extend their inquiries into sensitive areas, including the top secret nature of the work carried out by the 31-year-old codebreaker for both MI6 and the US National Security Agency (NSA), leading to potential breaches of security.

Intelligence sources claim Sir John sought assurances from Sir Paul that his officers would not stray beyond their remit during the investigation into the discovery of Mr Williams’s body inside a locked North Face holdall left in the bath of his Pimlico flat, in August 2010.

The revelation raises questions over the independence of the police inquiry and will add to fears in some quarters of a secret service cover-up.

It comes ahead of the opening of the full inquest into his death, due to open at Westminster Coroner’s Court this week.

Mr Williams, who worked at the Government’s listening centre GCHQ, was on secondment to MI6 when his body was found. The alarm was raised after he failed to turn up to work for over a week.

His family, in Holyhead, north Wales, believe his death may have been linked to his work at MI6, where he had recently qualified for “operational deployment”.

They fear that fingerprints, DNA and other evidence was wiped from the scene in a deliberate cover up.

Anthony O’Toole, the barrister representing the family, told an interim hearing ahead of the inquest last month that Mr Williams could have been killed by someone who specialised in “the dark arts of the secret services”.

He later added: “To properly explore the circumstances of his death we do need to know something of the deceased’s work.”

Among the matters discussed by Sir John and Sir Paul during their meeting, which is thought to have been held at Sir John’s private dining room at SIS headquarters, in Vauxhall, was the question of which senior officer was to head the investigation.

It is understood that Sir John expressed his satisfaction with the choice of Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire as lead officer in the inquiry.

An intelligence source said: “SIS wanted to make sure that the Met didn’t stray too far into the question of what Gareth Williams’s job entailed. They did not want any potential leaks over the nature of his work for the NSA, GCHQ or MI6.”

It has also emerged that the US State Department asked MI6 to ensure that no details of Mr Williams’s work should emerge at the forthcoming inquest. US officials asked SIS to raise the matter with the Foreign Office.

Sir John, who attended Mr Williams’s funeral, is understood to have discussed the matter with William Hague, the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Hague subsequently signed a public interest immunity certificate authorising the withholding of details from the inquest about Mr Williams’s secret work and joint operations with the Americans.

it is understood that as a result NSA and FBI officers who would have been called as witnesses at the inquest will no longer be asked to attend.

Mr Williams had been working at NSA shortly before his death, where he was helping to develop a joint GCHQ-NSA defence against cyber attack’s on the west’s computer infrastructure, particularly in the banking and transport sector.

At one stage during his work at NSA, shortly before he returned to London, Mr Williams was given security clearance to visit its facility in the Utah desert, which the agency classifies as “above top secret”.

Mr Williams also spent several months at Menwith Hill, the secret listening station in Yorkshire used by the United States to intercept coded messages, and Fort Meade in Maryland, the home of the NSA.

Police told the interim hearing that experts were agreed it was impossible for Mr Williams to have locked himself in the holdall before his death. Mr O’Toole said that if he had not locked the bag himself, there was “a high probability that there was a third party present in the flat” at the time.

He suggested that “the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services, and perhaps evidence was removed from the scene post mortem by an expert in those dark arts”.

Outside the hearing, Mr O’Toole said the family did not know whether the “third party” might have belonged to a British or foreign agency.

An intelligence source said: “Given the sensitivity of the situation, both Hague and Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, would have been kept informed after the claims made by the Williams family barrister.”

There has been speculation that either the Russian or Chinese security services could have been responsible for Mr Williams’s death.

SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, is understood to have around forty spies in this country. They are either working under diplomatic cover at their embassy or with trade missions. MSS, the Chinese foreign intelligence service, is believed to have staff of over three thousand based in every country, including a number of 'hit’ teams.

Britain’s three main intelligence services – MI6, MI5 and GCHQ – have a number of safe-houses in and around London.

They are used as bases to interrogate foreign spies before they are handed over to Scotland Yard for arrest and trial and to brief or debrief an officer before or after a mission.

They also provide accommodation for an officer in transit from one posting to another, as in Mr Williams’s case.

His Pimlico safe-house had an unlisted number which gave him direct contact with MI6. All his calls were logged on the service’s switchboard facility. These were later checked and apparently produced no clue to assist the police.

Scotland Yard said it was not prepared to discuss details of the investigation into the death of Mr Williams, which its says remains an ongoing inquiry.

London Evening Stardard : End our agony: Plea of family of spy in the bag Gareth Williams

End our agony: Plea of family of spy in the bag Gareth Williams

Kiran Randhawa | April 20, 2012

The grieving family of the MI6 spy found dead in a locked bag broke their silence today as they called for their agony to be brought to an end.

Relatives of Gareth Williams said they still felt “very raw” and demanded to be told the truth about his death, which they are convinced was murder.

The GCHQ codebreaker’s naked and decomposing body was found in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat in August 2010. The family hope his inquest, which begins on Monday, will help to end their suffering and at last give them some answers. More than 18 months on, police are still unable to explain what happened to the talented 31-year-old mathematician and recently revealed that their investigation has been hampered by blunders.

His aunt Judith Thomas, from the village of Trearddur Bay in Anglesey, North Wales, said: “We could fill newspapers with words to describe Gareth. You couldn’t find enough paper in this world to say how we feel about him. It’s a distressing time for us, especially with the inquest starting.”

Her husband Dafydd said: “Our feelings are still very raw. This was not a body in a bag — he was our nephew, a wonderful young man.” At a pre-inquest review, the family’s barrister told how they believe that he was murdered by a member of “some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services”.

Another uncle, William Hughes, 62, a councillor from Bodedern, said the family were keen to see the end of the five-day hearing at Westminster coroner’s court.

He said: “We just want all of this over and done with now.” The coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, is considering ordering a live demonstration at the inquest.

This may involve a police expert getting into an identical bag to see whether Mr Williams could have climbed into the holdall by himself.

Foreign Secretary William Hague this month ordered that key evidence must be heard in secret. He signed an order to prevent the disclosure of details about the spy’s work with both British and US secret services. The Foreign Office said: “It was right to seek a public interest immunity certificate. We would always seek to protect the identities of intelligence personnel and details of their operational work.”

Mr Williams is reported to have been sent to the National Security Agency — the Pentagon’s listening post — to work on encryption programmes that filter millions of communications every day.

Daily Mail : Hague orders 'body in a bag' spy evidence to be heard in secret so MI6 agent's work in U.S cannot be reported

Hague orders 'body in a bag' spy evidence to be heard in secret so MI6 agent's work in U.S cannot be reported

By Robert Verkaik | April 7, 2012

William Hague has ruled that key evidence in the ‘body-in-the-bag’ inquest into the death of an MI6 officer be heard in secret.

The Foreign Secretary signed an order prohibiting disclosure about details of the agent’s work with the British and US secret services.

The case has reignited the debate over secret justice and Government attempts to hold some inquests behind closed doors.

Gareth Williams, 31, who worked for the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, was found dead in a sports bag in the bath of his flat 18 months ago amid claims he had been murdered by another country’s spies.

But Mr Hague, who has departmental responsibility for MI6, has signed a public interest immunity certificate authorising the withholding of details about his secret work, including joint operations with the American secret services.

A source close to the case said that the coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, has backed Mr Hague’s decision and the Government’s bid to keep the evidence secret. ‘The coroner was favourable to the arguments raised by the Government lawyers,’ the source said.

At a secret hearing nine days ago, lawyers for MI6 – which is headed by Sir John Sawers – told Dr Wilcox that the disclosure of details about Mr Williams’s work could harm Britain’s national interest.

Mr Williams, who is believed to have worked closely with the American security services, had flown to the National Security Agency (NSA) – the Pentagon’s listening post – on several occasions and returned from his last trip to the US only weeks before his death in Pimlico, Central London.

At the secret hearing, MI6 lawyers cited the case of Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee paid £1million compensation by the last Labour Government. It settled that case rather than publish secret material the US government had given in confidence to the Security Service, MI5.

But the case raised questions about whether Britain was using its intelligence relationship with the US to keep secret details about UK involvement in the American torture programme.

Last night, Geoffrey Robertson QC, who acted for the New York Times and Washington Post in the Binyam Mohamed case, compared the legal situation in the Williams inquest with Mohamed’s. He called for the Williams case to be opened up to greater public scrutiny, adding: ‘These documents [about Williams’s work] may be necessary to show how and why this man died.

‘The open justice principle in British law is based on [legal reformer] Jeremy Bentham’s insight that publicity is very good for justice as it “keeps the judges, while trying, under trial”.

‘Coroners are not judges and sometimes their decisions can be dreadful. It is essential that this coroner’s ruling be made public so that we can decide whether she is applying the proper principles and so the public can be confident she is taking the correct approach to this case – and is not being overawed by the over-suppressive Government arguments.’

Mr Williams, one of GCHQ’s codebreakers, is reported to have been sent to the NSA to work on encryption programmes that filter millions of communications every day. In 2010, the FBI was called in to investigate Mr Williams’s death as a possible NSA security compromise.

A source in the Williams case said the coroner’s ruling has been communicated to the Government, but suggested it might not be made fully public. A spokesman for the coroner declined to say whether the judgment would be made fully public but said: ‘The coroner is yet to make a full ruling on any anonymity and public interest immunity.’

The Foreign Office said: ‘It was absolutely right and appropriate to seek a public interest immunity certificate. We would always seek to protect the identities of intelligence personnel and details of their operational work.’

Police have confirmed that the investigation is continuing and have not ruled out murder.

This Is London : Forensic DNA blunder hindered 'spy in bag' investigation for a year

Forensic DNA blunder hindered 'spy in bag' investigation for a year

Paul Cheston, Kiran Randhawa | March 30, 2012

The family of dead spy Gareth Williams are convinced he was the victim of "the dark arts of the secret services" a court heard today.

They believe an agent was in the Pimlico flat where died inside a padlocked duffle bag in the bath.

Then the secret service destroyed the evidence before the alarm could be raised, eight days after he was last seen alive in August 2010.

In a pre-inquest hearing today Anthony O’Toole, representing the family told the court of their fears about their son’s suspicious death.

“Our impression is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services.

“Perhaps the evidence of that third party has been removed by some person post-mortem who is expert in those arts.”

Mr Williams’ parents Ian and Ellen who live in Anglesey, were not in court for today’s hearing.

Mr Williams, a code breaker for GCHQ, had been on secondment to MI6 when he died.

The 31-year-old was discovered dead in a North Face holdall eight days after he had last been seen.

A pre-inquest hearing at Westminster magistrates' court today heard how a major forensic blunder over DNA allegedly found on the spy's body has caused his family months of unnecessary heartache.

The DNA sample was discovered on the hand of the former GCHQ code breaker who was on secondment to MI6 when he was discovered dead at a Pimlico flat in August 2010.

It was believed to bear a mixed profile clearly suggesting that another person must have been at the flat when Mr Williams died inside a padlocked sports bag in the bath. But the court was told today that the DNA trace was due to contamination by a scientist at the scene. It was then incorrectly entered into the computer at the laboratory LGC.

The error, discovered only two weeks ago, has led the police investigation up a blind alley for more than a year. Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox today demanded statements be taken from Tony Larkin, the scientist who allegedly contaminated the sample, and Paul Stafford Allen, who was said to have recorded the error on the computer.

She also demanded assurances from LGC managing director Steve Allen and chief executive David Richardson that systems were in place to ensure that the impact of this kind of human error could not occur again.

“There are wider concerns about whether LGC can be trusted to provide a proper level of forensic back-up to all investigations, remembering they are providing forensic DNA and analytical background to a lot of criminal cases,” said the Westminster coroner.

“What I’m concerned about is that the system in place to detect the error, and human errors will always occur and it is not unusual for contamination to happen, but I am concerned about the system evaluation and back up and the analysis of the evidence taken. There has been so much public speculation and so much public anxiety that that is the reason the court has to act to address it head on.”

The court heard that his family was concerned that MI6 did not take any steps to check on his welfare for more than a week, even though he had not been turning up to work.

As a result, his body was so contaminated that scientists are unable to be certain about the exact cause of death.

The full inquest hearing is due to start at the end of next month and last at least five days.

The coroner today said that she would ask scientists to carry out a re-enactment in court of how Mr Williams could have got into the sports bag.

The court has heard that scientists are agreed that it would have been virtually impossible for him to have locked the bag on the outside when he was inside.

Dr Wilcox said: “I want it demonstrated in court exactly how somebody could have got into the bag, done it up and locked it from the outside when confined inside.­ I want a practical demonstration of this in court. It is something I have given an awful lot of my time considering.

“I want a very clear demonstration. It’s the fundamental issue in this case whether Gareth Williams was able to lock the bag outside when he was inside it — it’s the very heart of this inquiry.”

The coroner said she wanted to establish an answer to the question of whether Mr Williams could have suffered from a lack of oxygen or from a build up of carbon dioxide.

This was a key line of inquiry considering the lack of injuries to Mr Williams’s body and the lack of pathological evidence that he made any frantic attempt to get out of the bag.

The inquest is expected to hear from 30 witnesses giving evidence in court.

Three of Mr Williams’s former colleagues will be called to give evidence and will be known only by the initials K, F and G.

They include Mr Williams’s line manager, described as the “chap at the coalface” by Anthony O’Toole, counsel representing the family.

The hearing continues.

During a two hour hearing Mr O’Toole told Westminster Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox: “We thought there was DNA evidence that was a dead end. There was also a footprint found, that has turned out to be a dead end.”

Later the court went into private session to hear PII evidence which Foreign Secretary William Hague wanted to be kept secret on the grounds of national security during the inquest which is due to start on April 23 and last for at least five days.

The Coroner said she would deliver a written judgement on the submissions.

Telegraph : New Mossad chief to apologise for use of UK passports in Dubai killing

New Mossad chief to apologise for use of UK passports in Dubai killing

By Gordon Thomas | December 25, 2010

The new head of Israel's secret service, Mossad, is ready to apologise for the use of forged British passports during the assassination of a leading Hamas militant in Dubai.

Tamir Pardo, who took over as Mossad's chief earlier this month, will also promise that Israeli agents will never again be allowed to use fake British documents during operations abroad.

Mossad insiders say he will make the pledges to officials in London and, he hopes, in private meetings with the foreign secretary, William Hague, and the home secretary, Theresa May, as part of an urgent drive to rebuild relations with the UK government, thrown into disarray earlier this year.

In March Britain expelled Mossad's station chief in London, a key foreign posting, after an investigation blamed Israel's secret service for cloning 12 British passports that were found among 26 forged identity documents used by the hit squad that murdered Mahmoud al Mabhouh in January.

David Milliband, then foreign secretary, told MPs that Israel had shown a "profound disregard" for British sovereignty, adding: "The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury."

Mr Pardo, 57, who was deputy director of Mossad for the past three years, is said by a source involved in the planning of the operation to have argued against using British, Irish and Australian passports for the team sent to murder al Mabhouh in his hotel room.

But Meir Dagan, the Mossad chief who stepped aside this month, insisted that with so many visitors from those three countries travelling to Dubai, their passports would not be scrutinised. After the Dubai debacle, the source said, Mr Pardo warned Dagan that the "whole business will come home to haunt us".

Mr Pardo, known as "T" to fellow Mossad officers since he joined the service 30 years ago, is said to regard the expulsion of the service's top official in London as a blow to the organisation. Since then official collaboration between Mossad and the British agencies responsible for security at home and abroad, MI5 and MI6, has been badly dented, to the detriment of both.

But Mr Dagan bluntly refused to apologise over the use of the faked passports – let alone offer the guarantee demanded by Britain that the theft would not recur.

Mr Pardo's apology and pledge during a visit to London that is expected early in January would be the first official acknowledgement by Israel that it was behind the assassination of the Hamas leader in Dubai.

He is expected to brief officials on Mossad's plans to provide Britain and Nato with increased intelligence over Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Mossad has a network of undercover agents in the country.

He also intends to increase Mossad's role in Yemen and to spearhead the hunt for al-Qaeda's new chief of military operations, Saif al-Adel, who Mossad believe is based in Somalia.

At the same time he wants to expand Mossad's watch over the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service, which is an increasing presence in Syria and Turkey – and is using both countries as launch pads from which to enter Europe. In his first briefing to senior staff after he took up his new post, Mr Pardo said Mossad had a key role to play in helping the West win what he called "the new Cold War".

He wants to persuade Britain's intelligence chiefs – Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6 and Jonathan Evans, the MI5 director – that it is now essential for the relationship with Mossad to be rebuilt. Sir John and he are said by insiders to have had an exploratory telephone conversation soon after the new Mossad chief took up his new job.

He has already made his first move to mend fences by deploying Mossad's powerful facial recognition technology to assist in solving the mystery of the death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams, whose body was discovered in a padlocked bag in the bath of a flat in London.

The sophisticated system, known as Faces, is being used to sift through Mossad's vast database of faces to try to match e-fit images of the couple of Mediterranean appearance who Scotland Yard detectives believe had visited the flat in previous weeks. The Israeli agency believes the man is likely to be of Greek origin and the woman to have a Lebanese background.

Mr Pardo hopes to negotiate the return of a new station chief - the top Mossad post in London - who, because of Israel's normally friendly relations with Britain, would be formally "declared" to the Foreign Office as a Mossad officer working undercover as a diplomat at the Israeli embassy. The United States and some other countries deemed to be "friendly" have similar arrangements with the Foreign Office, which allows a spy to meet on a regular – and more open basis – Britain's own intelligence chiefs and senior government officers.

Ari Ben-Menashe, a former national security adviser to the Israeli government, has described "declared" positions as the plums among Mossad's foreign postings. "Socially, especially around Christmas, the station chief gets invites to every government party," he said. "The same with national holidays like Australia or Bastille days. A station chief has his membership for most of the exclusive clubs around Whitehall, and he gets to meet all sorts of interesting people."

Mr Pardo is himself an expert in telephone tapping and the discreet photographing of a target who has operated for Mossad all over the world.

He will brief British officials on how Mossad has placed deep cover agents in areas where MI6 cannot easily operate in Asia, Yemen and Iran. It has also established the strength of China's cyber war ability to attack the West. Mossad also has agents in Afghanistan tracking the Taliban.

Gordon Thomas is the author of Gideon's Spies, The Inside Story of Israel's Legendary Secret Service (JR Books)