Southwest Business : Family of GCHQ officer Gareth Williams say 'questions over our son’s death left unanswered'

Family of GCHQ officer Gareth Williams say 'questions over our son’s death left unanswered'

by Aled Thomas, reporter, Gloucestershire Echo | November 15, 2013

The family of Gareth Williams, the GCHQ officer found dead in his London flat three years ago, say they have been prevented from properly investigating the circumstances of his death.

The Metropolitan Police issued a report following further inquiries into Dr Williams’ death which concluded that he was probably alone when he died.

Previously an inquest had decided that another person, or persons, were probably involved, as the mathematician was found locked, from the outside, in a large holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico.

Dr Williams was a few days from the end of a three-year secondment to MI6 in London, and was due to return to GCHQ in Cheltenham.

But the lawyer for his parents, Ian and Ellen Williams, has revealed that he was prevented from asking the questions he wanted of an MI6 agent at the original inquest last year.

Anthony O’Toole told the Mirror he wanted to question the MI6 officer, known as Agent G, about how staff from the Secret Intelligence Service could have entered Dr Williams’ flat, adding: "I was not allowed by the coroner to say to the spooks, ‘You know how to get into flats without keys, don’t you?’ I was told it was contrary to national security.

"My suggestion is that the dark arts were involved and there was a curious lack of evidence in there – almost like it had been swept clean."

Although the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner Martin Hewitt said the new investigation led to the conclusion that Dr Williams probably died alone, he admitted there were large gaps in the evidence.

"The reality is that for both hypotheses there exists evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding," he said.

It was not explained why Dr Williams’ DNA was not found on the padlock closing the holdall, or why his palm prints were not on the rim of the bath.

Another 15 DNA samples which remain unidentified were recovered by police from the flat.

It has emerged that during the original police inquiry officers were not able to access the security vetting files on Dr Williams because liaison between detectives and the security services was conducted through the counter-terrorism squad.

But in the latest investigation, 27 people from MI6 and GCHQ were interviewed. DAC Hewitt denies the security services were involved in either Dr Williams’ death, or covering it up.

"I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes," he said. "I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death."

Daily Beast : Scotland Yard: Dead Spy in a Bag Probably an Accident

Scotland Yard: Dead Spy in a Bag Probably an Accident

Scotland Yard has concluded that British spy Gareth Williams, found padlocked naked inside a gym bag in his apartment, ‘probably’ died by accident.

By Nico Hines | November 14, 2013

A British intelligence agent was found dead, padlocked naked inside a gym bag, in the bathtub of his London apartment; there was no sign of a struggle, no witness, no fingerprints and no DNA evidence to explain how he died.

After three years of speculation about murder by foreign agents, targeting by the Russian mafia and an MI6 cover-up, Scotland Yard announced on Wednesday that they thought it was “probably” just an accident.

Their extraordinary conclusion directly contradicted the findings of Westminster Coroner’s Court which ruled last year that Gareth Williams, a 31-year-old code-breaker from Wales, was most likely killed unlawfully.

The police explanation that Williams had padlocked himself into the bag before dying alone in his apartment was met with widespread consternation. Martin Hewitt, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, rejected suggestions that the police had been duped by intelligence services who wanted to ensure that the real reason for Williams’ death was never disclosed. “I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death,” he said. “The Metropolitan Police’s position is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died.”

He did admit, however, that they could not be sure what had happened in August 2010, when Williams went missing. “No evidence has been identified to establish the full circumstances of Gareth’s death beyond all reasonable doubt,” Hewitt said.

During last year’s coroners’ hearing, a lawyer acting on behalf of the Williams family said his death must have had a connection to his highly sensitive intelligence work. “There is a high probability that some third party was in the flat when Gareth was placed in the bag. Evidentially there seems to be no trace of an unknown party in the flat,” Anthony O‘Toole said in court. “Our impression is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specializing in the dark arts or secret services.”

Williams was found in the curled up in the fetal position inside a red North Face bag in his bath. The bag had been padlocked shut but there was no evidence of anyone else being inside the flat. Police and family members said the trail may have gone cold because of the time that elapsed between the agent’s last sighting and the discovery of his body.

Officials at MI6, where he failed to show up for work, did not raise the alarm until August 23, a week later. A family statement released via the police on Wednesday said they were furious that the intelligence agency had not informed the police any sooner. “We still remain very disappointed over the failure of his employers at MI6 to take even the most basic inquiries concerning Gareth’s welfare when he failed to attend for work on August 16, 2010,” they said. “We believe that if proper steps had been taken in the same manner as any reasonable employer would have undertaken, further information relating to the cause of his death might have become apparent and not have been lost due to the length of time before Gareth’s body was found.”

Last year, Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, apologized “unreservedly” for the agency’s “failure to act more swiftly.” The cause of that delay has never been fully explained.

After a secret meeting between the police and MI6 soon after the body was discovered, a team of counter-terrorism officers was asked to act as a buffer between the murder squad investigators and the security services.

Scotland Yard now admits that was wrong. “We didn’t get it right at the beginning and the way that we did it was cumbersome and didn’t allow us to do the investigation in the way that we wanted to,” Hewitt said, although he denied that any delay had allowed somebody to destroy evidence in Williams’ home.

“There is no evidence whatsoever to support the suggestion that Gareth’s flat had been subject to some form of ‘forensic clean’,” he said. “Indeed, finger marks and traces of DNA going back some years have been recovered, which tends to fundamentally disprove such a theory. Such a ‘selective’ clean would not be possible.”

Hewitt also appeared to downplay another of the theories that has surrounded Williams’ death. He said there was no clear evidence that the math prodigy’s interest in escapology or bondage, which he had searched for on the Internet, was linked to his death.

Last year’s inquest also heard evidence from his landlady that Williams was previously rescued from another awkward situation. Jennifer Elliot and her husband had let themselves in to Williams’ apartment when they heard cries for help at around 1:30am one night. They found him tied to his bed wearing nothing but boxer shorts. “He was embarrassed and panicky and apologized and said ‘I wanted to see if I could get myself free,’” she told the court.

Panorama (Armenia) : 'Spy found in bag not killed'

'Spy found in bag not killed'

November 14, 2013

Gareth Williams, the MI6 codebreaker found dead inside an externally locked bag in his apartment in 2010, was probably not killed as previously believed, London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence otherwise, according to CNN.

Taking a different position from a coroner's report last year that said it was likely someone killed Gareth Williams, London's Metropolitan Police said its three-year investigation suggested that Williams most likely locked himself inside the large bag.

"We believe that it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said.

But the Met said that despite its investigation, there remained insufficient evidence to be definitive on how Williams died.

"There are holes in what we understand about the circumstances of Gareth Williams' death," Hewitt said, admitting that some of the evidence is "odd."

This includes the lack of Williams' DNA on the padlock used to lock the large red bag his body was found in and the lack of hand prints on the edge of the bath where it was found, he said.

"What we are left with is either individual pieces of evidence, or a lack of such evidence, that can logically support one of a number of hypotheses," Hewitt said.

The case has gripped the British public since Williams, known for his mathematical genius and code-breaking talent, was found dead at age 31 in August 2010.

Among the theories aired by UK media were that Williams might have died at the hands of foreign intelligence agents or as a result of a kinky sexual encounter gone wrong. Added to that speculation was the discovery of women's clothes, wigs and cosmetics in Williams' apartment.

At the inquest into his death last year, coroner Fiona Wilcox shot down that speculation, saying she thought Williams bought them out of an interest in fashion, rather than any sexual motivation.

Other reports about the "body-in-a-bag spy" detailed how two experts spent days trying to figure out whether Williams could have contorted himself in such a way as to lock himself into the North Face holdall bag, with a key to the padlock inside.

Video of two experts trying to recreate the scene was showing to the court. One had tried 300 times without success, but neither ruled out definitively the possibility Williams could have somehow done it alone.

"It is now proven that it is theoretically possible for a person to lock themselves in that exact holdall, with the same type of lock, and in the configuration in which Gareth was found. It is important to note that this fact was found to be a possibility by the inquest," Hewitt said.

Meanwhile, family members suggested Williams had been murdered by killers versed in the "dark arts" of espionage.

Referring to speculation that Williams' flat might have been forensically cleaned by unknown people responsible for his death, Hewitt said Wednesday that a deep-clean would have removed all traces of Williams' DNA as well that of visitors to his flat.

He said 10 to 15 traces of DNA had been found that were too insignificant to use to build a full profile and said advances in forensic science could "present opportunities for progress." For the time being, however, there are "no active lines of enquiry that it is proportionate to pursue."

Williams' family expressed their regret that mystery still surrounds his death but said they agree with the coroner's verdict "on the basis of the facts at present known."

"We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died and the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief," they said in a written statement.

The family reiterated their disappointment that Williams' employers at MI6 had not checked on his welfare when he failed to attend work on August 16, 2010.

Williams was finally reported missing by a co-worker on August 23, more than a week after the normally punctilious employee had last shown up at work.

"We believe that if proper steps had been taken in the same manner as any reasonable employer would have undertaken, further information relating to the cause of his death might have become apparent and not have been lost due to the length of time before Gareth's body was found," they said.

The family also noted that the Met's investigators "were at last able to interview directly members of (UK intelligence agencies) GCHQ and SIS."

Addressing media, Hewitt disputed a suggestion that police had been "blindsided" in their investigation by intelligence agencies but acknowledged that their method of interaction had improved during the investigation. "We didn't get it right at the beginning," he said.

Initially, he said, the only Met officers to deal with the intelligence agencies were those in SO15 -- or counterterrorism command. The SO15 officers had assessed Williams' vetting and personnel files and found nothing relevant to the case.

After the inquest, the senior investigating officer in the case personally requested and was granted access to the files and came to the same conclusion, Hewitt said.

"The investigation into Gareth's death will remain under review, and any new significant information or evidence will be robustly investigated," he said.

"If it is possible for us to give his family more answers we will do so."

Express : Family blast MI6 as police say spy died in 'bizarre accident after locking himself in bag'

Family blast MI6 as police say spy died in 'bizarre accident after locking himself in bag'

THE family of body-in-a-bag spy Gareth Williams blasted MI6 chiefs yesterday as a Scotland Yard investigation failed to solve the mystery of his death.

By: John Twomey | November 14, 2013

Despite extensive inquiries, detectives can only say the codebreaker “probably” died alone in a bizarre accident. But his grieving relatives still believe the 31-year-old fitness fanatic was murdered by an unknown assassin who left his naked body padlocked inside a sports holdall in his bath. They condemned his superiors at the spy agency for failing to raise the alarm until he had been missing for 10 days. By the time his body was discovered, his corpse was already decomposing and it has not been impossible to establish a cause of death.

His family said in a statement: “We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died, and the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief.

Her verdict prompted a renewed inquiry by Scotland Yard and a senior detective released the findings yesterday after consulting Mr Williams’s family.

For the first time, murder squad detectives have had direct access to Mr Williams’s vetting and personnel files rather than having to go through a liaison officer from the Yard’s counter-terrorism command.

Since the inquest, officers have interviewed 27 members of MI6 or GCHQ.

There is no suggestion his death is linked to his work.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said: “Despite extensive inquiries, no evidence has been identified to establish the full circumstances of Gareth’s death beyond reasonable doubt.”

But he added: “Our view is the most probable scenario is that Gareth was alone when this accident happened.”

Police suspect the spy locked himself into the red North Face holdall - possibly during a lone sex game or as an experiment in escapology - and suffocated when he could not get out.

Scotland Yard said yesterday Coroner Dr Wilcox now accepts that findings of the police and the conclusion that Mr Williams probably died alone by accident.

But there will be no new inquest and her original verdict still stands. Mr Williams’s family has previously said they believe some agency specialising in the “dark arts” is linked to his death.

They said yesterday: “We consider that, on the basis of the facts at present known, the coroner’s verdict accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth’s death.”

A series of vital questions remained yesterday which the Yard investigation has failed to answer.

• If the spy locked himself inside the bag, why is there no trace of his DNA on the padlock?

• If he lowered himself into the bag in the bath, why didn’t he leave his palm prints on the bath rim?

• It is theoretically possible for a person to lock themselves inside into such a bag but where is the conclusive evidence that Mr Williams did so?

• Why was the heating switched on in the middle of summer?

• Up to 15 DNA traces found in the modest apartment remain unidentified so who left them?

Mr Hewitt dismissed reports that the flat had been subjected to some kind of “forensic clean” as fingermarks and DNA going back several years have been recovered.

The veteran detective also rejected the idea MI6 had “pulled the wool over his eyes” and said the spy agency had fully co-operated with the Yard.

Mr Williams, who worked for GCHQ and was on secondment to MI6, was deeply interested in women’s fashion and had a collection of women’s designer clothes worth around £15,000 in his flat.

Most of the garments were still in boxes and none of it had been worn. He had taken two college courses in clothing design.

Mr Hewitt said yesterday: “I am satisfied that the existence of the clothing has not direct bearing on the circumstances of Gareth’s death.”

Extensive examination of the spy’s phones and laptops failed to shed any light on the mystery.

Inquiries revealed Mr Williams as an intensely private person with few close friends.

But Mr Hewitt said: “The universal view of colleagues was of a conscientious and decent man with a few well known hobbies such as his cycling and climbing.

“There is no evidence of any animosity towards Gareth and it has not been possible to identify anyone with a motive for causing him harm.” Forensic work to identify the unknown DNA traces is continuing and the Yard says the case will be kept under regular review.

IBT : Spy in the Bag Gareth Williams Accidental Death Claim Fails to Silence Conspiracy Theories

Spy in the Bag Gareth Williams Accidental Death Claim Fails to Silence Conspiracy Theories

By Ewan Palmer | November 14, 2013

The family lawyer of MI6 spy Gareth Williams has rekindled speculation that his death was not an accident with the claim that he was gagged at the original 2012 inquest into Williams' death.

Williams was found padlocked inside a sports bag in the bathtub of his Pimlico flat in August 2010. The 31-year-old former GCHQ worker is believed to have been there for nearly a week.

Despite the baffling circumstances about his death and a coroner ruling it likely that he had been killed unlawfully, police declared that it was a "more probable conclusion" that there was no other person present when Williams died.

The Metropolitan Police originally agreed with coroner Fiona Wilcox's verdict that someone else may have been involved in the spy's death. But the police U-turn came despite Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt admitting there was "gaps in [their] understanding" of the case and several questions that could not be answered.

Police were unable to explain why none of Williams' DNA was found in the bathtub nor the padlock on the bag.

The deceased's family said they were "disappointed" that the full circumstances surrounding his death were unknown and maintain that he was killed unlawfully.

Anthony O'Toole, their lawyer, has claimed that he was blocked from interviewing an MI6 agent during the original inquest death and was convinced that "dark arts" are at play.

He told the Daily Mirror: "I was not allowed by the coroner to say to the spook, 'You know how to get into the flats without keys, don't you?' I was told it was contrary to national security.

"My suggestion is that the dark arts were involved and there was a curious lack of evidence in there, almost like it had been swept clean."

O'Toole was convinced someone else was involved in the death and that all evidence of foul play had been removed.

O'Toole said: "The coroner said there was a third party, there is no doubt about it. The coroner also suggested there was an unlawful killing by a third party.

"There is no doubt there was somebody else there."

The lawyer also asked why more was not done to search for Williams after he was reported missing.

"The curious thing in the cross-examination of spooks was that his line manager went to his flat twice, before it all hit the fan, and merely knocked on the door," he said.

"Now these people by their profession can make entries anywhere, so you would have thought if someone had been missing five days and he was a spy they might have gone into the flat and had a look."

During the investigations, specialists found that it was theoretically possible for a person to lock themselves inside a bag, with the same type of lock, and in the position the spy was found in.

Police added there was "no evidence of any animosity towards [Williams], and it has not been possible to identify anyone with a motive for causing him harm".

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: e.palmer@ibtimes.co.uk
To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.co.uk

Wales Online : Lawyer of dead Welsh spy Gareth Williams' family claims he was gagged at inquest

Lawyer of dead Welsh spy Gareth Williams' family claims he was gagged at inquest

Anthony O'Toole believes there has been a security cover-up over Mr Williams' death after police yesterday insisted his death was probably accidental

By WalesOnline | November 14, 2013

The parents of spy Gareth Williams whose body was found in a bag rejected police claims yesterday that his death was accidental.

And their lawyer has said he was gagged at the 2012 inquest. Anthony O’Toole told the Daily Mirror there had been a security services cover-up, adding: “My suggestion is that the dark arts were involved.”

The body of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams, a 31-year-old maths genius, was found inside a padlocked sports holdall in a bath at a central London safehouse in August 2010.

It is believed he had been dead for more than a week.

Yesterday it was claimed that his grieving parents, Ian and Ellen, have been prevented from finding out the truth about how he died.

Mr O’ Toole, the family’s lawyer, revealed yesterday that he was banned from grilling an MI6 agent during the original inquest last year.

He said he was prevented from asking a key question of Mr Williams’ line manager – known only as Agent G – on how secret service officers could have entered his apartment.

Mr O’Toole said: “I was not allowed by the coroner to say to the spook, ‘You know how to get into the flats without keys, don’t you?’ I was told it was contrary to national security.”

He added: “My suggestion is that the dark arts were involved and there was a curious lack of evidence in there, almost like it had been swept clean.”

Mr O’Toole spoke out as Mr Williams’ family rejected a statement from Scotland Yard yesterday stating that his death was “probably an accident”.

The claim, following an 18-month review of the investigation, contradicts the findings of last year’s inquest, which pointed to the likely involvement of a “third party”.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said in a narrative verdict that she was “satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully”.

His family fear that spies gained access to his apartment and removed crucial evidence before police found the body.

In a statement they said: “We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died.

“And the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief.

“We note that the investigation has been conducted with further interviews upon some of the witnesses who gave evidence at the inquest, and that the investigation team were at last able to interview directly members of GCHQ and SIS.

“We consider that on the basis of the facts at present known, the coroner’s verdict accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth’s death.”

They said they were “disappointed” over the failure of MI6 to make inquiries “concerning Gareth’s welfare” when he failed to show up for work.

The family added: “We believe that if proper steps had been taken in the same manner as any reasonable employer further information relating to the cause of his death might have become apparent and not have been lost due to the length of time before Gareth’s body was found.

“This lack of concern for Gareth’s well-being remains an overriding feature of our thoughts following the death of a dear son and brother.”

The initial police inquiry concluded, like the inquest, that someone else was probably present. But in a dramatic U-turn yesterday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said: “The Metropolitan Police’s position is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died.”

But he admitted: “The reality is that for both hypotheses, there exist evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding.”

Mr Hewitt said detectives still could not explain why none of Mr Williams’ DNA was found on the padlock of the holdall or why his palm prints were not on the rim of the bath. They also don’t know why the heating had been left on in the flat despite it being summer.

Up to 15 unidentified DNA samples were recovered from the flat, but there was no positive evidence of a third party being present at the time of death.

Mr Hewitt insisted it was “beyond credibility” that Scotland Yard had been duped by MI6 and GCHQ as part of a cover-up.

He said: “I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death.”

He admitted mistakes had been made during the original inquiry including the failure to access Mr Williams’ MI6 vetting and personnel files for two years.

CNN : Police: MI6 agent not killed, as previously thought

Police: MI6 agent not killed, as previously thought

MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams' body was found locked in a bag in his apartment in 2010
A coroner's inquest into his death concluded it was likely someone had killed him
But Scotland Yard says it thinks it's most likely no one else was involved in Williams death
However, it says there remains insufficient evidence to be definitive on the case

By Andrew Carey, CNN | November 13, 2013

London (CNN) -- Gareth Williams, the MI6 codebreaker found dead inside an externally locked bag in his apartment in 2010, was probably not killed as previously believed, London's Metropolitan Police said Wednesday, citing a lack of evidence otherwise.

Taking a different position from a coroner's report last year that said it was likely someone killed Gareth Williams, London's Metropolitan Police said its three-year investigation suggested that Williams most likely locked himself inside the large bag.

"We believe that it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said.

But the Met said that despite its investigation, there remained insufficient evidence to be definitive on how Williams died.

"There are holes in what we understand about the circumstances of Gareth Williams' death," Hewitt said, admitting that some of the evidence is "odd."

This includes the lack of Williams' DNA on the padlock used to lock the large red bag his body was found in and the lack of hand prints on the edge of the bath where it was found, he said.

"What we are left with is either individual pieces of evidence, or a lack of such evidence, that can logically support one of a number of hypotheses," Hewitt said.

The case has gripped the British public since Williams, known for his mathematical genius and code-breaking talent, was found dead at age 31 in August 2010.

Among the theories aired by UK media were that Williams might have died at the hands of foreign intelligence agents or as a result of a kinky sexual encounter gone wrong. Added to that speculation was the discovery of women's clothes, wigs and cosmetics in Williams' apartment.

At the inquest into his death last year, coroner Fiona Wilcox shot down that speculation, saying she thought Williams bought them out of an interest in fashion, rather than any sexual motivation.

Other reports about the "body-in-a-bag spy" detailed how two experts spent days trying to figure out whether Williams could have contorted himself in such a way as to lock himself into the North Face holdall bag, with a key to the padlock inside.

Video of two experts trying to recreate the scene was showing to the court. One had tried 300 times without success, but neither ruled out definitively the possibility Williams could have somehow done it alone.

"It is now proven that it is theoretically possible for a person to lock themselves in that exact holdall, with the same type of lock, and in the configuration in which Gareth was found. It is important to note that this fact was found to be a possibility by the inquest," Hewitt said.

Meanwhile, family members suggested Williams had been murdered by killers versed in the "dark arts" of espionage.

Referring to speculation that Williams' flat might have been forensically cleaned by unknown people responsible for his death, Hewitt said Wednesday that a deep-clean would have removed all traces of Williams' DNA as well that of visitors to his flat.

He said 10 to 15 traces of DNA had been found that were too insignificant to use to build a full profile and said advances in forensic science could "present opportunities for progress." For the time being, however, there are "no active lines of enquiry that it is proportionate to pursue."

Williams' family expressed their regret that mystery still surrounds his death but said they agree with the coroner's verdict "on the basis of the facts at present known."

"We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died and the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief," they said in a written statement.

The family reiterated their disappointment that Williams' employers at MI6 had not checked on his welfare when he failed to attend work on August 16, 2010.

Williams was finally reported missing by a co-worker on August 23, more than a week after the normally punctilious employee had last shown up at work.

"We believe that if proper steps had been taken in the same manner as any reasonable employer would have undertaken, further information relating to the cause of his death might have become apparent and not have been lost due to the length of time before Gareth's body was found," they said.

The family also noted that the Met's investigators "were at last able to interview directly members of (UK intelligence agencies) GCHQ and SIS."

Addressing media, Hewitt disputed a suggestion that police had been "blindsided" in their investigation by intelligence agencies but acknowledged that their method of interaction had improved during the investigation. "We didn't get it right at the beginning," he said.

Initially, he said, the only Met officers to deal with the intelligence agencies were those in SO15 -- or counterterrorism command. The SO15 officers had assessed Williams' vetting and personnel files and found nothing relevant to the case.

After the inquest, the senior investigating officer in the case personally requested and was granted access to the files and came to the same conclusion, Hewitt said.

"The investigation into Gareth's death will remain under review, and any new significant information or evidence will be robustly investigated," he said.

"If it is possible for us to give his family more answers we will do so."

News dot Com (Au) : MI6 worker 'locked himself in bag'

MI6 worker 'locked himself in bag'

December 28, 2012

MI6 CODEBREAKER Gareth Williams probably locked himself into the sports bag where his naked, dead body was discovered in 2010, Scotland Yard has found.

After conducting a review of the case, Scotland Yard has found Williams probably locked himself into the sports bag and was not the victim of a hit by the security services, Britain's Daily Telegraph reports.

Westminster Coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, said earlier this year she could not rule out the involvement of the security services in the death. That ruling sparked a review of the case by Scotland Yard’s murder squad which involved re-interviewing Williams' colleagues from MI6 and taken DNA samples.

Williams’s naked body was found in a red North Face gym bag in an empty bath in his apartment in Pimlico, central London in August 2010. The keys to the red bag were found in the bottom of the bag.

Detectives had believed that someone else must have locked the codebreaker in the bag and launched a search for a mysterious Mediterranean couple, who were later ruled out of inquiries.

Williams’s colleagues at MI6 had failed to report him missing for a week and failed to turn over nine memory sticks and a black bag under his desk at their Vauxhall Cross headquarters, sparking rumours of a cover-up.

Detectives now believe he probably died alone, The Telegraph reports.

A source close to the inquiry told the newspaper: "They have been unable to find any trace of anyone who should not have been in the flat and have every reason to believe that Gareth may have climbed into the bag himself and been unable to get out."

Two experts tried a total of 400 times to lock themselves into the bag and one claimed that even world-famous escapologist Harry Houdini "would have struggled" to squeeze himself inside.

But days after the inquest verdict a retired Army sergeant demonstrated that it was possible to climb into a similar North Face bag and lock it from the inside.

Scotland Yard detectives have now been able to repeat the experiment with some slight differences to the way the bag was locked, but which fits with how Gareth Williams was found in August 2010.

Dr Wilcox, a former negligence barrister, had ruled that the lack of hand and footprints in the bathroom was "significant". The Telegraph understands police were able to identify around 300 fingerprints in the flat.

The coroner also dismissed speculation that Williams died as a result of some sort of "auto-erotic activity". But detectives now believe that is probably a likely option, the newspaper reports.

The inquest had heard that Williams, a codebreaker for GCHQ who was on secondment to MI6, had been found in his boxer shorts and tied to his bed by his landlord and landlady in Cheltenham a few years earlier.

Video footage found on a mobile phone in the deceased's flat showed Williams dressed in nothing but black leather boots as he "wiggled and gyrated" for the camera.

He browsed self-bondage websites and sites about claustrophilia - the love of enclosure - on his computers and phone and was looking at fetish websites days before his death.

He also kept pictures of drag queens on his computer and had 20,000 pounds ($31,000) worth of designer women's clothing in his apartment as well as women’s shoes and wigs.

Friends and family were upset at speculation Williams may have been gay and believed "some agency specialising in the dark arts" was behind his killing.

In her ruling, Dr Wilcox said there was no evidence to suggest the spy was a transvestite "or interested in any such thing". The make-up found in his apartment was more likely to reflect his interest in fashion and the wigs were "far more consistent with dress-up such as attendance at a manga conference", she said.

The suggestion that his interest in female footwear could have been of a sexual nature, was not unusual, Dr Wilcox observed.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the investigation remained "active" and that officers were still exploring "a number of lines of enquiry."

The coroner said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams's death although there was no firm evidence.

Express : MI6 SPY IN A BAG LOCKED HIMSELF IN, SAY POLICE

MI6 SPY IN A BAG LOCKED HIMSELF IN, SAY POLICE

By Will Gant | December 28, 2012

DETECTIVES investigating the mysterious death of an MI6 officer found padlocked in a bag now believe that he “probably” sealed himself in.

The decaying remains of Gareth Williams, 31, were discovered inside a holdall dumped in a bath at his flat in central London in August 2010.

At the inquest into his death earlier this year, the coroner ruled that a “third party” must have helped shut him in the bag before fleeing, prompting police to vow to hunt down his killer.

Two professional escapologists had declared that Mr ­Williams could not have been alone, after trying and failing in 400 attempts to shut themselves in an identical bag without any help.

But just days later a retired Army sergeant proved the feat was possible after filming his teenage daughter close the padlock from the inside.

More than six months on, detectives are now said to be increasingly sure the young codebreaker’s own actions, rather than foul play, led to his death.

A source said: “They have been unable to find any trace of anyone who should not have been in the flat and there is every reason to believe that Gareth may have climbed into the bag himself and been unable to get out.” Police are now said to be preparing to present their findings to Dr Fiona ­Wilcox, the coroner of Westminster, who presided over the inquest.

Fitness enthusiast and keen cyclist Mr Williams had been on secondment to MI6 from Government listening post GCHQ at the time of his death.

But he was said to have been unhappy with the placement and wanted to cut it short.

Both agencies ruled out conspiracy theories that the tragedy was connected to his top secret work following their own internal investigations.

However, this was questioned by the barrister for the dead spy’s family, who said that relatives feared his death had been orchestrated by “some agency specialising in the dark arts or secret services”. Questions were also raised about why Mr Williams’ line manager at MI6 failed to report him missing for more than a week when he stopped turning up for work.

Police were also left mystified by the presence of some £20,000 worth of women’s clothes in the flat in Pimlico, along with ladies’ wigs and make-up. Mr Williams was a single man.

A Met spokesman said officers “retain an open mind in relation to the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Williams.

“This remains an active investigation, and officers continue to explore a number of lines of inquiry,” he said.

Adelaide Now : MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams 'probably locked himself in sports bag'

MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams 'probably locked himself in sports bag'

December 27, 2012

MI6 CODEBREAKER Gareth Williams probably locked himself into the sports bag where his naked, dead body was discovered in 2010, Scotland Yard has found.

After conducting a review of the case, Scotland Yard has found Williams probably locked himself into the sports bag and was not the victim of a hit by the security services, Britain's Daily Telegraph reports.

The naked and dead body of British codebreaker Gareth Williams, pictured, was found inside a padlocked sports bag in his apartment in August 2010.

Westminster Coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, said earlier this year she could not rule out the involvement of the security services in the death. That ruling sparked a review of the case by Scotland Yard’s murder squad which involved re-interviewing Williams' colleagues from MI6 and taken DNA samples.

Williams’s naked body was found in a red North Face gym bag in an empty bath in his apartment in Pimlico, central London in August 2010. The keys to the red bag were found in the bottom of the bag.

Detectives had believed that someone else must have locked the codebreaker in the bag and launched a search for a mysterious Mediterranean couple, who were later ruled out of inquiries.

Williams’s colleagues at MI6 had failed to report him missing for a week and failed to turn over nine memory sticks and a black bag under his desk at their Vauxhall Cross headquarters, sparking rumours of a cover-up.

Detectives now believe he probably died alone, The Telegraph reports.

A source close to the inquiry told the newspaper: "They have been unable to find any trace of anyone who should not have been in the flat and have every reason to believe that Gareth may have climbed into the bag himself and been unable to get out."

Two experts tried a total of 400 times to lock themselves into the bag and one claimed that even world-famous escapologist Harry Houdini "would have struggled" to squeeze himself inside.

But days after the inquest verdict a retired Army sergeant demonstrated that it was possible to climb into a similar North Face bag and lock it from the inside.

Scotland Yard detectives have now been able to repeat the experiment with some slight differences to the way the bag was locked, but which fits with how Gareth Williams was found in August 2010.

Dr Wilcox, a former negligence barrister, had ruled that the lack of hand and footprints in the bathroom was "significant". The Telegraph understands police were able to identify around 300 fingerprints in the flat.

The coroner also dismissed speculation that Williams died as a result of some sort of "auto-erotic activity". But detectives now believe that is probably a likely option, the newspaper reports.

The inquest had heard that Williams, a codebreaker for GCHQ who was on secondment to MI6, had been found in his boxer shorts and tied to his bed by his landlord and landlady in Cheltenham a few years earlier.

Video footage found on a mobile phone in the deceased's flat showed Williams dressed in nothing but black leather boots as he "wiggled and gyrated" for the camera.

He browsed self-bondage websites and sites about claustrophilia - the love of enclosure - on his computers and phone and was looking at fetish websites days before his death.

He also kept pictures of drag queens on his computer and had 20,000 pounds ($31,000) worth of designer women's clothing in his apartment as well as women’s shoes and wigs.

Friends and family were upset at speculation Williams may have been gay and believed "some agency specialising in the dark arts" was behind his killing.

In her ruling, Dr Wilcox said there was no evidence to suggest the spy was a transvestite "or interested in any such thing". The make-up found in his apartment was more likely to reflect his interest in fashion and the wigs were "far more consistent with dress-up such as attendance at a manga conference", she said.

The suggestion that his interest in female footwear could have been of a sexual nature, was not unusual, Dr Wilcox observed.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the investigation remained "active" and that officers were still exploring "a number of lines of enquiry."

The coroner said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams's death although there was no firm evidence.

BBC : Profile: MI6 spy Gareth Williams

Profile: MI6 spy Gareth Williams

May 8, 2012

The inquest into the death of MI6 employee Gareth Williams, whose body was found in a padlocked sports bag in his central London flat in August 2010, found that he was "on the balance of probabilities" unlawfully killed.

But what is known about the 31-year-old code-breaker - described by his family as "a very private person"?

Mr Williams, originally from Holyhead, north Wales, worked as a communications officer at government listening post GCHQ, in Cheltenham, but was on a three-year secondment to MI6 in London.

Police officers went to his MI6-owned top-floor flat at 36 Alderney Street - in a part of Pimlico described by a neighbour as "a very mixed area of bankers and politicians" - on Monday 23 August.

They went there after colleagues contacted the police earlier that day saying they had not seen Mr Williams for at least 10 days.

They found his naked body, which had been padlocked inside a zipped-up large red North Face sports holdall, in the empty bath of an ensuite bathroom of the master bedroom.

Police, who have repeatedly said the death remains "suspicious and unexplained", now believe he died in the early hours of Tuesday 16 August.

Mr Williams, a keen cyclist who often took part in road races and time trials, was brought up on the island of Anglesey and attended Bodedern High School.

A talented pupil, he graduated from Bangor University with a first class degree in maths aged 17 after beginning his university studies while at secondary school.

His maths teacher at Bodedern, Geraint Williams, has praised Gareth as an "exceptional" pupil who was "the best logician" he had met.

"If you explained something once to Gareth he remembered it, you didn't have to explain it again," he said.

"It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't really surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ.

"He was definitely going to go into something like that, with his brain."

'Loving son'

Mr Williams went on to study for a postgraduate certificate in mathematics at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 2000, but dropped out a year later before taking up the job at GCHQ in Cheltenham.

His boss there has spoken of him as a "world-class" intelligence officer and "something of a prodigy".

Stephen Gale said it was "quite remarkable" that Mr Williams - who joined GCHQ aged 21 - had achieved what he had at such a young age.

Mr Gale said: "Colleagues recall a young man who was very close to his father - he spoke about their climbing trips together.

"They remember him as a keen cyclist. One colleague said it was like a red bullet flying around the place."

In the days after his death, his family described Mr Williams in a statement as a "generous, loving son, brother, and friend" whose loss had devastated them.

They remembered him as "a great athlete" who "loved cycling and music", and as "a very private person".

He often returned home to Anglesey to mother Ellen and father Ian, who works at the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station.

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club - joined by Mr Williams at the age of 17 - said he had last seen the "lovely young man" at a club meeting on Boxing Day.

"We were club mates but Gareth wasn't the sort to go to the pub after a race, so he didn't have any close friends in the group," he said.

And a cyclist at Cambridge University's bicycle club described Mr Williams as "a shy chap" with a "peculiarly memorable laugh and smile".

Mr Williams' uncle, Anglesey councillor William Hughes, meanwhile, said his "very talented" nephew "would never talk about his work - and the family knew not to ask, really".

A neighbour in Pimlico said he and others had never seen Mr Williams, adding: "It's not like you'd tell your neighbours if you were a spy."

Police 'did wrong'

In late December 2010, police revealed some "embarrassing, hurtful and distressing" details about Mr Williams which they said was necessary in the search for evidence.

They said he owned £15,000-worth of unworn women's designer clothing, which were kept in six boxes at his flat, and that he had visited a drag cabaret in east London four days before his death and had tickets to two more.

Police said he occasionally spent between 30 minutes and an hour on bondage sites.

They also said a witness had reported seeing him in a gay bar but that they did not know for certain he was gay.

However, in April 2011 Mr Williams' close friend Sian Lloyd-Jones questioned suggestions his death was linked to his private life and called on police to broaden their inquiry.

She told the police "did wrong" by releasing information about women's clothing "but didn't reveal that there was £10,000 of mountaineering equipment as well".

Ms Lloyd-Jones said he was not gay and the women's clothes were too small for him and may have been intended for her or her sister.

Elizabeth Guthrie - the second friend to appear before the coroner - described her friendship with Mr Williams as based on their mutual love of history, art, Japanese Manga cartoons, travel and humorous anecdotes.

Ms Guthrie remembered his "brilliant sense of humour" and "enormous intellect".

She also said the women's clothing found by police "certainly would not be for him" - that he had no interest in cross-dressing and she believed he was "straight".

Mr Williams' sister, Ceri Subbe, said she believed the items of women's clothing were possibly intended as gifts.

She also told the inquest her brother's enthusiasm about his job had begun to fade.

"He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office," her statement said.

Ms Subbe added that Mr Williams had "encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with" in his role.

The inquest into the death of the MI6 officer later heard he was once found tied to his bed by his former landlady in Cheltenham.

Jennifer Elliot said she once found him tied to his bedstead in his boxer shorts in what she thought was a "sexually motivated" act. She said he had called for help when he could not untie himself.

'Dark arts'

Mr Williams returned to his flat - half a mile from MI6 headquarters on the banks of the River Thames - on Wednesday 11 August 2010 after a fly-drive holiday to the west coast of the US.

Police say he had been shopping in London's West End and Knightsbridge areas a number of times since then.

CCTV images captured on Saturday 14 August showed him entering Holland Park tube station at about 1500 BST.

On Sunday 15 August, he went to Harrods after visiting a cash machine and, at about 1430 BST, CCTV images showed him in Hans Crescent, heading towards Sloane Street, near the Dolce & Gabbana store.

A post-mortem examination and toxicology tests - which found no trace of drugs, alcohol or poison - and the police investigation have all failed to establish a cause of death.

Police believe that Mr Williams, whose family think may have been killed by an agent "specialising in the dark arts of the secret services", was helped into the bag.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely he got into the bag by himself but doubted his death would ever be explained.

Mirror : 'Body in the bag' spy death: The six key questions that must be answered at the inquest

'Body in the bag' spy death: The six key questions that must be answered at the inquest

Tom Pettifor | April 23, 2012

The inquest into MI6 spy Gareth Williams's mysterious death began today. Here are six questions that remain unanswered

Was there someone else in the flat with Gareth Williams when he died?

Police say it would have been impossible to get into the locked bag alone.

Mr Williams’s body had no signs of defence injuries from a struggle.

The flat was double locked and there was no forensic evidence of a third party.

Why did it take so long to raise the alarm?

Mr Williams was last seen on August 15, 2010, and police believe he died in the early hours of the following day.

But he was not reported missing by anyone until his sister rang police seven days later.

Were the dark arts of the spooks involved?

His family suspect members of an intelligence service were involved in what they see as a possible murder and cover-up.

Was Mr Williams being followed?

A friend is said to have told police he had told her he feared he was under surveillance.

But he did not reveal by whom.

Was Mr Williams’s work behind his death?

He had just returned from holiday in the United States but neither MI6 nor GCHQ have wanted to make public what the codebreaker was involved in at the time of his death.

Did a sex game go wrong?

There was no trace of alcohol or recreational drugs in his body.

But if he was interested in auto-eroticism why was it not picked up when he was vetted?

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.'

Telegraph : Could mystery fingerprints provide clue in dead spy case?

Could mystery fingerprints provide clue in dead spy case?

Police are still to identify up to 20 sets of fingerprints found in the flat of dead MI6 spy Gareth Williams, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | May 5, 2012

Some of the potential prints are little more than marks or “smudges” but officers hope they could still hold the key to the maths prodigy’s death.

Forensic officers are still examining them along with traces of DNA found on a towel in the kitchen.

It came as the head of the Met’s homicide squad said he believed the bizarre death could still be solved despite few clues after a two-year investigation.

Officers are preparing to return to MI6 to interview colleagues of Mr Williams and take DNA as part of a review of the case.

It followed criticism by a coroner this week over aspects of the investigation and the way some evidence was handled.

Mr Williams’ naked decomposing body was discovered in a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his Pimlico home in London in August 2010.

It had been there for a week without anyone raising concerns that the 31-year-old, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, had gone missing.

At the end of an eight day inquest on Wednesday, coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said that “on the balance of probabilities” Mr Williams was “unlawfully killed” and likely to have been “criminally mediated” by a mystery third party.

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

Anthony O’Toole also hinted that foreign forces may have been aware the flat was being used to house MI6 officers and targeted it rather than a specific agenda against Mr Williams.

During the inquest, DCI Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said more than 300 fingerprints were found around the flat.

The majority of those have been accounted for but police sources revealed around 20 are still unresolved.

Some may prove to be too weak to be of use while others may still turn out to be entirely innocent, such as from a workman.

However, experts are working hard to resolve them in the hope they may throw up a mystery visitor to the flat.

Faint traces of the DNA of at least two other people were found on the bag containing Mr Williams but forensic officers fear they are too weak to ever be of use.

There is more hope surrounding DNA tests on a towel found in the kitchen which are due to be concluded within the next few weeks.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of the Met's homicide squad, said of the riddle: “I think it can be resolved and DCI Sebire has my full support.

“We will make every effort to do that, will review the investigation and follow up lines.”

The Daily Telegraph disclosed yesterday that MI6 fear Scotland Yard is trying to make it a scapegoat for failings in the investigation.

Tensions are growing between the intelligence services and police over a possible blame game following criticism by the coroner.

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

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

A senior Whitehall source said there was concern within the intelligence service that the police were using it as a “scapegoat” to mask their own failings in solving the mystery.

Daily Record : Intelligence expert Crispin Black on why sex games feature in so many spy deaths

Intelligence expert Crispin Black on why sex games feature in so many spy deaths

By Crispin Black | former government intelligence adviser | May 5, 2012

SITTING at the Gareth Williams inquest this week, listening to the more lurid details of the case, it occurred to me the death of spooks in bizarre circumstances involving sex games or women’s clothing is hardly an unusual event.

Disposing of an enemy and making it look like a perverted fantasy gone wrong is in the training manuals of every spy agency from MI6 to Mossad.

Codebreaker Gareth, from Anglesey, north Wales, was found dead in a locked bag, in a flat full of women’s clothing and wigs and with his internet browsing history conveniently featuring bondage sites, sparking a flurry of allegations which horrified his parents.

But the fact the 31-year-old’s death scene was organised in such a way as to suggest a sex game gone wrong should make us more suspicious, not less.

The sex game cover is a very useful mechanism in a murder. Not only does it provide a disguise for the actual means and method of death, it trashes the reputation of the victim and blunts the energy of any subsequent investigation.

And it appears to explain the astonishing number of spies, and other people who step into their murky world, who turn up dead in circumstances similar to Gareth.

Take GCHQ personnel for instance, those that work at the vast electronic doughnut in Cheltenham that is responsible for intercepting and decoding secret electronic traffic of interest to Her Majesty’s Government. And Gareth’s ultimate employer.

In 1983, 25-year-old Stephen Drinkwater, who worked as a clerk at GCHQ, was found dead at his home with a plastic bag over his head. In 1997 another worker, Nicholas Husband, 46, was found dead at home dressed in a bra and panties – with a plastic bag over his head.

Two years later, Kevin Allen, 31, a language expert at GCHQ, was found dead in his bed with a plastic bag over his head and a dust mask over his mouth. One wonders what the Gloucestershire Constabulary make of it all.

To be fair, the kind of higher mathematical ability that many GCHQ codebreakers have is rare and it sometimes comes with some personal eccentricities attached.

Alan Turing, the Cambridge academic and founder of modern computer science who became the greatest of the wartime Bletchley Park codebreakers was a distinctly odd fish – a loner with sexual hang-ups who seemed to spend most of his waking hours dreaming of obscure mathematical theorems.

The point was amusingly made in 60s film The Italian Job in which Charlie Croker, played by Michael Caine, recruits computer genius Professor Simon Peach – Benny Hill – to pull off a daring bullion robbery.

But the whole scheme nearly comes unstuck as Prof Peach is unable to control his powerful urges towards large women. MI6, who recruit a more worldly-wise type than the boffins of GCHQ, have not been immune.

In 1994 ex-MI6 man turned journalist James Rusbridger, 65, was found hanged at his house in Cornwall – in a green chemical protection suit including rubber gloves, gas mask and black plastic mackintosh. Bondage pictures completed the tableau.

And of course, according to the pathologist, it turned out he probably did it himself as part of a sex game.

The same year Stephen Milligan, the Tory MP for Eastleigh, was found dead with electrical flex tied round his neck, a black bin liner over his head and wearing stockings and suspenders.

The 45-year-old was also tied to a chair and had a satsuma stuffed into his mouth.

His boss at the time, then junior defence minister Jonathan Aitken, has since denied suggestions Milligan had links to MI6.

Even if you are not a spook you need to be careful. In 1990, ex-RAF helicopter pilot and editor of Defence Helicopter World Jonathan Moyle, 28, was found hanged in the wardrobe of his hotel in Chile with a pillow case over his head.

At the time his demise was widely thought to be an auto-erotic accident. He was in fact almost certainly murdered after uncovering links between Chilean arms dealers and Saddam Hussein.

The last person to give evidence at the Gareth Williams inquest was Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire – the senior investigating officer in the case.

She stated confidently that she was sure she and her team would be able to unlock the mystery in the end. But she also felt that this, her final appearance in court, was an appropriate time to remind the assembled audience of Williams’s internet browsing habits.

The last website he accessed probably just a few hours before his death was connected to cycling – a photo of him competing in a cross-country cycling race has been seen frequently in the national newspapers.

But then she went on to deal with the browsing information that had been made much of in the media over the last 20 months. Williams had accessed bondage websites on four days over a two-year period.

He had never accessed so-called “claustrophilia” sites which cater for people who get a thrill out of being confined in small spaces.

There we have it – the view of the woman in charge of the probe. Williams may have had a passing interest in bondage but no more than that. Even this passing interest may have a perfectly innocent explanation.

All MI6 officers get extensive training before they are allowed out on to the streets. Much of this takes place at Fort Monckton near Gosport in Hampshire – a Napoleonic era fortress surrounded by barbed wire and accessible only by a drawbridge.

It includes instruction in basic entry and exit procedures – buildings and cars mainly. If you ever get locked out of your flat and know a friendly spook from school or university give them a ring.

They should be able to get you back inside and could save you a fortune on locksmith’s fees. The instruction also includes some counter-surveillance techniques – how to make sure you are not followed.

And instruction on what to do if you fall into the wrong hands – resistance to interrogation and crucially, what to do if you are restrained – tied or chained up.

It is possible Williams had some of this training and it might well account for the episode when he was discovered tied up in his room by his landlady.

That the sex game angle was a simple smear is a view certainly not ruled out by the Westminster coroner who said, “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry” Gareth died at the hands of MI6.

In her narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I am sure a third party placed the bag into the bath and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag.

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

I was impressed by Dr Wilcox. She had good judgment and wisdom as can be seen from her verdict in the case. She played down the bondage question and the interest in female fashion – Williams had an expensive collection of women’s clothing nearly all of it unworn and most of it not in his size.

She seemed to accept the view of Williams’s sister that these were a store of presents for his female acquaintances. Dr Wilcox pretty much dismissed the idea of any sexual component in his death.

Sadly that is the aspect many people will remember. Well, these kinky games with yourself or other people go wrong – what can you expect – becomes the prevailing attitude.

Occasionally the dark arts of postmortem reputation trashing are employed in a good cause and based on hard facts rather than a set-up.

The strange and squalid habits of Osama bin Laden before his death have been used to great effect by the US to make him a laughing stock.

Crispin Black’s espionage thriller The Falklands Intercept is published by Gibson Square on June 19.

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

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

By Chris Greenwood | May 4, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Press TV : MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

May 4, 2012

A British coroner has said the MI6 spy whose body was found at his government flat was probably “unlawfully killed”, admitting it is “unlikely” the circumstances surrounding his death “will ever be satisfactorily explained."

“The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated," said British coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox in her two-hour narrative verdict at Westminster Coroner's Court.

“I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully," added Wilcox.

The naked and decomposing body of Gareth Williams, a spy for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), was found in the bath at his government flat in south London in August 2010.

An inquest into Williams’ mysterious death opened on Monday 23 April. After seven days of inquest and also considering a 21-month police inquiry, Wilcox said most of the fundamental questions about how he had died remained unanswered.

Prior to the opening of the inquest on Monday, Williams’ family, friends, and neighbors said they feared he might be the victim of a “cover-up."

Williams’ family believes that a member of “some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services” had a role to play in his death.

Wilcox also said that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams’ death.

ISH/MA/HE

West End Extra : Coroner records 'unnatural death' verdict, but will we ever know what really happened to the spy found in a holdall?

Coroner records 'unnatural death' verdict, but will we ever know what really happened to the spy found in a holdall?

by JOSH LOEB | May 4, 2012

THE building that hosted the inquest into the death of Gareth Williams is located just steps from Sherlock Holmes’s fictional home in Baker Street.

But perhaps even someone of the calibre of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective might lack the ability to unravel what has already become known as “The Alderney Street Mystery”.

An inquest, held inside the annexe of the creaking Marylebone Council House building in Marylebone Road, concluded this week after seven days of evidence and a blizzard of media coverage.

It has almost certainly been the most complex Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox has heard since taking up the post a year ago, and it is hard to imagine a more haunting case.

Mr Williams, 31, a prodigious agent for MI6, was found dead inside a padlocked holdall in a bath in an en suite bathroom at his Pimlico flat on August 23, 2010.

He was naked and was lying on his back curled up in a partial foetal position.

There were no signs of a break-in or struggle at the property.

The flat was eerily tidy and neither Mr Williams’s fingerprints nor his footprints were evident on the bathroom tiles or sides of the bath.

No forensic traces have yet been pinpointed from which any third party can be identified, but experts are still analysing mystery DNA found on the holdall in the hope this could yield a breakthrough.

In her summing up on Wednesday, Dr Wilcox ruled out the possibility that Mr Williams could have zipped himself into the holdall and locked it, still less accomplished this within the even more restricted confines of the bath.

She said: “I am satisfied so that I’m sure that a third party lifted the bag into the bath and, on the balance of probabilities, locked the bag."

"The cause of his [Mr Williams’s] death is unnatural and is likely to be criminally motivated.”

She said it was probable that Mr Williams had died inside the holdall, adding that it was logical to assume this had been placed in the bath to allow the products of decomposition to drain away.

The door of the bathroom had been shut, preventing the smell from spreading.

Mr Williams worked at MI6’s headquarters in Vauxhall, where he was on a secondment from the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham.

Described as a scrupulous risk assessor, he only ever let vetted people into his flat.

He was last seen alive on Sunday August 15, 2010, and an analysis of one of his iPhones showed it had been reset to factory settings, essentially wiped clean of data, on that date.

Dr Wilcox speculated that “this may have been the phone by which some third party had made some arrangement to meet with Gareth”.

On August 16 Mr Williams failed to appear for work.

Incredibly, he was not reported missing until August 23.

The heating in his flat was on despite the fact that it was a sweltering August, and this caused the corpse to decompose faster than it otherwise would have done.

On the fourth day of evidence, Anthony O’Toole, the lawyer for the Williams family, said MI6’s delay in raising the alarm over the disappear­ance had produced “horrendous results”.

“Because of the decomposition of the body, any forensic evidence that could have been derived from it has disappeared, so the police investigation has in effect been defeated,” he said.

Dr Wilcox, who recorded a narrative verdict of “unnatural death”, criticised MI6 for this, prompting an apology from the organisation’s chief Sir John Sawers, who promised lessons had been learned.

The court heard that SO15 counter-terrorism command had acted as a conduit between MI6 and DCI Jackie Sebire, the detective leading the case.

But they repeatedly failed to pass potentially vital information on to her.

DCI Sebire said the inquest had raised new lines of inquiry, and she appealed to anyone with any information to come forward, but Dr Wilcox said she believed it was unlikely Mr Williams’s death would ever be satisfactorily explained.

The Williams family have always said they believe “some agency specialising in the dark arts” either had a hand in Mr Williams’s death or cleaned up afterwards.

That impression looks set to remain in the minds of many people, particularly those who have borne witness to this gripping and almost unprecedented window into the cloak-and-dagger world of secret service spooks.

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

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

May 2, 2012

Who put him in the holdall?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Was his death linked to his private life?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Did he die as a result of a sex game?

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

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

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

Why were the radiators on full blast?

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

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

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

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

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

Was his death linked to spying?

His family believe so, but we may never know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why did MI6 take eight days to call the police?

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

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

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

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

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

Did MI6 undermine the inquiry?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Telephone company records suggested that it had never been used.

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

Why was there so little forensic evidence?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Was he killed by MI6?

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

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

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

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

Tensions building between police and spies over Gareth Williams death

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

By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 4, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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