Daily Mail : Clues point to sex game: MI6 spy Gareth Williams had 'no traces of foreign substances' in his body which was found zipped in a sportsbag

Clues point to sex game: MI6 spy Gareth Williams had 'no traces of foreign substances' in his body which was found zipped in a sportsbag

By Daily Mail Reporter | October 29, 2010

The MI6 spy found dead in a sports bag was not poisoned or under the influence of alcohol at the time of his death, tests have revealed.

After investigating all other avenues, detectives now believe it was a sadomasochistic sex game which led to Gareth Williams' death.

Toxicology tests ruled out the possibility of him being drugged or injected with any lethal toxin.

The codebreaker’s naked body was found locked in a sports bag in his empty bath.

Tests on his body, which have taken two months to complete, have failed to find any foreign substances – or alcohol – or give any indication as to how he died.

Police are now focused on finding a couple known to have been with the 31-year-old in the weeks before his death.

The Mediterranean couple, who are understood to have had a set of keys to the flat, are thought to be key to the investigation.

The man and woman, in their thirties, were known to Mr Williams and were seen entering the flat owned by the intelligence services in late June or early July. But, despite repeated appeals, they have failed to come forward.

Detectives are convinced that the cipher expert could not have died alone.

One possible explanation being investigated by detectives is that Mr Williams was locked in the bag by someone else and left in the bath as part of the bizarre sex game. It is thought that when the person returned to release him they found him dead and fled.

Police are certain he was alive when he was padlocked into the large holdall by, which led to him suffocating. There were no injuries on his body to suggest a struggle.

Inquiries continue into his private life, which officers remain convinced will be the key to solving the case.

There has been months of speculation about the death of the spy, who had been working for the Secret Intelligence Service on secondment from GCHQ in Cheltenham.

The inconclusive toxicology results will only serve to deepen the intrigue surrounding the case.

Mr Williams’ decomposing body was found inside a zipped and padlocked North Face bag in his flat on August 23.

Initially it was thought the cycling enthusiast had been murdered, but the case remains officially classified as ‘suspicious and unexplained’.

Police have discounted suggestions that Mr Williams committed suicide alone. The Mail has learnt that the outer door to his flat in Pimlico, Central London, had apparently been locked from the outside when police arrived on the scene.

Detectives have found no evidence to support claims that Mr Williams was a cross-dresser, that bondage equipment was found at his home, that a laptop was missing from the flat, or that he had reported to spy bosses that he was being followed.

Nor, as was claimed in one report, was any suspicious liquid found next to his body in the sports bag.

Police have also dismissed allegations of irregularities in his finances and there is no evidence that Mr Williams had committed any criminal acts.

The spy was last seen eight days before his body was found. CCTV showed him shopping at Harrods and at Holland Park tube station.

Colleagues later raised the alarm after he had not been seen for days.

Officers found no sign of any forced entry to the property or a disturbance inside. Westminster Coroner Dr Paul Knapman is due to review the case in private next Wednesday, after opening an inquest last month.

Yesterday a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘Results from comprehensive further toxicology tests carried out in relation to the death of Gareth Williams have come back negative, showing no trace of any drugs, alcohol, poisons or any other substances that would indicate cause of death.

‘There are no plans to carry out any further tests of this type, but enquiries continue to try and establish a formal cause of death.

‘Mr Williams’ death remains suspicious and unexplained and enquiries into the circumstances continue.’

Daily Star : OFFICIAL: SPY IN BAG GARETH WILLIAMS DIED DURING KINKY SEX GAME

OFFICIAL: SPY IN BAG GARETH WILLIAMS DIED DURING KINKY SEX GAME

By Paul Robins | October 29, 2010

THE spy found dead inside a padlocked sports bag suffocated during a sex game, police claimed yesterday.

New evidence revealed spook Gareth Williams got his kicks from being trapped in confined spaces, a fetish known as claustrophilia.

But detectives claim things went wrong when he could not get out.

The brilliant codebreaker’s body lay undiscovered for two weeks in the bathtub of his London flat.

But police believe they have solved the mystery after finding links to weird torture websites on the M16 officer’s laptops.

One called Torture Garden gives advice and tips on bizarre fetishes like claustrophilia.

Its believed Gareth, 31, stripped naked before asking someone to snap a padlock shut on the bag’s zip and leave him to find his own way out.

He was stuck in a semi-foetal position and was soon left struggling to fill his lungs with air.

The spy had taken the padlock key into the bag as his “life line” but because the padlock was on the outside he was unable to reach it.

With little oxygen in the bag, he soon passed out and suffocated. Police are convinced the spook would not have been able to lock it from the inside himself.

But it is believed he may have told the person to leave the flat to add to his sexual fantasy.

Erotic asphyxiation is the deliberate restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal.

Gareth had a small frame and fitted easily in the bag that measures 32 inches by 19.

Detectives are still trying to trace a mystery couple who visited the spy’s flat weeks before he died.

Police have confirmed that tests showed there was no trace of alcohol or drugs in his system.

His flat, in Pimlico, central London, did not appear to have been disturbed before the discovery of his body on August 23.

Police also scotched rumours about his double life as a gay transvestite after women’s clothes were found in his flat.

The cyclist fanatic and maths genius had been recruited by British security bosses after earning a university degree at 17.

He was just days away from completing a one-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, Britain’s eavesdropping base in Cheltenham, Glos.

Yesterday a pal said: “What a tragic waste of a brilliant life.”

An inquest will be held next year.

Sun: Bag spook died in 'Houdini' sex game

Bag spook died in 'Houdini' sex game

By MIKE SULLIVAN | Crime Editor | October 29, 2010

BODY-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams suffocated after a kinky Houdini-style sex game went wrong, detectives said yesterday.

The naked MI6 codebreaker was a fan of claustrophilia - in which people get sexual pleasure from confined spaces.

Cops believe the 31-year-old maths genius died accidentally from lack of oxygen after he agreed to be locked in the 32-inch-long sports holdall by another person.

They reckon the person who zipped up the bag discovered him dead and fled the flat.

They have ruled out foul play but are still trying to trace the other person.

There were no signs of injury to Mr Williams' body and toxicology tests found nothing suspicious.

An examination of his two laptops showed he visited websites on claustrophilia.

He also had links to a bondage and sado-masochism website.

Two wigs and women's make-up were also in the flat in Pimlico, West London.

Mr Williams was zipped into the North Face bag and a padlock was snapped shut through two eyeholes in the handles - but the key was found inside.

Normally claustrophiliacs use a password in case of trouble.

It is thought Mr Williams, who did not have a girlfriend, died quickly in the hot bag, possibly while the other person was out of the room.

The key was then put in the bag which was moved to the bath.

Cops are hunting a couple who visited Mr Williams, originally from North Wales, before he died in August.

And CCTV showed him in a red T-shirt shopping at Harrods.

BBC: MI6 man Gareth Williams's cause of death still unknown

MI6 man Gareth Williams's cause of death still unknown

October 28, 2010

Tests on the body of an MI6 worker found naked in a holdall in a London flat have failed to establish how he died, Scotland Yard has said.

Gareth Williams, 30, from Holyhead on Anglesey, was found dead in the bathroom of his Pimlico flat in August.

Police said all tests on the body for drugs, alcohol and poisons had proved negative. No further tests are planned.

Mr Williams, a mathematician, worked at the government's GCHQ listening post. He was on secondment to MI6.

He may have been dead two weeks before he was found, the Metropolitan Police said.

A Met spokesman said: "Results from comprehensive further toxicology tests carried out in relation to the death of Gareth Williams have come back negative, showing no trace of any drugs, alcohol, poisons or any other substances that would indicate cause of death.

"There are no plans to carry out any further tests of this type, but inquiries continue to try and establish a formal cause of death.

'Complete mystery'

"Mr Williams' death remains suspicious and unexplained and inquiries into the circumstances continue."

BBC Home Affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said: "His cause of death remains a complete mystery.

"In an investigation like this you never quite know what the police have got to go on they are not telling you about.

"There are strong suggestions his laptop is missing so possibly it may link to his work."

The case will be reviewed in private by coroner Dr Paul Knapman on Wednesday.

An inquest was opened on 1 September.

Mr Williams graduated with a first class degree in maths from Bangor University at just 17.

In 2000, he took a postgraduate certificate in mathematics at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, before beginning work at GCHQ.

Officers who entered the flat where his body was found discovered a mobile phone and several mobile phone Sim cards laid out.

It is not known what work he was doing for MI6.

Daily Mail : MI6 spook did NOT die alone: Police certain he was padlocked in bag by someone else

MI6 spook did NOT die alone: Police certain he was padlocked in bag by someone else

By Stephen Wright | September 24, 2010

The MI6 spy whose naked body was found in a sports bag in his bath could not have died alone, police believe.

They are now certain he was padlocked into the large holdall by someone else.

Gareth Williams, 31, who was working on secondment for MI6, was alive when he got into - or was forced into – the bag and died from suffocation.

There were no injuries on his body to suggest a struggle and police have still not ruled out the possibility that his death was the culmination of a bizarre sex game that went wrong.

But in another mysterious twist, the Mail can reveal that the outer door to Mr Williams’s flat in Pimlico, Central London, had apparently been locked from the outside when police arrived on the scene.

Detectives have now intensified their search for a Mediterranean couple known to have been with Mr Williams in the weeks before his death. They are understood to have had a set of keys to the flat.

The disclosures come after a month of frenzied speculation about what happened in the flat last month, including theories that Mr Williams committed suicide alone.

But as the head of MI6 attended Mr Williams’s funeral near his family home in North Wales yesterday, the Daily Mail can reveal that this line of inquiry has been discounted.

We can also reveal that there is no evidence to support claims that Mr Williams was a cross-dresser, that bondage equipment was found at his home, that a laptop was missing from the flat, or that he had reported to spy bosses that he was being followed.

Nor, as was claimed in one report, was any suspicious liquid found next to his body in the sports bag.

Police have also dismissed allegations of irregularities in his finances and there is no evidence that Mr Williams had committed any criminal acts.

Inquiries continue into his private life, which officers remain convinced will be the key to solving the case.

Mr Williams’s decomposing body was found inside a zipped and padlocked North Face bag in his flat on August 23.

Initially it was thought the cycling enthusiast had been murdered, but the case remains officially classified as ‘suspicious and unexplained’.

Detectives believe that whoever was present around the time of his death might have been too scared to come forward to explain what happened.

The revelation that the Mediterranean couple had their own keys emerged after the Daily Mail returned to the scene of Mr Williams’s death earlier this week and spoke to neighbours.

Detectives believe the man and woman, in their thirties, were known to Mr Williams because neighbours do not recall their being ‘buzzed’ into the address.

Despite repeated appeals, the couple – who visited the flat owned by the intelligence services in late June or early July – have not come forward.

Their reluctance to identify themselves has hampered ‘Operation Finlayson’, the code name given to the Metropolitan Police investigation into Mr Williams’s death.

The Mail can reveal that the results of two post-mortem examinations, carried out by respected pathologists Ben Swift and Dick Shepherd, are expected to be made public in the next fortnight.

Initial tests are understood to suggest that Mr Williams died of suffocation while in the bag. Toxicology tests showed no traces of alcohol or rec­reational drugs in his system.

Mr Williams’s body was found in an extra-large North Face bag, which features 140 litres of storage capacity, durable material, double stitching, twin haul handles and locking zips.

Claims that a WPC or escapologist of similar height and build to Mr Williams had locked the padlock while inside the same type of bag, during a ‘re-enactment’ of the possible events leading to his death, have been dismissed.

A former senior Met detective said: ‘Cases like this are not like an episode of CSI. They are not solved neatly in 45 minutes.’

The head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, made the journey from London to the small Bethel Methodist Chapel in Anglesey for yesterday’s funeral to support Mr Williams’s family and represent colleagues who could not attend.

Mr Williams was on secondment at the Secret Intelligence Service from GCHQ in Cheltenham.

The mourners were led by his parents Ian and Ellen, his sister Ceri and her husband Chris Subbe.

A tribute was paid by Islwyn Williams, headteacher of Ysgol Morswyn, the primary school attended by the code-breaker and cipher specialist.

He said: ‘He accomplished more in three short decades than the rest of us do in a lifetime.’

Outside church, when asked if the investigation would ever get to the bottom of what happened to Mr Williams, Sir John insisted it was a police matter.

He said: ‘It has been a desperately sad period for the family since Gareth died.

‘Gareth was a hugely talented person and he was very modest and generous as well. He did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security.’

Mr Williams was last seen alive eight days before his body was found. CCTV showed him shopping at Harrods and at Holland Park Tube station.

Channel 4 : Did MI6 spy Gareth Williams commit suicide?

Did MI6 spy Gareth Williams commit suicide?

By Jonathan Rugman | September 14, 2010

One of the greatest mysteries of recent weeks has been the unexplained death of an MI6 employee found in a padlocked and zipped up bag in the bath of his flat. Channel 4 News' Jonathan Rugman analyses the possibility of suicide.
Gareth Williams, one of the last pictures taken of the MI6 spy, who was found dead padlocked into a sports bag (Image: Reuters)

The circumstances of his passing are so bizarre that no conspiracy theory can be ruled out - and nor will anything be ruled out until the police investgation is complete - but one theory currently in play is suicide.

This may sound extraordinary, but when you look at what we know, suicide may be no more extraordinary than any other aspect of this remarkable spy-novel case, which the police are still not confident enough to call murder.

Gareth Williams was found dead by police in Pimlico on August 23rd. The door of his flat was double-locked and a forensic sweep of his Alderney Street flat has not, as far as we know, revealed signs of forced entry.

Police toxicologists have concluded that drugs or alcohol did not contribute to his death, though more toxicology tests may be required. Police have appealed for information about a "Mediterranean couple" - a phrase which surely should be consigned to the novels of Agatha Christie or Eric Ambler - who apparently visited the flat a few weeks before.

But this may just be due diligence on the part of an investigative team duty bound to keep an open mind. From the very beginning, there has been no suggestion from the corridors of Whitehall that a national security breach has occurred.

Conspiracy theorists will argue that this is a cover up by the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS, but for now I don't buy that.

First off, we know that Mr Williams travelled to the US listening centre in Maryland where he also worked, but he did not have any dealings - that we know of - with governments or foreign intellligence agencies potentially hostile to Britain.

Nor is there any reason to think that the Talibans or Al Qaeda, in their many franchises, knew who he was. And if terrorists killed him, surely they would have told us by now?

There is no evidence - again, that we know of - that anything like a laptop or mobile phone was taken from Williams' flat. In fact, we know that his phone SIM cards were neatly laid out on a table.

At first this was interpreted as a sign of a ritualistic killing, but with hindsight it may have been just the punctiliousness of a very private man - ideal for his job, I would have thought. Mr Williams was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham and was due to return to Gloucestershire imminently.

This fact - that he was going back to his former place of employment - is the only potential "trigger moment" we have which could provide a clue to the puzzle of his death. In the week the police found the body, I reported for Channel 4 News the theory that the code expert's "sexual preferences" may have had something to do with his death.

Two days later, The Sunday Times reported that it had spoken to two witnesses who had seen Mr Williams on the gay scene in South London.

All this apparently appalled the dead man's family in Wales - only beginning to come to terms with his tragic death - and both they and the police let it be known that this was not a useful line of enquiry. One outraged family member suggested that this could be an orchestrated "dirty tricks" campaign by British Intelligence. What would be the merits of MI6 falsely describing its employee as gay?

MI6 employs gay people, and like every other branch of the civil service it cannot discriminate against them. What it may not be able to tolerate is the security risk of an employee being a closet gay - leading a double life on top of their double life as a spy - in case this leaves an employee open to blackmail.

A "dirty tricks" campaign unfairly suggesting that Williams was a closet homosexual in fact does the reputations of GCHQ and MI6 few favours, because it makes it obvious that their supposedly rigorous vetting procedures failed. In other words, it is an "own goal" for SIS. So why suggest it if it wasn't true?

To disguise the fact that the Russians or the Iranians or Mafia hit men killed him, when they could have killed him in myriad and far less bizarre ways if they had wanted to, assuming they had even known who he was? Which brings us back to the body in the bag.

A padlocked bag in a flat which was double-locked with no sign of forced entry that we know of. Could the bag have been padlocked from the inside?

It has been reported that it could. Which leads us to the theory - and that is all this is - that an act of "erotic self-asphyxiation" or sex game caused Gareth Williams' death, either by accident or on purpose.

And if it was on purpose and involved no one else, what was the trigger? Perhaps it was his imminent departure from the bright lights of London and his return to his old life in Cheltenham.

I repeat that this is just a theory based on the little that we know; but Gareth Williams lived in a world of secrets, and perhaps the secret of his private life was, for him, one secret too many.

Sydney Morning Herald : Spy sex game may have caused death

Spy sex game may have caused death

September 13, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was the last time he was seen alive.

Daily Mail : Detectives believes dead MI6 spy may have zipped HIMSELF in bag in bizarre sex game that went wrong

Detectives believes dead MI6 spy may have zipped HIMSELF in bag in bizarre sex game that went wrong

By Simon Walters and Glen Owen | September 12, 2010

* WPC climbed into bag to show how he may have died

Police believe the MI6 spy found dead in a sports bag in a bath inside his flat may have died after a bizarre sex game went wrong, according to well-placed sources.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that a woman police officer climbed into the holdall in which codebreaker Gareth Williams’ naked body was found, re-enacting the events which it is thought could have led to his death.

She managed to zip up the bag and padlock it from the inside, leading investigators to conclude that Mr Williams may have done the same for sexual kicks and suffocated when he could not reopen it.

The theory was bolstered by the fact that a key to the padlock was found alongside his body inside the £150 bag.

Despite being crouched in the holdall, the police officer was able to squeeze her hand through a small gap between the padlock and the zip fastener and lock it from the inside.

Police believe Mr Williams may have gone through the same extraordinary routine, and then passed out, possibly as a result of panic when he was unable to reopen the padlock.

The identity of the officer who undertook the unusual police assignment is not known.

She was chosen partly because her petite size is similar to the slim and short frame of 31-year-old keep-fit fanatic Mr Williams.

His body was found in an extra-large North Face bag, a type which is favoured by explorers because of its 140 litres of storage capacity, durable material, double stitching, twin haul handles and locking zips.

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

The practice claimed the life of Tory MP Stephen Milligan, whose body was found in 1994 with a bag over his head and an orange in his mouth.

Figures have not been recorded for the number of auto-erotic fatal­ities (AEFs) in America, although it is estimated between 500 and 1,000 occur in the US every year.

Although most AEFs arise from the use of a noose to restrict the supply of oxygen, deaths have occurred after victims put themselves into bags.

In one example, a Yale University student died after zipping himself into an airtight vinyl bag and binding his hands.

Police have been mystified since cycling enthusiast Mr Williams was found dead inside his £400,000 two-bedroom flat in Pimlico, half-a-mile from the MI6 HQ in Westminster, three weeks ago.

The initial reaction of the police constable who discovered his body was: ‘This is a murder scene.’

There were also rumours that Mr Williams was the victim of a professional ‘hit’. Other theories included the suggestion that he had been murdered by Russian agents.

Tests on his body were ordered to establish whether he was poisoned, as happened when Polonium 210 radiation was used to murder exiled Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Initial toxicology tests showed no traces of alcohol or rec­reational drugs in Mr Williams’ system.

Police sources say that the results of more sophisticated tests, carried out to establish the cause of death, might not be known for up to a fortnight.

The MI6 agent’s family have angrily accused the Government of running a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign to blacken his name after reports that he was gay and a cross-dresser.

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

Police also dismissed allegations of irregularities in his finances and that a top-secret laptop computer had gone missing from his flat.

Crucially, there was no evidence of violence and no cuts or bruises on Mr Williams’ body, suggesting there had been no struggle.

Nor was there any sign of forced entry to his flat, suggesting he either knew his killer and let them in – or there was no killer.

Mr Williams, from Anglesey, North Wales, worked as a cipher and codes expert for the Government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ in Cheltenham.

He was on a year-long secondment to MI6 which was due to end days after he was found dead.

A child prodigy who had a degree in maths at 17 and went on to obtain a PhD, Mr Williams had the highest security clearance available to an intelligence officer and was part of a secretive ‘cell’ that created devices that can steal data from mobiles and laptops.

He carried out similar work on frequent visits to the National Security Agency in the US.

Mr Williams, who lived on his own and did not have a partner, returned from a ‘planned holiday’ in the US on Wednesday, August 11.

Using his mobile phone to track his last whereabouts, police trawling through CCTV discovered that Mr Williams had made several shopping trips to London’s West End and Knightsbridge on August 14 and 15.

After visiting Harrods, he walked towards a nearby Dolce & Gabbana store, though he did not go in. It is the last time he was seen alive.

Last night a Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘It would be inappropriate to comment at this stage of the investigation. We are keeping an open mind about the case.’

San Francisco Examiner : Was British code-breaker assassinated?

Was British code-breaker assassinated?

By Barbara Hollingsworth, Local Opinion Editor | September 10, 2010

Jeff Stein, the Washington Post’s SpyTalk blogger, says that unnamed “U.S. intelligence officials” have downplayed the possibility that British code-breaker Gareth Williams – who worked closely with the U.S. National Security Agency at Fort Meade and American intelligence officials in Kabul – was assassinated.

But back in London, where the naked, decomposing body of the 31-year-old “math genius” was found August 23 in a padlocked duffel bag in the bathroom of an apartment kept as a “safe house” by Britain’s M16, police are not so sure. “Murder detectives say they are still looking at whether Gareth Williams may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his work on intercepting messages and code-breaking,” according to the Daily Telegraph.

Williams was “on loan” to M16 from Britain’s top-secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and reportedly played a “key role” overseeing Echelon, a secret electronic network that links satellites and super computers in Britain, the U.S. and other Western allies that eavesdrop on terrorist networks.

There was no sign of forced entry at the Cambridge-educated mathematician’s Pimlico address. William Hughes said his nephew had recently returned from a summer visit to the U.S. (presumably to NSA). And according to the Daily Mail, investigators were also looking for Williams’ personally configured laptop, which is reportedly still missing.

Misinformation released at the time Williams’ body was discovered, including initial rumors that he had been stabbed, were later refuted. British officials also backed away from earlier reports that “bondage gear, gay contact magazines and male escorts’ phone numbers” were found at the scene.

The cause of death has still not been established. Toxicology tests found no alcohol or recreational drugs in Williams’ system. Scotland Yard called the death “suspicious and unexplained,” and announced it was looking for a “young Mediterranean couple” who visited Williams a month or two ago, but haven’t been seen since.

Detective Chief Inspector Jacqueline Sebire of London’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, who is leading the investigation into Williams’ murder, told reporters: “This remains a complex unexplained death enquiry.”

So ruling out the possibility that Williams was assassinated by a foreign intelligence agency would seem to be slightly premature.

Daily Mail : Was it poison? Two weeks after murdered spy was found in his bath, baffled police release CCTV of victim as they probe radiation theory

Was it poison? Two weeks after murdered spy was found in his bath, baffled police release CCTV of victim as they probe radiation theory

By Charlotte Gill | September 7, 2010

Tests to discover whether murdered MI6 spy Gareth Williams was poisoned are being carried out.

Yesterday, detectives revealed pictures of the last known moments of the 31-year-old codebreaking expert.

They also disclosed that his body was naked when found and initial toxicology tests show no traces of alcohol or recreational drugs in his system.

With no obvious cause of death, further tests are under way to determine whether a rare drug or poison can be found.

One possibility is that Mr Williams was killed by radiation poisoning, as happened when Polonium 210 was used to murder exiled Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

CCTV images show him walking through some of London’s most affluent areas eight days before his body was found padlocked in a sports bag in his bath.

Detectives also appealed for help in identifying a young man and woman who called at his flat late one night.

The pair, both of Mediterranean appearance and aged between 20 and 30, were let in through the communal door to the Victorian house conversion weeks before he died. It is not known whether they went to his flat or indeed saw the spy – deepening the mystery over his murder.

Two weeks after the spy’s body was found police are still unable to say how he died.

The CCTV footage shows him shopping alone at Harrods on Sunday August 15 at about 2.30pm. He is in a red T-shirt, beige trousers and white trainers and is carrying a white plastic bag.

A day earlier he was caught on CCTV entering Holland Park Tube station in West London at a similar time, again by himself, wearing the same clothes and carrying a white bag.

Scotland Yard said there was no sign of forced entry to Mr Williams’s flat, suggesting he might have known his killer and had let them in.

Detectives will not go into detail about who let the mystery couple in through the front door of the house in Pimlico, Central London, ‘late one evening’ in June or July or why they were there.

But the incident is seen as a potentially significant line of inquiry in the increasingly puzzling case, with pathologists yet to determine how the cipher and codes specialist died.

Although there are no outward signs that the cycling enthusiast met a violent death, officers have not yet ruled out asphyxiation.

The revelation that his body was naked will fuel speculation that he could have been involved in a sex game which went wrong.

Another theory for the absence of clothes is that his killer was forensically aware and wanted to destroy any potentially incriminating contact with Mr Williams.

Sources close to the inquiry have admitted they are ‘baffled’ about the case.

Claims that Mr Williams had previously complained of being followed and that a laptop computer is missing from his home have been rejected by police.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the inquiry, said: ‘This remains a complex unexplained death inquiry.’

Investigators know that Mr Williams, who was a loner with few friends, returned from a ‘planned holiday’ in the U.S. on Wednesday August 11.

He was coming to the end of a year-long secondment at MI6, whose headquarters are half a mile from his flat, and was due to return to GCHQ, the Government’s listening post in Cheltenham.

Using his mobile phone to track his whereabouts, they have discovered by trawling through CCTV that he went shopping ‘on a number of occasions’ in the West End and Knightsbridge on August 14 and 15.

After visiting Harrods, he seen walking towards Sloane Street, near to the Dolce and Gabbana store, though he does not go in the shop. Police have refused to disclose what he was buying.

It is the last time he was seen and detectives are still desperate to find any further sightings.

Lurid speculation that Mr Williams was a gay transvestite and bondage gear was found in the flat has been dismissed as untrue by police.

A source close to the inquiry has also said there was ‘nothing out of place in his finances’ despite reports that unexplained money might have moved in and out of his account.

Express : SPY’S BODY WAS COVERED IN ‘FLUID’ TO SPEED DECAY

SPY’S BODY WAS COVERED IN ‘FLUID’ TO SPEED DECAY

By John Chapman | September 6, 2010

DETECTIVES investigating the “perfect murder” of MI6 spy Gareth Williams are no closer to solving the riddle of his mystery death, it emerged yesterday.

The decomposing body of the code-breaker was found padlocked in a sports holdall in a bath at his flat in Pimlico, central London.

One theory being explored is that the body was submerged in “fluid”.

The disclosure he was covered by liquid – not thought to be blood or water – has raised fears a substance was used to accelerate decay and complicate toxicology tests. His body was described as being in fluid by the first officers at the scene.

It was claimed yesterday that he had the highest security clearance available to an intelligence officer.

Williams, 31, was allegedly part of team that created devices to steal data from mobiles and laptops. He was last seen alive eight days before his corpse was found on August 23.

The investigation is being led by the Met’s Homicide Command with the Counter Terror Command playing a back-up role. A pathologist found Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Amid fears that he was the victim of a “professional hit”, police are still baffled by the cause of death. The keen cyclist was days from completing a one-year secondment to MI6 in Vauxhall, London.

Williams, from Anglesey, north Wales, worked as a cipher and codes expert for the Government’s listening centre GCHQ in Cheltenham. He spent time on secondment to MI5 and it was claimed he had been on a secret mission to Bulgaria.

Daily Mail : Was body of MI6 spy submerged in mystery fluid to speed up decay?

Was body of MI6 spy submerged in mystery fluid to speed up decay?

By Abul Taher and Ian Gallagher | September 5, 2010

The policeman who found the body of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams said it was submerged in ‘fluid’, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

An inquest heard last week that the 31-year-old spy was padlocked in a sports hold-all and left in the bath of his two-bedroom flat in Pimlico, Central London.

But the disclosure that he was also covered by liquid – not thought to be blood or water – has raised fears that a substance was used to accelerate decay and complicate toxicology tests.

The revelation came as new details emerged of the highly sensitive nature of Mr Williams’s work.

A source said he had the highest security clearance available to an intelligence officer and was part of a secretive ‘cell’ that created devices that can steal data from mobiles and laptops.

Now, nearly two weeks after cycling enthusiast Mr Williams was found in his flat, police are apparently no nearer to learning how or when he died.

This is despite a post-mortem, a second examination and toxicology tests, the results of which might not be available for weeks.

Sources close to the inquiry say the PC who found the body described it as being in ‘fluid’ when he radioed for assistance. Detectives at the scene are understood to have used the same word in their reports.

Immediately after making the discovery at the flat, the PC said: ‘This is a murder scene.’

Mr Williams, from Anglesey, North Wales, worked as a cipher and codes expert for the Government’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ in Cheltenham.

He was on a year-long secondment to MI6 which was due to end days after he was found dead.

Police and security sources have indicated that the explanation for his death is more likely to be found in his personal life rather than his work.

But speculation that he was the victim of a professional ‘hit’ was given credence last night after further details of his work were disclosed.

‘He was involved in some very sensitive projects, known as codeword protected,’ said a security expert.

‘This meant that only the people in his cell would know what he was working on, and nobody else in his organisation.

‘You are signed in to these projects and once you finish one you are signed out and you no longer have access to any data or news about what is happening in the project.’

Mr Williams – a child prodigy who had a degree in maths at 17 and then a PhD in the subject – was part of a team that created devices which ‘hook’ on to mobiles and laptops.

‘It is an aggressive form of Bluetooth or similar wireless technology,’ said the security expert.

He said such devices would be used by spies on the ground to steal data from the handsets of unsuspecting terrorists, organised criminals or officers from rival intelligence agencies.

‘Traditionally, there has been a separation of MI6 and GCHQ,’ said the expert. ‘MI6 has been full of the James Bond types working on the ground and GCHQ is filled with boffins with beards who are doing their scientific stuff.

‘But recently there has been a merger of these agencies’ work and Williams was at the forefront of that. This was why he was on secondment to MI6.’

He added that Mr Williams did similar work when he had stints at the National Security Agency in America.

The NSA is the equivalent of GCHQ and has been leading the West’s attempts to intercept communication between Al Qaeda cells.

Mr Williams worked for the Special Delivery Team, a unit set up in the NSA to create advanced bugging and intercepting devices.

‘If you just look at Williams’s CV, you know he has worked in some of the most important data-mining centres in the UK and US. His salary is no indication of his rank,’ said the expert.

It has also emerged that before his secondment to MI6, Mr Williams worked briefly for MI5, the domestic security agency. As part of that work, he was sent to Bulgaria on a secret mission.

A source close to the investigation said that on August 23 police were asked to check on Mr Williams’s flat as he had not shown up for work. Just before 6pm, a PC went to the Georgian townhouse in Alderney Street, which has been converted into four flats on four floors. Mr Williams had the top one.

The PC could not get into the house so the letting agent, W.  A. Ellis, was called and a woman employee arrived with keys.

She hovered at Mr Williams’s door as the PC went inside. Within minutes he emerged quickly from the en suite bathroom and escorted the woman back downstairs. He then told her: ‘You stay here. This is now a murder scene.’

This weekend, staff at W. A. Ellis, of Knightsbridge, refused to confirm details. A spokeswoman said: ‘36 Alderney Street is owned by a private company, New Rodina.

‘There has been speculation that it is linked to MI6 or that it is a front for MI6. Our clients do not have any links to MI6 whatsoever and are distressed by the death of Mr Williams.’

Daily Mail : A secret stalker. Witnesses who won't talk... but the most tantalising question of all is... Who's got the spy-in-the-bag's missing laptop?

A secret stalker. Witnesses who won't talk... but the most tantalising question of all is... Who's got the spy-in-the-bag's missing laptop?

By Sue Reid | September 3, 2010

Number 36 Alderney Street stands in a terrace of tall white houses with gleaming door knockers at the heart of a London enclave the posh estate agents call ‘alpha territory’.

The Queen’s cousin lives down the road of million-pound homes and for 30 years Mimmo d’Ischia, a nearby Italian eaterie, has been a favourite of the Duchess of Cornwall and film stars Joan Collins and Anthony Hopkins.

Even this week, after the strange murder at Number 36 of young British spy Gareth Williams, there is little to show much has changed.

Nothing, that is, apart from the frantic comings and goings by men in suits from the British secret service, MI6, and detectives from Scotland Yard.

The house is where the decomposing body of Mr Williams, padlocked into a sports holdall and thrown into the bath of his top-floor flat, was discovered by police at 6.30 on the evening of Monday, August 23.

The maths genius, loner and cycling fanatic had not turned up for work as a cipher and codes expert at the headquarters of MI6, half a mile from Alderney Street, on the banks of the Thames at Vauxhall.

Today, the mystery over his death is deepening. Was he killed because of his professional life or his private one? Was it an impromptu killing or one that was planned?

Did he die in the top-floor flat after letting in his own killer? Or was he murdered elsewhere by someone who stole his flat keys, before carrying him back and dumping him?

Is it possible that despite his reputation for clean living, an aspect of his private life has led the young spy into danger? Scotland Yard has not ruled out that a woman, or indeed a man, may have been at his flat in the hours before his death. Was she or he invited there to play a sex game that went wrong?

It is, of course, just another question that needs to be answered about the spy who was ‘on loan’ to MI6 from UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the country’s top-secret listening post in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

When Mr Williams’s gruesome death first became public knowledge, there were lurid and unproven rumours about his private affairs.

Speculation that ‘bondage equipment and gay paraphernalia’ had been found at the flat was later dismissed as ‘garbage’ by Scotland Yard.

His parents, Ian and Ellen, who live in a bungalow in Holyhead, Anglesey, were horrified at the unsavoury claims about their bachelor son’s supposedly wild homosexual lifestyle.

The family insist he lived an exemplary existence and was not gay. A friend of Mr Williams said that the spy was ‘asexual’, and showed little interest in having a relationship with a man or a woman.

A first post-mortem failed to find the cause of his death. A second examination of his body took place a few days ago to unravel if he was drugged, poisoned or smothered. The results of this are still being analysed.

Yet, in a worrying twist, the Mail understands that a turf war has broken out between the police and MI6, with some police officers ­complaining that the spooks are ­hindering their investigation into the spy’s death.

The Mail has learned from sources close to the investigation that Mr Williams informed MI6 that he believed he was being followed in the months before his death, though murder squad detectives say they have not been told this.

This suggests that every aspect of his life at work and at home should be put under the microscope. However, there is frustration at Scotland Yard that the ‘security concerns’ of MI6 are stopping this wide-sweep inquiry happening.

Police attempts to quiz two spies still working at GCHQ who knew Mr Williams well have been unsuccessful and some detectives suspect they have been ‘blocked’ by both MI6 and GCHQ. It is also understood the murder squad was unable to get to one of his closest friends, a former GCHQ spy.

The man lived at the Alderney Street safe house in 2005 and visited there earlier this year. ‘He knows the day-to-day movements of Mr Williams and that is why he is important,’ added our source.

Scotland Yard murder detectives were this week also waiting to quiz another former GCHQ employee, who suddenly moved to America from Cheltenham six weeks ago and is said to be a ‘best friend’ of the dead codebreaker.

There is also friction between MI6 and GCHQ over the level of protection given to Mr Williams while on his London secondment. ‘Some people feel that he was sent to MI6 on secondment as a goodwill gesture and the intelligence service then “lost” GCHQ’s man,’ said a source.

It is a troubling backdrop to any major murder investigation, especially one into an expert codebreaker who was playing a significant role in protecting Britain.

Meanwhile, the Mail has learned of intriguing riddles about his death. The spy’s brain showed no signs of bruising, indicating he was not knocked unconscious before he died.

This has led to speculation that he may have been killed with a tiny injection of poison, possibly through his inner ear. If so, the needle mark would be almost invisible to the naked eye.

Another riddle is that Mr Williams’s personal computer is thought to be missing. He had designed the small machine to his own specifications and it ‘cannot be found’, the Mail has been told.

The laptop, which Scotland Yard refuses to officially confirm is missing, is crucial to the investigation. It could be a vital window on Mr Williams’s private life, his innermost thoughts, any transfers to and from his online bank account and would reveal if he had money problems.

Importantly, it will help trace his movements between the time he was last seen alive, on August 15, and the discovery of his body eight days later in his flat, where there was no sign of a break-in.

This will help pinpoint the time of his death, which is essential to finding a killer. Mr Williams’s bank and credit cards were used during these crucial eight days.

Troublingly, because it is not known when he died, it has been impossible to discover if they were used by him, or someone who had stolen them from him and was involved in his murder.

In a further conundrum, one of the first police officers who entered the flat after Mr Williams was ­discovered dead saw some white powder on several surfaces in the kitchen and living room. Although this could prove innocent, the ­powder is being tested in case it is cocaine or another drug.

In particular, some Scotland Yard detectives believe a public appeal for sightings of Mr Williams in the missing days before his death is essential to solve the murder mystery.

It would involve the release of more photographs and details about his lifestyle, but it is understood to have been ruled out by MI6, which is worried that terrorists might use the information to identify other British spies and their own secrets.

It all sounds disturbingly similar to the case of 28-year-old journalist Jonathan Moyle, another British intelligence agent, whose body was found hanging inside a hotel wardrobe in the Chilean capital Santiago in 1990 with a padded noose around his neck.

He had been investigating a company — ostensibly for his British defence magazine — which was modifying helicopters, possibly to carry nuclear weapons, to sell to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

But his friends and family believe security sources planted the ­suggestion that he had died while engaged in an auto-erotic act and tried to stand in the way of the family’s own inquiries.

It took his outraged father to expose the cover-up — and find out that his son had been drugged, ­suffocated, injected with a lethal substance and then strung up in the wardrobe, a view supported by the British coroner, who returned a verdict of unlawful killing at his inquest eight years later.

This week, the Mail traced Mr Moyle’s former fiancée Annette Kissenbeck to her home in Germany, where she said the latest death of a British ‘spy in a bag’ brings back painful memories.

‘The British intelligence services tried to smear Jonathan by suggesting he was sexually deviant,’ she said. ‘I felt so helpless and alone trying to stand up to what was untrue against such powerful and shadowy forces.’.

The rumour that Moyle indulged in auto-erotic experiences first ­surfaced at a British embassy cocktail party attended by journalists in Santiago, adding weight to the Chilean claim that he had died by his own hand.

Annette says both were smears to cover up the truth about the murder and the illicit trade with Iraq. ‘Jonathan had everything to live for. We were totally in love with each other and about to get ­married,’ said Annette this week at her home in Essen, where she works as one of Germany’s leading child doctors.

A year after his death, a Chilean judicial investigation concluded that Moyle had been murdered. But two years later, in 1993, the murder investigation was wrapped up without a single suspect being arrested.

‘Jonathan just wasn’t the type to be depressed. And never in all the time we were together was there any hint that he was into auto-erotic sex,’ said Annette this week.

Even today, she is convinced that the spread of false information was deliberately orchestrated by shadowy figures in British secret services to cover up their own knowledge of the helicopter sales and to protect the UK’s relationship with Chile.

So could the extraordinary story of Jonathan Moyle shed any light on the death of Gareth Williams?

Williams played a key role in the world’s most sensitive and ­secretive electronic intelligence-gathering system.

He was helping to oversee a network called Echelon. It links ­satellites and super computers in Britain and the nations of our Western allies, including the U.S.

Set up to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Echelon now eavesdrops on terrorists, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, threatening British security.

In particular, it listens for key words and phrases that might ­suggest that an attack on this country is being planned by overseas terrorist cells or home-grown subversives.

He was signed up by GCHQ at 21 while studying for a post-graduate maths certificate at Cambridge, a favourite recruiting ground for the secret services.

His career path was meteoric. Williams had two passports, which allowed him to travel incognito if necessary. Soon he was working for long spells in Afghanistan for our secret services.

Four times a year, he paid visits to America to liaise with the powerful National Security Agency in Fort Meade in Maryland.

When he died, he was living rent-free at Alderney Street, which was bought by MI6 as a ‘safe house’ ten years ago.

It is one of many owned by MI6 dotted around Pimlico, which have been swept for listening devices and kept under surveillance. They are used to put up visiting operatives or to conduct de-briefings in total secrecy.

Mr Williams was due to return to his former flat, rented from a landlady, in Cheltenham yesterday and start back at work at GCHQ later this month.

An associate of Mr Williams told the Mail this week: ‘Gareth really didn’t like London, although he was sent on secondment to MI6 more than once.

‘He suffered it because he had to for his career. He did make a few friends, mainly others sent from GCHQ in Cheltenham who also lived at this MI6 place in Alderney Street.

‘They are the people that know the most about how he spent his spare time over the past few months and MI6 must let the police murder squad speak to them.’

So will the truth about death of the young spy Gareth Williams ever come to light amid the smears and secrecy of the murky world of espionage?

Today, almost a fortnight after the tragic discovery at 36 Alderney Street, you wouldn’t be wise to put money on it. Even if your name was James Bond or George Smiley.

This Is London : Is the death of spy Gareth Williams the perfect murder?

Is the death of spy Gareth Williams the perfect murder?

Justin Davenport, Crime Editor | September 3, 2010

IT is nearly two weeks since the body of MI6 code-breaker Gareth Williams was found padlocked in a sports bag in his flat, and normally by now police would be hoping to make an announcement of an arrest.

Scotland Yard detectives have been working closely with MI6 agents to uncover the truth about how the maths genius and cipher expert was found dead, apparently without a single mark on his body.

Yet, far from nearing a breakthrough in the inquiry, the Standard understands that detectives are increasingly frustrated at the course the investigation is taking.

In a twist that could come from the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story, it is understood that officers can find no obvious sign that anyone else was in the flat at the time of his death.

The conclusion, if proved, raises the possibility that Williams died alone or, alternatively, his killer was so skilful that he left no clues; he — or possibly even they — may have committed the perfect murder.

One highly respected pathologist told the Standard today it was possible that the cause of his death may never be fully known.

Police officers were first called to Williams's home — the top-floor flat of a MI6 “safe house” in Alderney Street, Pimlico — at approximately 6.30pm on Monday, August 23, when his MI6 employers became concerned for his “welfare” after he failed to turn up for work. In the large en-suite bathroom off the master bedroom, officers found a large red hold-all in the bath, containing William's curled-up body. The bag, believed to be from the North Face adventure company, had been padlocked from the outside and placed in the bath tub.

Yet what puzzled detectives was that nothing else seemed out of place in the £400,000 flat which Mr Williams had rented for a year while on secondment to M16 from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). There was no sign of a struggle, forced entry or theft; everything was “spotless” and in order, according to one officer who has been inside.

Personal possessions — including two iPhones and Sim cards — had been laid out neatly on a table. There were laptops, one an expensive Apple Mac.
Some details about what detectives found in Williams's flat are being kept secret. They will not, for instance, say whether the body was naked or even whether there was — or had been — any water in the bath.

So far pathologists have carried out two post-mortems, but both have failed to establish how Williams died, though the examination was complicated by the fact that the body was said to be in an “advanced state of decay”.

What is known, however, is that Williams, a 31-year-old cycling fanatic, had not been shot or stabbed and did not appear to have been strangled. Detectives must now wait for the results of numerous toxicology tests to find out whether he was drugged, poisoned or even smothered.

Detectives and specialists working on the case know that asphyxiation is sometimes difficult to trace and privately fear the possibility that an exact cause of death may never be found and thereby denying them one of the most important clues for solving any murder investigation.

Dr Stuart Hamilton, one of 36 Home Office pathologists covering England and Wales, said that some more subtle forms of asphyxiation left few marks and therefore sometimes could not be discovered.

The Scotland Yard inquiry into Williams's death has focused on several main strands, including the scene at his flat when officers first arrived, and tracing the code-breaker's movements in the days before he is thought to have died.

In suspicious cases such as these, the police will also look into the dead person's background, but, it is understood, Williams's preference for keeping his personal life a secret from colleagues, family and friends has made this task incredibly difficult.

Detectives hold out hope that someone will come forward with information to help them piece together Williams's “four mystery days” between Wednesday, August 11, when he was in London and spoke to his sister Ceri Subbe on the phone, and Sunday, August 15 — the last time he was seen alive.

Ceri, a physiotherapist in Wrexham, raised the alarm after her brother failed to return her calls and has since travelled to London to help police.

Officers, extremely sensitive to the Williams family grief, nonetheless are of the view that the riddle of how Williams died most probably lies with his private life — even though there are no firm leads in that direction nearly two weeks after his death. His parents, who live in Anglesey, describe their son as extremely reserved but they are adamant he was not gay.

Rumours that bondage gear and gay escort agency numbers were found at Williams's flat have been flatly denied by his family, who say these more lurid claims may be smears, intended to discredit him.

There are reports that he frequented a gay bar near the MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, but detectives can find no trace of a boyfriend, or girlfriend, and there is nothing to suggest he was a secret drinker or drug taker.

In fact, the opposite is true: Williams lived for his job and his cycling, regularly riding with his father around Anglesey and in local competitions with his club.

One line of inquiry is that Mr Williams died in an accident, a sex game that went wrong perhaps. But police say that if this was so why is it taking so long to find the “suspect”, who, if he panicked and fled the scene, should have left clues to his identity.

Police have combed the flat for fingerprints and DNA and searched CCTV in the area, but they are not believed to have identified a prime suspect. They are also sifting through his Sim cards to trace every call he made, but still have not found a motive.

One detective said: “The fact that no one has come forward could mean that no one was there. It could mean someone is frightened or it could be more sinister.”

Police have spoken to colleagues in MI6 and examined Williams's bank accounts for details of extraordinary payments, but again they have found nothing suspicious.

Williams's skills as a cipher expert and code-breaker were so highly valued that he regularly travelled — it is rumoured to Afghanistan to monitor codes between the Taliban, and to America, where he liaised with the National Security Agency and the CIA.

Of course, the possibility remains that he was the target of a foreign espionage agency, and murdered with a deadly toxin or even gas unidentifiable by toxicologists, but two weeks on, Scotland Yard is not even classifying Williams's death as murder. And if it is murder, it is one executed without trace.

Three experts look at the next stage

Nigel McCrery, Ex-policeman

A former murder squad detective who devised the BBC1 drama Silent Witness, McCrery said the pathologist would be vital in solving the mystery surrounding the death of Gareth Williams. “That's the only person who can really give an indication to police in cases like this,” he said. “If the case isn't solved within 48 hours, the chance of it being solved goes down by 70 per cent. After that it's foot-slogging and good old-fashioned detective work.

“The first thing is to establish where he died. If he is naked, where are his clothes? Has anything disappeared from his flat? There is a famous adage that every contact leaves a trace. I think there is a very good chance it will get solved. I don't think it's anything to do with the Russians or spies — perhaps it was a sexual encounter that got out of hand (Williams's family has denied he led a homosexual lifestyle). People are fascinated by other people's lives. It's also a puzzle — we are great puzzle-solvers. That is why Agatha Christie was so successful. It is a bit like an episode of Silent Witness meets Spooks.”

Dr Stuart Hamilton, Home Office pathologist

One of 36 Home Office pathologists covering England and Wales, Dr Hamilton said a key factor would be the state of the decomposition of the body.

“The worse the state of the body, the less likely it is that the post-mortem will be conclusive,” said Dr Hamilton. “We will tend to get all of the trappings' — the clothes and any possessions — that were found with the body. All of these things can help you work through to what the police are asking: is this a homicide or not? But a body in a bag is suspicious. Sometimes you just have to conclude that you can't identify a cause of death. Figures show that one case in 20 will not yield a cause of death at autopsy, although my experience is that it's considerably lower than that.”

Is there the perfect crime? “I have no doubt that they happen. I suspect that people are poisoned subtly, but that won't be picked up if there is an autopsy without a toxicology report. People could be getting smothered without others ever knowing about it. I try to frighten my trainees by telling them I have done 2,500 to 3,000 autopsies and there is probably a homicide I have missed. But you have to be pretty smart to get one past us.”

David Black, Novelist

The writer who based his book The Great Satan on his 11 years in the SAS said that nerve gas should be counted among the possible causes of death.

“I know for a fact that one of the security services around the world made inquiries to see if they could get hold of paintballs filled with nerve gas,” he said. “If you were going to assassinate somebody, there are a couple of options. The guy could just disappear. The next one is to make it look like an accident. If you push a guy down the stairs and break his neck, when he hits the ground, the chances are it will look like an accident.

“We don't know yet how Gareth Williams died. They didn't find any blows to his head. He must have been dead when they put him in the bag — but why put him in there? If it is some bizarre poison that some secret service in the world has developed, that will be a big clue to why he was killed. That is if he was killed at all. Secret services will kill to defend their own secrets — we will and so will everybody else. Was it our own people that did it? Who knows? If there was such a thing as a perfect crime, we would never know. If it's a matter of national security, nothing is beyond being swept under the carpet.”

Ross Lydall

Independent : MI6 death: Murder most strange

MI6 death: Murder most strange

Jonathan Owen tries to determine the facts about the death of intelligence officer Gareth Williams, and asks experts for their views on a real-life spy mystery

Jonathan Owen | August 29, 2010

The Metropolitan Police were under mounting pressure last night to bring in counter-terrorism officers to investigate the death of Gareth Williams, the British intelligence officer whose decomposing body was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, last Monday.

Officers from the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command are understood to be furious at being stonewalled by Britain's secretive intelligence agencies. Detectives claim to have been "blocked" from interviewing potentially crucial witnesses, such as Mr Williams's "best friend", a female colleague at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), who was posted to the US last month.

Counter-terrorism officers are security vetted, which would make it harder for intelligence agencies to withhold information on the grounds of security clearance, say detectives. "It's a big cover-up... The security services obviously don't want the police to pry too deeply," said a police source.

It emerged yesterday that police are investigating three sums of £2,000 paid into Mr Williams's account on consecutive days, and then withdrawn on consecutive days, with the last transaction on the eve of his killing. The money trail has heightened concerns that his death may present a national security risk. Mr Williams was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ and was a regular visitor to the US National Security Agency HQ, Fort Meade.

His murder is unprecedented in that it took place just a short walk from MI6 and has seen a police investigation undertaken amid a frenzy of public speculation. Even the basic fact that he was murdered has yet to be officially confirmed, with a post mortem failing to discover the cause of death, despite reports he had been stabbed and found dumped in a sports bag in his bath. Police will only describe it as a "suspicious and unexplained death", and tests are under way to establish how the 30-year-old mathematician from Anglesey died. The results are expected this week. And after initially claiming he had been dead for two weeks before his body was found, police said on Friday that he had been in London from 11 August, with the last sighting of him on 15 August.

Mr Williams's family hit out yesterday at speculation in some newspapers that he was a cross-dressing homosexual who may have been killed by a gay lover. His uncle, William Hughes, said: "The family are concerned it may be an attempt to put false, unkind details about Gareth's private life into the public domain to diminish him and take attention away from the security services he worked so loyally for."

Sir Paul Lever, Former chair of Joint Intelligence Committee

"If you want to dispel a suggestion that something is work-related, you inevitably imply it's to do with the person's non-work life... ergo their private life, so you end up perhaps implying things that may distress his family. I would be very surprised if his employers were deliberately setting out to smear him."

Annie Machon, Former MI5 agent

"The trouble is that it's so murky at the moment. It could be misdirection ... towards some sort of sexual thing that went wrong. But there's also the fact that he was working on secure communications... the SIM cards and telephone laid out indicate the killer was aware of where he worked and was letting people know that."

Mark Birdsall, Editor 'Eye Spy' magazine

"The fact that he was in a holdall is a classic indication that the body was going to be moved. There's something not quite right here, but I think the story is being created to give the ordinary man in the street the opinion, 'well, he was involved in some sort of lovers' tiff'... I think the whole background about Mr Williams is being manipulated, possibly to disguise what he was up to, which is natural. You put out a cover story to disguise the real operation."

David Wilson, Professor of Criminology, University of Central England

"In the vast majority of murders you don't look for a Hollywood motive, you look for the most banal motive – the most banal motives are love, rage, and jealousy... I'm absolutely convinced with virtually every serious crime I've been involved with that there's a great deal of misinformation... when one talks to press officers of any government agency they have a line that they try to feed."

'John Smith', A former head of GCHQ

"This is first and foremost a personal tragedy. Clearly it's unwelcome that it is someone working for the intelligence services who might have been working for anyone else, and it isn't yet clear quite what the ramifications beyond that might be. People are going spare [at GCHQ/MI6] because there is a public relations crisis to handle. As a precautionary measure, they will be looking at how much this chap knew and how much he could have communicated to anyone."

Rupert Allason, Espionage author & former Tory MP

"The only security concern regarding Gareth Williams's death would be if there was evidence that classified information had been compromised. Doubtless SIS and GCHQ security staff are pursuing those lines and a search of his flat and laptop would be top of the list. In the absence of any indication that there had been a breach of security there would not appear to be any other issues, apart perhaps from one: which police officer tipped off the media to the link with Vauxhall Cross?"

Prof Anthony Glees, Director, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University of Birmingham

"I don't think he would have been murdered because of what he knew but because of his private life. If his private life brought him into contact with someone who went on to kill him, he was a risk-taker... If you do risky things, you may not be blackmailable but you may still be a security risk because your risk-taking may bring you into contact with people who might try to exploit this trait to get secrets out of you."

James Bamford, Author of three bestsellers on the US national security agency (NSA)

"Rather than a 'spy' in the James Bond sense of the word, he was far more likely a routine cryptanalyst. It is also very unlikely, especially given his sexual interests, that there is any foreign intelligence involvement in his death. Those things happen in the movies but rarely in real life. Nevertheless, I'm sure there is a very intense investigation, both at the NSA and GCHQ, into what accesses Williams had, his travels and his telephone, email and internet communications."

Stephen Dorril, Intelligence expert University of Huddersfield

"GCHQ has been sending people into the field in Afghanistan to monitor communications; they have small units of personnel who are doing field work instead of just being behind the desk, so they have obviously been working closely with MI6."

Nicholas Anderson, Former MI6 agent and author

"My first gut thought was that he couldn't have been a high-security risk as it took nearly two weeks for the FCO [Foreign & Commonwealth Office] employee assistance head to follow up on why he hadn't been at work. Granted, he may have had a job where he worked alone so he didn't have to report in, but most lone operators, like I used to be, report to somebody on a timely basis regardless."

Roger Graef, Broadcaster and criminologist

"The one thing we won't know is the truth. This is in the category of iconic crimes, when you don't ever expect to be told the real thing, and there are just too many reasons to keep it secret... None of it adds up: if he was such a hot shot at code breaking then presumably he'd have been protected... We are very unlikely to ever know what happened."

Prof Martin Innes, Director of the universities' police science institute at cardiff university

"If they've stuck him in a bag ready to be moved, if that was what happened, then that suggests someone a bit more intent on what it is they're trying to do... If the individual concerned is out there and dismembering the body, there's something else going on. But until we know that it's pretty difficult to say anything useful."

Michael Smith, Author of 'Six: A history of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service'

"No conversation I have had with anyone genuine within the intelligence community has given any information on this guy that would be any use in building up a picture of him other than off-the-record confirmation that he was a GCHQ employee who has been on attachment to MI6."

Daily Star : DEAD SPY GARETH WILLIAMS LINKED TO RED ANNA

DEAD SPY GARETH WILLIAMS LINKED TO RED ANNA

By Scott Hesketh and Jonathan Corke | August 29, 2010

MURDERED spook Gareth Williams could have helped to nail Russian spy beauty Anna Chapman.

Detectives are looking into claims the MI6 code breaker was in the US when ­Chapman was uncovered in June.

And any evidence that he was ­involved in infiltrating ­Chapman’s spy ring will ­become part of the murder ­inquiry.

The bust prompted revenge calls from Russia.

However, investigators are meeting “resistance” from US and UK intelligence agencies.

Chapman, who once lived in the UK, was accused of trying to infiltrate America’s political elite and sending secrets to a handler via wi-fi on a laptop.

She was sent back to Russia last month after being arrested in the US.

Last night a high-level source told the Daily Star ­Sunday: “Mr Williams’ work in America is forming part of the inquiry.

“We need to know what he was working on during his ­visits there. MI6 and CIA code crackers played a vital part in outing Chapman and the ­Russian spy ring.

“Any evidence he did play a part will be treated as a ­possible motive for his killing.”

The insider also revealed how the discovery of Welshman ­Gareth’s mobile phone and a dozen SIM cards on his bed may have been a message from his killer.

“The way the SIM cards were found carefully placed next to the phone is of particular ­interest to detectives,” he said.

“Early indications are that it is some sort of message, ­someone saying, ‘I know who your contacts are and I’m ­coming for them’.”

Keen cyclist Gareth, 31, was found dead in his top-floor flat in ­Pimlico, west London.

His body had been stuffed into a bag and left in the bath. It was revealed last night that police referred to the crime as a “neat job”, a phrase which officers use to describe the work of a professional.

According to a source Mr ­Williams’ body was found ­during a “welfare check” by ­police following a call from one of his colleagues at GCHQ in Cheltenham.

Officers discovered a suitcase “seeping a red liquid” in his bath. Police say there was no evidence of a “sex game gone wrong”, bondage gear or gay porn in the flat, as has been claimed.

His distraught family slammed the whispers as a ­government “dirty tricks” ­campaign to blacken his name.

But we can reveal police ­visited a gay bar in London’s trendy Soho area in the wake of the grim discovery.

A source in the Admiral ­Duncan pub said: “I had a visit from a plain-clothed copper asking if we’d seen this man – and he showed me a picture of the lad on his bike.

“I asked him what it was about but he didn’t say much, just that he’d been found dead and they were investigating.”

Daily Mail : Parents of murdered British spy hit back at 'government's gay smear' campaign to discredit him

Parents of murdered British spy hit back at 'government's gay smear' campaign to discredit him

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews and Liz Hull | August 27, 2010

The family of murdered British spy Gareth Williams today accused the government of running a 'dirty tricks' campaign to blacken his name.'

William Hughes, the codebreaker's uncle, said Mr Williams' parents Ellen and Ian were 'furious' at suggestions their son has been labelled as gay and a cross dresser.

'It is completely false,' Mr Hughes, 62, who yesterday visited the Williams's family home in Holyhead, North Wales.

'They are very, very angry,' he told the London Evening Standard.

'The lad had been away from home for a long time — we did not know much about his private life, but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay.

'It's not the picture they have of their son.

'Maybe it's the Government or somebody trying to discredit him.'

The mathematics genius, who was on secondment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in the bath of his Government flat on Monday.

Scotland Yard detectives continued to investigate whether GCHQ codes expert the 31-year-old lived a secretive double life.

Police sources believe one theory is the spy's killer may have planted a trail of clues to make it seem as though he was murdered by a gay lover.

They said gay magazines and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near the agent's body.

The latest reports on Mr Williams include claims that bondage gear and equipment associated with sado-masochism had been discovered in the flat he used in Pimlico, London, while it has also been claimed he had links to a male escort.

Mr Williams lived alone and did not have a partner.

But people who knew the cycling enthusiast said he never gave any indication of being homosexual and a former landlord, who rented a flat to him for ten years, never saw him bring anyone – male or female – back to his home.

Sources close to the inquiry have dismissed some of the allegations, which raises questions over who was behind them - and why they were made.

Mr Hughes, a cousin of Mr Williams's mother, Ellen, said: 'I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all.

'They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

'They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. I don't see any evidence of it.

'It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business,' he said.

'When you have these rumours in the papers, it is most distressing.

'It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories.'

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: 'There is no question of there being a government dirty tricks campaign; we are as concerned as the family to establish the facts of Gareth's death.

'But the police investigation is now underway and we must await its outcome.'

The family criticisms comes as CIA agents began examining details of Mr Williams's work and private life in the US to establish if there could be a link to his death — or a threat to national security.

The Daily Mail can reveal Mr Williams flew to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world, up to four times a year.

Mr Williams, who worked for the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham but was on secondment to MI6 in London, returned from his last trip to America only a few weeks before he was found dead.

Questions also remain over why his body lay undiscovered for up to a fortnight at his £400,000 flat in a Victorian townhouse in central London, half a mile from MI6 headquarters.

The body of the keen cyclist was found in a sports holdall in the bath on Monday afternoon.

But yesterday his former landlady in Cheltenham insisted he had not been off work, intensifying the mystery surrounding his death.

Security sources could not explain why some one holding such a sensitive post was able to go 'missing' for such a long time before police were called.

Officers were last night examining the hard drive of a laptop computer found in the flat.

Landlady Jenny Elliott said: 'He definitely wasn't on annual leave as the security services woman who came to see me after they found his body told me that he wasn't on holiday.

'Why did no one notice? It's disgraceful the police weren't alerted earlier that he was missing. His murder is devastating and I just hope the person who did it is caught.

Mrs Elliott, 71, who rented Mr Williams a self-contained flat attached to her home in Cheltenham, said he would often travel to America for weeks at a time three or four times a year either with a male colleague or on his own.

His uncle, Mr Hughes, who lives in Anglesey, North Wales where Mr Williams grew up, said: 'He'd been making the trips for a couple of years.

'I only found this out very recently and I do not know where in America he was staying or who he was working for out there, but I do know it was in relation to his job.

'His last trip was this summer. He returned from the States just a couple of weeks or so before he died.'

A U.S. intelligence source said there was 'no panic' yet within the National Security Agency and people who knew Mr Williams were still to be questioned.

The source said: 'The strong implication is that his death is not connected to his intelligence work, though this could change at any time. They are understandably concerned about what has happened and are keeping a close eye on developments.'

Police are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests which could shed light on how he died.

Police have also asked a pathologist to check whether Mr Williams's neck was broken, which would suggest a professional hit, the sources said

A postmortem examination proved inconclusive and now they must wait for toxicology results to find out whether drugs, alcohol, poisoning or suffocation were the cause of death.

Sources say he was not stabbed, shot, strangled or beaten. Scotland Yard is describing the death as 'suspicious and unexplained'.

A former MI6 officer said that intelligence chiefs are furious that details of Mr Williams's work as a spy had been leaked.

Harry Ferguson said senior officials at the Secret Intelligence Service wanted to suppress any information about his work and to simply refer to him as a 'civil servant' when news of the murder was made public.

'They hoped details of his role could all be kept covered up. It is a standard process. Blurting it out has caused a lot of unnecessary embarrassment, risk and upheaval to the SIS.

'If it had been managed properly it could have been kept quiet. He could simply have been described as a government worker or civil servant.

'They are especially frustrated that it has emerged that not only was he was working in GCHQ, but also on secondment to MI6.'

Mr Ferguson said secret service bosses feared that the 'nightmare scenario' had come true when the body was discovered.

'One of the concerns about having such a high profile building as the SIS does is that, while staff can be protected when inside the building, there a significant risk that they could be followed home,' he said.

'It is the sort of thing that a small group of Islamists or other terror network would clearly be capable of doing.'

He said the apparent 'ritualistic' scene at Mr Williams' flat, with his mobile phone and SIM cards carefully laid out, also suggested it could have been carried out by a foreign agency to send a message.

The reclusive maths genius and rumours of cross-dressing and blackmail

From a tender age, it was clear to his teachers at Morswyn primary school on Anglesey that there was something special about Gareth Williams.

A talented pupil, he was fast-tracked through education, earning his maths GCSE aged nine while most of his contemporaries were still grappling with basic arithmetic.

By 13 he had secured his A-levels and had a degree in maths by 17.

He was known as ‘the maths genius’ by fellow pupils and possessed the ‘fastest brain’ his teachers had encountered. But his academic excellence came at a price.

Forced to study with children several years older than himself, he found it hard to make friends and was last night described by former school mates as ‘socially naive’ and ‘introverted’.

Detectives were last night investigating whether this shy, private side to his nature made him vulnerable to blackmail amid lurid claims that he was a secret cross-dresser.

Geraint Williams, his maths teacher at secondary school, recalled how young Gareth was so clever that he sat his intermediate maths GCSE, gaining a grade B, while still at primary school, before being moved up to Bodedern Secondary School, Holyhead, a year ahead of his peers.

Within months of his arrival he took his advanced GCSE, scoring an A grade, and received top marks in A-level maths and computer studies two years later, when he was 13.

His teachers were initially at a loss at how best to educate him.Their solution was to move him up two years and enrol the youngster, then aged 15, on a three-year maths degree course at his local university at Bangor, which he attained in just two years with first class honours.

Teacher Mr Williams said: ‘I’d heard about this amazing pupil who had done his GCSE at primary school and got a B at intermediate level.

‘He took the higher level GCSE in a couple of months and got an A. It was a problem for us – what could we do with him? We got him to follow A-levels and he did A-level maths and computer science in the third-form. He achieved As in them.

‘That was a big problem because he was still only 13, so we contacted Bangor University and he followed the first year of maths degree course.’

The teacher added: ‘He was the best logician and the pupil with the fastest brain I have ever met. You only had to say things once, that’s why he was so successful. He could understand things immediately. He was also extremely good with computer science.

‘Gareth was also a very nice lad, quiet and unassuming. It’s very sad.’

After leaving Bangor University at 17, Mr Williams went on to study for a PhD at Manchester University before enrolling in postgraduate certificate at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2000.

He dropped out a year later, but last night friends speculated that he left after being taken on by the Secret Services, which traditionally recruit from Oxbridge.

They said it was an open secret that Mr Williams worked at GCHQ, but added that any notion that the quiet, unassuming boy lead a James Bond spy lifestyle was laughable.

One close friend, who attended primary school with Mr Williams, said: ‘Gareth was a super, super brain. Beyond intelligent, a very, very clever guy.

‘He was hand-picked while at Cambridge by the services, they want the cream of the crop and he certainly was that.

‘It was common knowledge that he worked at GCHQ, but any notion that he led a James Bond style lifestyle is rubbish.

‘Those kind of people have to be able to blend in, but Gareth wasn’t like that, he was very different.

‘He was introverted and found it difficult to make friends, but he was a lovely, lovely bloke. It is such a tragic waste of such a talented life.’

The dead man’s parents, Ian, an engineer at Wylfa power station, and mother Ellen, who worked in education, were on holiday in America celebrating their joint 50th birthdays when news of their son’s death broke.Last night they were said to be ‘devastated’.

Another former school friend, Dylan Parry, 34, said he was ‘dumfounded’ by the murder.

‘Gareth was the last person I would have believed would be involved in the murkier elements of life,’ said Mr Parry, of Holyhead. ‘He really was about as far from a James Bond figure as it’s possible to imagine.

‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual.‘

He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.

‘We nicknamed him the maths genius because he was so clever. He was so naive, he was someone people could easily take advantage of.

‘I wouldn’t have thought he was a very good judge of character and it’s possible he got to know someone who wasn’t very safe. He was so innocent.’

Daily Mail : CIA probes British spy murder as it emerges he was sent on frequent missions to Pentagon's high-security listening post

CIA probes British spy murder as it emerges he was sent on frequent missions to Pentagon's high-security listening post

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews and Liz Hull | August 27, 2010

The CIA was called in to help investigate the murder of an MI6 spy last night as it emerged he was sent on frequent secret missions to the United States.

American intelligence officers are poring over every detail of Gareth Williams's work and personal life to see if the circumstances of his death endangered U.S. national security.

The Daily Mail can reveal that the 31-year-old codebreaker flew to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world, up to four times a year. He returned from his last trip to America only a few weeks before he was found dead.

Questions also remain over why his body lay undiscovered for up to a fortnight at his £400,000 flat in a Victorian townhouse in Pimlico, central London, half a mile from MI6 headquarters.

Mr Williams worked at the Government's listening post, GCHQ in Cheltenham, but had been on secondment to MI6 for the past year and was due to return to GCHQ next Friday.

The body of the keen cyclist was found in a sports holdall in the bath on Monday afternoon.

But yesterday his former landlady in Cheltenham insisted he had not been off work, intensifying the mystery surrounding his death.

Security sources could not explain why some one holding such a sensitive post was able to go 'missing' for such a long time before police were called.

Officers were last night examining the hard drive of a laptop computer found in the flat.

Landlady Jenny Elliott said: 'He definitely wasn't on annual leave as the security services woman who came to see me after they found his body told me that he wasn't on holiday.

'Why did no one notice? It's disgraceful the police weren't alerted earlier that he was missing. His murder is devastating and I just hope the person who did it is caught.

Mrs Elliott, 71, who rented Mr Williams a self-contained flat attached to her home in Cheltenham, said he would often travel to America for weeks at a time three or four times a year either with a male colleague or on his own.

His uncle, who lives in Anglesey, North Wales, where Mr Williams grew up, said: 'He'd been making the trips for a couple of years.

'I only found this out very recently and I do not know where in America he was staying or who he was working for out there, but I do know it was in relation to his job.

'His last trip was this summer. He returned from the States just a couple of weeks or so before he died.'

A U.S. intelligence source said there was 'no panic' yet within the National Security Agency and people who knew Mr Williams were still to be questioned.

The source said: 'The strong implication is that his death is not connected to his intelligence work, though this could change at any time. They are understandably concerned about what has happened and are keeping a close eye on developments.'

Mr Williams's devastated parents Ian and Ellen have faced speculation over their son's private life.

It has been reported that Mr Williams, who lived alone and did not have a partner, was a gay cross dresser and may have been killed by a gay lover.

Police sources believe another theory is the spy's killer may have planted a trail of clues to make it seem as though he was murdered by a gay lover.

They said gay magazines and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near the agent's body.

Police have also asked a pathologist to check whether Mr Williams's neck was broken, which would suggest a professional hit, the sources said.

Those who know him say there is nothing to suggest that he may have been homosexual.

Mrs Elliott, who rented her flat to him for ten years during his time at GCHQ, never saw him bring anyone – male or female – back to his home.

Detectives are still trying to ascertainhow Mr Williams died. A postmortem examination proved inconclusive and now they must wait for toxicology results to find out whether drugs, alcohol, poisoning or suffocation were the cause of death.

Sources say he was not stabbed, shot, strangled or beaten. Scotland Yard is describing the death as 'suspicious and unexplained'.

A former MI6 officer said that intelligence chiefs are furious that details of Mr Williams's work as a spy had been leaked.

Harry Ferguson said senior officials at the Secret Intelligence Service wanted to suppress any information about his work and to simply refer to him as a 'civil servant' when news of the murder was made public.

'They hoped details of his role could all be kept covered up. It is a standard process. Blurting it out has caused a lot of unnecessary embarrassment, risk and upheaval to the SIS.

'If it had been managed properly it could have been kept quiet. He could simply have been described as a government worker or civil servant.

'They are especially frustrated that it has emerged that not only was he was working in GCHQ, but also on secondment to MI6.'

Mr Ferguson said secret service bosses feared that the 'nightmare scenario' had come true when the body was discovered.

'One of the concerns about having such a high profile building as the SIS does is that, while staff can be protected when inside the building, there a significant risk that they could be followed home,' he said.

'It is the sort of thing that a small group of Islamists or other terror network would clearly be capable of doing.'

He said the apparent 'ritualistic' scene at Mr Williams' flat, with his mobile phone and SIM cards carefully laid out, also suggested it could have been carried out by a foreign agency to send a message.

The reclusive maths genius and rumours of cross-dressing and blackmail

FROM a tender age, it was clear to his teachers at Morswyn primary school on Anglesey that there was something special about Gareth Williams.

A talented pupil, he was fast-tracked through education, earning his maths GCSE aged nine while most of his contemporaries were still grappling with basic arithmetic.

By 13 he had secured his A-levels and had a degree in maths by 17.

He was known as ‘the maths genius’ by fellow pupils and possessed the ‘fastest brain’ his teachers had encountered. But his academic excellence came at a price.

Forced to study with children several years older than himself, he found it hard to make friends and was last night described by former school mates as ‘socially naive’ and ‘introverted’.

Detectives were last night investigating whether this shy, private side to his nature made him vulnerable to blackmail amid lurid claims that he was a secret cross-dresser.

Geraint Williams, his maths teacher at secondary school, recalled how young Gareth was so clever that he sat his intermediate maths GCSE, gaining a grade B, while still at primary school, before being moved up to Bodedern Secondary School, Holyhead, a year ahead of his peers.

Within months of his arrival he took his advanced GCSE, scoring an A grade, and received top marks in A-level maths and computer studies two years later, when he was 13.

His teachers were initially at a loss at how best to educate him. Their solution was to move him up two years and enrol the youngster, then aged 15, on a three-year maths degree course at his local university at Bangor, which he attained in just two years with first class honours.

Teacher Mr Williams said: ‘I’d heard about this amazing pupil who had done his GCSE at primary school and got a B at intermediate level.

‘He took the higher level GCSE in a couple of months and got an A. It was a problem for us – what could we do with him? We got him to follow A-levels and he did A-level maths and computer science in the third-form. He achieved As in them.

‘That was a big problem because he was still only 13, so we contacted Bangor University and he followed the first year of maths degree course.’

The teacher added: ‘He was the best logician and the pupil with the fastest brain I have ever met. You only had to say things once, that’s why he was so successful. He could understand things immediately. He was also extremely good with computer science.

‘Gareth was also a very nice lad, quiet and unassuming. It’s very sad.’

After leaving Bangor University at 17, Mr Williams went on to study for a PhD at Manchester University before enrolling in postgraduate certificate at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2000.

He dropped out a year later, but last night friends speculated that he left after being taken on by the Secret Services, which traditionally recruit from Oxbridge.

They said it was an open secret that Mr Williams worked at GCHQ, but added that any notion that the quiet, unassuming boy lead a James Bond spy lifestyle was laughable.

One close friend, who attended primary school with Mr Williams, said: ‘Gareth was a super, super brain. Beyond intelligent, a very, very clever guy.

‘He was hand-picked while at Cambridge by the services, they want the cream of the crop and he certainly was that.

‘It was common knowledge that he worked at GCHQ, but any notion that he led a James Bond style lifestyle is rubbish.

‘Those kind of people have to be able to blend in, but Gareth wasn’t like that, he was very different.

‘He was introverted and found it difficult to make friends, but he was a lovely, lovely bloke. It is such a tragic waste of such a talented life.’

The dead man’s parents, Ian, an engineer at Wylfa power station, and mother Ellen, who worked in education, were on holiday in America celebrating their joint 50th birthdays when news of their son’s death broke.Last night they were said to be ‘devastated’.

Another former school friend, Dylan Parry, 34, said he was ‘dumfounded’ by the murder.

‘Gareth was the last person I would have believed would be involved in the murkier elements of life,’ said Mr Parry, of Holyhead. ‘He really was about as far from a James Bond figure as it’s possible to imagine.

‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual.‘

He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.

‘We nicknamed him the maths genius because he was so clever. He was so naive, he was someone people could easily take advantage of.

‘I wouldn’t have thought he was a very good judge of character and it’s possible he got to know someone who wasn’t very safe. He was so innocent.’