Independent : MI6 officers could face DNA screening

MI6 officers could face DNA screening

Paul Peachey | May 9, 2012

Scotland Yard has ordered a forensic review and raised the possibility of a mass DNA screening of MI6 officers in a renewed effort to discover how the body of the codebreaker Gareth Williams was found padlocked inside a bag in his bath in 2010.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said yesterday that an independent forensic science expert would be brought in to examine the evidence. The private forensics company that is still working on the case had to apologise for a blunder that led investigators down the wrong path for more than a year.

Mr Hogan-Howe also said that the force would change the way it interviewed secret service officials after a senior policeman who acted as a go-between with MI6 failed to pass on key information. Nine memory sticks belonging to Mr Williams, 31, and a bag of the same make in which he was found were handed to police only last week.

Mr Hogan-Howe said it was "unacceptable" that the senior investigating officer (SIO) had not been told about the evidence. "In the future, I expect the SIO to have direct access to all witnesses and evidence without the counter-terrorist squad being in between them."

Mirror : Murder detectives to quiz spies for first time over body-in-a-bag death

Murder detectives to quiz spies for first time over body-in-a-bag death

Met commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the secret intelligence service would be treated the same as any other organisation

Tom Pettifor | May 9, 2012

MURDER squad detectives are to quiz MI6 staff for the first time about the death of spy Gareth Williams, it was revealed yesterday.

Met commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the secret intelligence service would be treated the same as any other organisation as his officers reinvestigate the case.

He said: “All we need to do is make sure all areas of his life were fully explored.”

Staff will be screened for DNA on a voluntary basis.

Mr Hogan-Howe added that the Met would have complete access to MI6 material.

He branded it “unacceptable” that officers only learned of memory sticks and a holdall found at Mr Williams’ work at last month’s inquest, two years after his body was discovered.

A coroner ruled that Mr Williams, 31, from Anglesey, who was found locked in a bag in a bath in his London flat in 2010, was probably unlawfully killed.

Guardian : Gareth Williams: Met orders forensic review

Gareth Williams: Met orders forensic review

Met commissioner says new evidence will be examined and warns MI6 officers to co-operate with police

Vikram Dodd | May 8, 2012

Scotland Yard has ordered a review of forensic evidence as it renews its efforts to solve the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams.

The Scotland Yard commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said MI6 employees would be expected to co-operate with police. "It's called the law," said Britain's top police officer.

An inquest last week found Williams, whose body was found stuffed in a holdall in a London flat, may have been killed. It also heard police were not told of evidence held by the spy agency, including memory sticks, until last week.

Hogan-Howe said the new material that has emerged would be examined. He also said detectives from the Met's homicide command will interview MI6 employees directly, without the need to go through counter-terrorism officers.

Hogan-Howe said it was possible MI6 employees may be asked to undergo fresh DNA tests.

The commissioner said a new private company would re-examine the forensics in the investigation. He did not name the company but said it implied no criticism of the firm that originally carried out the work.

Independent : Spy Gareth Williams was probably the victim of a 'criminally mediated' unlawful killing

Spy Gareth Williams was probably the victim of a 'criminally mediated' unlawful killing

Kim Sengupta | May 3, 2012

Gareth Williams, the MI6 officer whose naked body was found in a padlocked bag, was probably the victim of a “criminally mediated” unlawful killing in which poison may have been used. That was the verdict reached yesterday at the end of a highly charged inquest into the death marked by accusations of an official cover up.

The discovery of 31 year old Mr Williams’ body, in a North Face holdall, in the en-suite bath of his flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, south west London, due to his profession as an intelligence cypher expert had resulted in international interest and speculation about what happened.

The conclusion reached yesterday by coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, effectively pointed towards murder by a “third party” who had apparently managed to eliminate any evidence of their complicity. However, because of a series of blunders, one of the most high profile murder investigations in recent times may never be solved.

“It is unlikely this death will ever be satisfactorily explained” Dr Wilcox, told a packed hearing with Mr Williams’ family, representatives of intelligence services, and senior Scotland Yard officers among those attending. “Most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered”.

She continued: "I find it more likely than not that Gareth entered the bag alive and then died very soon afterwards either from the toxic effects of carbon dioxide and heat before he was able to make a concerted effort to escape from some unknown poison dioxide and heat. “I am satisfied so that I am sure that a third party on the balance of probabilities locked the bag placed the bag in to the bath where it was found.”

The Coroner maintained that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the intelligence services were involved in the death of 31 year old Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ at the time, although she stressed "there was no evidence to support that he died at the hands” of a government agency.

But there had been repeated revelations of shortcomings in the inquiry and this week Westminster Coroner’s Court heard that potentially critical evidence, including nine memory sticks belonging to Mr Williams and a bag of the same make in which he was found, was only handed to police this week, 21 months after his killing in August 2010.

Dr Wilcox had been particularly severe in her criticism of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism command (SO15) which had been tasked with liaising between the murder squad and MI6. At one stage she accused a senior officer, Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of collusion with MI6 and “not being impartial” in the case.

The inquest had also heard that Mr Williams’ immediate superior at the intelligence service did not raise an alert for seven days after he had failed to turn up for work and basic procedures in such a situation were not adhered to. The resulting delay of seven days, decomposition of the body in the Summer heat, enclosed in a holdall, meant that vital forensic evidence was lost and Mr Williams’ parents could not view their dead son.

At the end of proceedings the inquest heard an unprecedented personal apology from Sir John Sawers, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] to Mr Williams’ family.

In a statement Sir John acknowledged that the “Service’s failure to act more swiftly when Gareth first became absent from work has contributed to the anguish and suffering of his family.

“On behalf of the whole organisation, we regret this deeply and apologise unreservedly. Lessons have been learned, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences".

Sir John continued: "Gareth Williams was a man of remarkable talents, talents which he devoted to public service. The work that Gareth undertook during his career both at Cheltenham and London made a real contribution to the security of this country and of its citizens. Gareth continues to be mourned by his friends and colleagues."

Members of Mr Williams’ family, in particular his mother, had been unable to sit through some of the more harrowing evidence. Yesterday, in a statement read out by their solicitor, Robyn Williams, they said, "To lose a son and brother in such circumstances as have been outlined during the course of this inquest only compounds the tragedy.

"Our grief is exacerbated by the failure of his employers at MI6 to take even the most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare, which any reasonable employer would have taken. We are also extremely disappointed at the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information.

"We would like to ask Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe to look into and review how this investigation will proceed in light of the total inadequacies of the SO15 investigation into MI6 during the course of this inquiry."

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sabire, in charge of the team investigating Mr Williams death, said” "I've always been satisfied a third party may have been involved in his death and the coroner has confirmed that in her finding today. "The inquest has raised several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry. I urge anyone who knew Mr Williams or had contact with him to search their conscience and come forward with any information about what had happened.”

Guardian : Gareth Williams case should make us all uneasy

Gareth Williams case should make us all uneasy

Michael White | May 3, 2012

The MI6 officer's unexplained death has accidentally shone a light on things security folk would love to have covered up

Are MI6 and its domestic counterpart, MI5, entitled to keep some secrets? Of course they are. Why, only this week when Alex Healey and I were out filming Boris Johnson for the Guardian we patriotically avoided causing the spooks embarrassment. But when an inquest exposes MI6's shoddy behaviour over the death of codebreaker Gareth Williams, Ken Clarke can surely kiss goodbye to his hopes of secret court hearings for intelligence-sensitive evidence.

Why? Because the bizarre, still unexplained death of the mathematical wizard and fitness fanatic has accidentally shone a light on what can only be interpreted as incompetence or callousness by his employers – I rule out more sinister explanations, tempting though they always are – which the security folk would love to have covered up.

As Caroline Davies and Sandra Laville set out in Thursday's paper – most papers wisely give the case a lot of space – they had already covered up enough to make the coroner, Fiona Wilcox, consider suspending her inquest.

This happened after she discovered only this week that MI6 had withheld from police investigators the existence of nine memory sticks and another holdall at Williams's MI6 HQ office on the south bank of the Thames. It wasn't the only problem.

As usual the intelligence community pleaded "sensitive information" on the memory sticks. This seems to have been enough for counter-terrorism officers from the Met's SO15 branch, who have clearance to visit MI6 HQ and also kept it from the copper actually investigating what may yet turn out to be murder (rather than a sex game that went wrong?). But what about the other holdall, just like the one the 5ft 8ins and 60kg Williams was found locked inside?

Taken together with the discovery that the flat was unusually clean of prints and other human detritus – wiped by a third party? – the whole incident is baffling. What's more, you may recall, it took Williams's sister, not his workmates, to call the alarm – even though he hadn't been in for a week.

The spy writer Nigel West suggests in an article that they may have assumed he was off on some secret mission, that no one would want to show themselves out of the loop by asking where Gareth was.

Surely some primitive form of line management must exist to cover the possibility that the seriously talented Welshman from GCQH in Cheltenham might be kidnapped by Russians or even little green Martians?

Not our problem, though we do pay for ever-larger budgets to keep us all safe from threats which are – some of them – very real. But the affair serves to remind us all – as Richard Norton-Taylor writes here – that the security services can act like a self-interested producer lobby as much as Bob Crow at the RMT union or Bob Diamond at Barclays Bank.

The scope for wrapping themselves in national security and acting outside the law without being held to account is thus very considerable. So when the justice secretary produces a green paper suggesting that US co-operation over intelligence material is at risk if sensitive stuff like that made public in the Binyam Mohamed case is revealed in future cases, we are entitled to be sceptical.

So, incidentally, are some ex-CIA types reported here.

All government departments have their own agendas – the permanent government agenda immortalised by Yes Minister's Sir Humphrey – and MI5/MI6 are no different.

Chances are they sold this one to a jittery coalition, much as they did to New Labour. Yet Clarke of all people is an old soldier, precisely the sort of no-nonsense politician not to be hoodwinked. The joint Lords/Commons intelligence and security committee (ISC) should also be standing up for the public interest – but doesn't seem to be doing so in this instance.

Labour's Kim Howells, who used to chair the ISC, was on Channel 4 News on Wednesday night expressing puzzlement and dismay about the fate of his fellow Welshman.

I spoke to another ex-ISC MP a few minutes ago, who said the same: "What on earth are the security services up to? Don't they realise we live in the 21st century, when greater openness is essential?"

It's not that we need to or should be told everything, of course not. But judges and coroners, sometimes juries and certainly investigating police officers from the Met need to be told what's going on. Why was the Met so deferential to MI6 and is only now taking DNA swabs from Gareth Williams's immediate colleagues?

It's not as if they're on Rupert Murdoch's payroll. And they certainly weren't so deferential to Tony Blair over those loans-for-honours allegations, when no one died except in a political sense.

How did Alex Healey and I do our bit for MI6, I hear you ask? Well, we were on a suburban train with Boris Johnson, travelling from Wandsworth to Waterloo when I spotted the MI6 HQ looming out of the mist. Alex filmed it and I said to camera: "Let's wait to see if we can spot a few spooks getting out at Vauxhall station."

Do you know, right on cue, a well-dressed, faintly smart sort of chap in a beige overcoat with a brown collar, got out at Vauxhall, looking as if he was straight from George Smiley's version of central casting. "Switch that camera off, Alex," I said. "We must protect this man."

Let's hope he'd do the same for us if we went missing for a week.

Big Pond News : Death of spy 'may never be explained'

Death of spy 'may never be explained'

May 3, 2012

It is unlikely the death of a British spy whose naked body was found padlocked in a bag in his bath will ever be fully explained, the coroner told the final day of his inquest.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said on Wednesday it was 'unlikely' the circumstances of Gareth Williams' 2010 death 'will ever be satisfactorily explained' given that 'most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered'.

Wilcox said she did not have enough evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing in the death of Williams, a high-flying codebreaker with the MI6 external intelligence agency, despite a plea from his family's lawyer.

She will instead deliver a narrative verdict, listing the possibilities but failing to reach a conclusion?

Williams' family have previously said they believe secret agents versed in the 'dark arts' tried to cover up his death, while the detective heading the investigation said Tuesday she was convinced someone else was involved.

'My strongest belief is that a third party was involved and I would ask people to search their consciences and come to us to find some resolutions to this case and some peace for his family,' Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said.

The inquest looked into whether Williams could have padlocked himself in the bag alone, after speculation he might have done so as part of a sex game, but one expert said even escapologist Harry Houdini 'would have struggled' to pull off the feat.

Pathologists said Williams likely died from poisoning or suffocation, but decomposition of his body reduced the scope for pinpointing the cause of death.

The spy's employers at MI6 failed to report him missing for a week, the inquest has heard.

Police also told the inquest they had not examined some of Williams' possessions including nine memory sticks because his bosses at MI6 said they were irrelevant.

Police found women's clothing worth about STG20,000 ($A31,545.74) in Williams' flat, while the inquest also heard he visited bondage sites, filmed himself nearly naked, and was once found tied to a bed.

His sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest Williams had been unhappy at MI6, where he was seconded from Britain's intelligence monitoring centre.

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

Gareth Williams inquest: Crucial evidence lost as MI6 dithered

May 3, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irish Independent : MI6 spy Gareth Williams: An enigma, in life and death

MI6 spy Gareth Williams: An enigma, in life and death

By Michael Burleigh | May 3, 2012

THE south bank district of Vauxhall, London, is famous for two principal reasons. After long spells at 54 Broadway in Victoria and Century House across Westminster Bridge, SIS (or MI6) took possession of its new headquarters at 85 Vauxhall Cross in 1995.

Staff dubbed Sir Terry Farrell’s vast cream and green-coloured ziggurat “Legoland”. It is also known as Babylon-on-Thames, for there are 60 terraces, as well as cameras surveying spiked railings from every angle. Staff enter and leave as inconspicuously as possible through electronic gates.

These look on to an establishment across the road called Roman Chariots Spa. For Vauxhall is also well known as “VoHo”, because of its dense concentration of gay clubs.

Some of these – The Hoist and The Spike, within the cavernous railway arches – cater to a specialist clientele which may well include adventurous heterosexuals. Their names indicate what happens within. A cottage craft industry has also sprung up in the area, including a black-painted Master of Leather shop offering bespoke harnesses and studded belts, when it opens after dark.

By some terrible coincidence, elements of these two worlds appear to have met in the macabre case of Gareth Williams. His decomposing body was found in a red North Face bag in the bath of his flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico on August 23 2010 – circumstances which have given rise to speculation that he died as a result of a bondage-related sex game.

The last evidence that he was alive was a week earlier, on August 16, when he logged on to a cycling time-trial website. The top floor flat was registered to New Rodina, a front for the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, for it was used by people visiting Vauxhall Cross, half a mile across the Thames. At the time, Williams was seconded from the Cheltenham-based communications intelligence agency GCHQ to SIS in Vauxhall Cross. It is mooted that he was involved in securing the computer systems of the Bank of England from hostile cyber-raiders. He was certainly well qualified. Having passed his GCSEs aged 10, Williams graduated with a First in maths from Bangor aged 17. Four years later, with a PhD under his belt, he was recruited by GCHQ. They sent him on an advanced maths course at Cambridge.

In many respects, the 31 year-old had a healthy extracurricular life. Raised on Anglesey, he adored the rugged outdoors. He loved cycling, climbing and fell-running and was extremely fit, lithe and strong. But he would appear to have had idiosyncratic sexual interests, though these have been downplayed by the coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox, in her narrative account of his unexplained death.

Although his friends and family have put a favourable construction on the evidence, claiming that he was generous to his small coterie of girlfriends, Williams’s possessions included a woman’s wig and £20,000 of carefully stored designer clothes, though not necessarily in sizes that would have fitted him. A few days before his death he attended a show by the “Trannie Superstar” Jonny Woo, who blends fashion with transvestism for a variety of clubs and corporate clients. Police investigating Williams’s death also discovered a short film in which he “gyrated” for the camera, wearing nothing but leather boots; the coroner accepted that he derived a sexual thrill from women’s footwear, while noting that this might not be uncommon.

Several years before Williams’s death, his Cheltenham landlord and landlady had to cut through knots to free him when his cries for help led them to discover him tied up in his boxers on his bed. “Gareth, we cannot have you doing this,” exclaimed a perplexed Brian Elliot. The Elliots and Williamses never mentioned the incident again, though the Elliots decided that it did not involve escapology related to Williams’s secret work.

These snapshots from his private life suggest why a man in touch with his feminine side may have been unhappy at Vauxhall Cross, with its strong quotient of hard-drinking public schoolboys and ex-military types telling tales of derring-do in foreign parts. He had been granted a transfer back to GCHQ shortly before his death, and evidently felt ill at ease in London and alienated by SIS’s culture of red tape.

Certainly, Williams seems to have slipped through the net of modern human resources scrutiny. Although he was as punctual “as a Swiss clock”, Williams’s absence – including from a meeting he was supposed to chair – does not seem to have alarmed his SIS managers, an oversight for which Sir John Sawers, the head of SIS, apologised yesterday. But just as seriously, an organisation that positively vets its staff seems to have been surprised by Williams’s on-off interest in bondage and transvestism. In the past, SIS officers were supposed to report to their superiors anything which might be useful to blackmailers.

It is plausible that with SIS having to process a workforce that doubled after 9/11, no such attention was paid to a man who came in through the back door of GCHQ. How very modern, too, of his SIS line manager to claim that lifestyle and sexual preferences “would not in themselves pose a problem”. One is only surprised that they do not make available leaflets on safer autoerotic sex. Of course, people able to conduct double lives – like Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt or Kim Philby in earlier times – are as ideal for the secret services as those with unmemorable faces. But while homosexuality is unexceptional nowadays (and anyway there is no suggestion that Williams was gay), would an interest in bondage be a problem if the person sought to conceal it?

Then there is the investigation. Det Chief Insp Jackie Sebire is the detective charged with clearing up Williams’s death. Although a highly experienced homicide detective, she lacked security clearance to even enter SIS’s Vauxhall Cross headquarters; evidence, if one needs it, of the absurd levels of secrecy practised by Britain’s deep state. This meant that Sebire’s investigation relied upon the “mediation” of Det Supt Michael Broster, of SO15, the counter-terrorism branch, which works closely with the security services.

Imagine Sebire’s surprise that no verbatim notes were taken of interviews with Williams’s colleagues; and that the existence of nine memory sticks, and a black holdall, in or under his SIS desk, was revealed only in the final stages of the coroner’s inquest. Not that other agencies are entirely blameless, since the DNA evidence seems to have been contaminated by a scientific incompetent who put his palm on the bag in which Williams was found.

In addition to clumsy obstructions in the path of the police investigation, there are several disturbing aspects of this case. The coroner was rightly mystified by how the bag containing Williams got into the bath without his leaving foot or handprints on it. Getting into the bag would have been hard enough; it would have been incredibly difficult to fit a heavy and rigid body into it. So Williams was alive when he went in.

It could be that to focus on Williams’s alleged sexual proclivities exaggerates what were merely the tentative inclinations of a fundamentally private man. That is certainly how Williams’s friends and family feel. After all, in 1990 the young defence expert and former RAF helicopter pilot, Jonathan Moyle, was said to have died while engaged in autoerotic strangulation in a cupboard of his hotel room in Santiago, Chile. The fact that he was wearing a nappy indicates he fully intended to live, if you think about it. Details like the orange segment in his mouth were given prominence, as if he had died in a sex game that went wrong.

But Moyle appears to have uncovered illicit helicopter sales by the Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen to Saddam’s Iraq. Like Neil Heywood, the Briton poisoned recently in China, he seems to have poked his nose into some very murky business with undue self-confidence. A reconvened British inquest in 1998 found that Moyle had been unlawfully killed, probably by the needle mark in his leg that was missed by the initial police investigation.

As with the death of the government weapons expert David Kelly, speculation about another party’s involvement in Gareth Williams’s death will run and run. Suicide has been explicitly ruled out. After imagining that it could out-manoeuvre “Plod”, meaning highly competent detectives, MI6 needs to think about how it lost track of its “vital” employee – for tracking people is what it allegedly does on a global stage – and how it can allay the understandable distress of the Williams family while helping DCI Sebire, who has every right to feel short-changed. SIS director Sawers’s apology is a start, for otherwise we would be hearing much more speculation about whatever happened in Alderney Street. Does anyone remember the new dawn of greater transparency?

- Michael Burleigh

Sky (Au) : Lawyer claims MI6 involvement in death

Lawyer claims MI6 involvement in death

May 2, 2012

A lawyer representing the family of MI6 spy Gareth Williams whose body was found in a holdall has suggested the secret services may have been involved in his death.

Anthony O'Toole, the Williams' family lawyer, made the accusation in open court during the 31-year-old GCHQ code breaker's inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court.

The allegation came after it emerged MI6 failed to hand over nine computer memory sticks to Scotland Yard.

A black North Face holdall - similar to the one which Mr Williams was found dead in at his flat - was eventually passed to police.

The Metropolitan Police team investigating Mr William's death did not have direct access to his office.

Instead, the force's counter-terror SO15 branch, which has specialist security clearance, acted as a conduit between MI6 and the investigation team.

Two officers from the SO15 unit - Superintendent Michael Broster and Detective Constable Colin Hall - searched Mr Williams' MI6 office.

They only took three items - his phone, some notes and a copy of his birth certificate.

Asked why he did not take the memory sticks, Supt Broster said he did not think they were relevant - and admitted MI6 were left to examine them.

Mr O'Toole said: 'So if the person who killed Gareth Williams was a member of SIS (MI6) you would do nothing to investigate because you believed that organisation to be trustworthy?'

Supt Broster insisted MI6 had been fully co-operative.

The officer was also criticised by Coroner Fiona Wilcox, who told him he was offering 'total non-sequitur' reasons for failing to pass on evidence.

'I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case,' she said.

Mr O'Toole also accused DC Hall of failing to take the probe seriously.

'If this had not involved SIS and it was the Kray twins you were investigating, you would have gone into this in far more detail,' he told the officer.

Members of Mr Williams' family shook their heads as DC Hall revealed his search of Mr Williams' office was called off shortly after the spy was found dead.

Mr Hall said 'there was stuff in there of a sensitive nature' in the bag but, when asked what, he said he could not remember.

Mr O'Toole added: 'That's about as helpful as a London pea souper.'

Earlier, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the police officer in charge of the investigation, returned to give evidence to the inquest and told the coroner she had no knowledge of the memory sticks, or the bag, until this morning.

'Had I known about their existence, I would have expected them to be disclosed and any relevant information to be sent to my team,' she said.

It is not clear what relevance if any the sticks and the bag have to the investigation into Mr Williams' death, but DCI Sebire said that MI6 should have told her about their existence.

It was also disclosed that MI6 searched some of Mr Williams' 'electronic media' without telling the police.

'What I knew was that Gareth's email accounts had been checked but I did not know that other media had been checked,' DCI Sebire said.

Meanwhile, a forensic scientist has been asked to appear again at the inquest, and a new MI6 witness has been asked to give evidence anonymously.

The inquest is due to conclude on Wednesday, but there is a chance now it could continue for longer.

The painstaking investigation has drawn a 20-month blank for detectives.

On Monday, Ros Hammond, a police forensic scientist, expressed hope that tests on a green towel found in the kitchen of Mr Williams' Pimlico apartment could yield a breakthrough within a matter of weeks.

The inquest also heard from a forensic Scientist and from the pathologists who carried out three separate post-mortems on Mr Williams' body.

They told the court all their examinations had proved to be inconclusive, and spoke of the difficulties they encountered because Mr Williams' body was badly decomposed.

A period of up to 10 days passed between when they believe he died and when his body was first examined.

However Benjamin Swift, a Home Office pathologist, said that although the cause of death was 'unascertained', he believed that poisoning or asphyxiation such as suffocation were 'probably rather than possibly' to blame.

Tests on the Mr Williams body did not reveal signs of any poisons, but the experts said that they could not rule out the possibility that a poison could have disappeared as the body decomposed.

ABC (Australia) : MI6 kept evidence related to dead spy

MI6 kept evidence related to dead spy

May 2, 2012

Britain's MI6 intelligence agency failed to hand over to police the belongings of a spy found dead inside a bag in his home, including computer memory sticks, an inquest has heard.

Gareth Williams, 31, whose naked corpse was discovered padlocked inside a sports bag, was on secondment to MI6 at the time of his death in 2010.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire told an inquest in London that MI6 agents searched Mr Williams's electronic media without informing police, the BBC reported.

Police only learned of the memory sticks on Monday, it said.

"Had I known of their existence, I would have expected them to be at least reviewed or audited by (the counter-terrorism unit) and if information was available, then sent to my team," Chief Inspector Sebire was quoted by the Guardian newspaper as saying.

She testified last week that she believed someone else was involved in Mr Williams getting inside the bag. A small amount of unknown DNA not belonging to Mr Williams was found on the bag.

Mr Williams, a mathematics prodigy, was trying to develop technologies that could be used in gathering information for MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service.

One police officer, Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of the counter-terrorism branch SO-15, was quoted by the BBC as saying his team should have examined the memory sticks before giving them to MI6 but that he had taken what evidence he believed was relevant to the case.

Police also did not take an inventory of the contents of Mr Williams's office cabinet because of the "sensitive nature of the documents", fellow counter-terrorism officer Colin Hall was reported by the Guardian as saying.

Pathologists believe the likeliest cause of death was either poisoning or suffocation but say they cannot be sure which.

The strange death has puzzled investigators who have found little forensic evidence that would point to a culprit.

Last week the inquest was told that if proper procedures had been followed by Mr Williams's supervisors at MI6, his absence would have been reported and acted upon within hours.

Instead, they waited days to report him missing and Mr Williams's body was found a week after he had first failed to show up to work.

Reuters

This Is London : Coroner criticises MI6 death probe

Coroner criticises MI6 death probe

May 2, 2012

MI6 and a senior detective have been accused of failing to disclose vital evidence in the death riddle of spy Gareth Williams.

A coroner suggested the counter-terror officer was not being "completely impartial" towards secret services during the Scotland Yard inquiry.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster was criticised after his assistant was told he had offered evidence as "helpful as a London pea souper" at the inquest into Mr Williams's death.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox and the family's lawyer both delivered angry outbursts after it emerged that nine computer memory sticks and a black bag were overlooked for 21 months after the death.

The lead detective on the case was told about the evidence only on Monday.

Dr Wilcox told Mr Broster, who was unable to rule out secret service involvement in the death, that he was offering "total non-sequitur" reasons for failing to pass on evidence.

"I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case," she told him at Westminster Coroner's Court.

As Dr Wilcox ordered police to bring the missed evidence into the inquest into Mr Williams's death, family barrister Anthony O'Toole told police they had not taken the incident seriously enough.

The lawyer said: "If this had not involved SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) and it was the Kray twins you were investigating, you would have gone into this in far more detail."

The 31-year-old fitness enthusiast was found naked, curled up in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, on August 23 2010.

Big Pond News : Lawyer alleges MI6 involvement in death

Lawyer alleges MI6 involvement in death

May 2, 2012

A lawyer representing the family of MI6 spy Gareth Williams whose body was found in a holdall has suggested the secret services may have been involved in his death.

Anthony O'Toole, the Williams' family lawyer, made the accusation in open court during the 31-year-old GCHQ code breaker's inquest at Westminster Coroner's Court.

The allegation came after it emerged MI6 failed to hand over nine computer memory sticks to Scotland Yard.

A black North Face holdall - similar to the one which Mr Williams was found dead in at his flat - was eventually passed to police.

The Metropolitan Police team investigating Mr William's death did not have direct access to his office.

Instead, the force's counter-terror SO15 branch, which has specialist security clearance, acted as a conduit between MI6 and the investigation team.

Two officers from the SO15 unit - Superintendent Michael Broster and Detective Constable Colin Hall - searched Mr Williams' MI6 office.

They only took three items - his phone, some notes and a copy of his birth certificate.

Asked why he did not take the memory sticks, Supt Broster said he did not think they were relevant - and admitted MI6 were left to examine them.

Mr O'Toole said: 'So if the person who killed Gareth Williams was a member of SIS (MI6) you would do nothing to investigate because you believed that organisation to be trustworthy?'

Supt Broster insisted MI6 had been fully co-operative.

The officer was also criticised by Coroner Fiona Wilcox, who told him he was offering 'total non-sequitur' reasons for failing to pass on evidence.

'I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case,' she said.

Mr O'Toole also accused DC Hall of failing to take the probe seriously.

'If this had not involved SIS and it was the Kray twins you were investigating, you would have gone into this in far more detail,' he told the officer.

Members of Mr Williams' family shook their heads as DC Hall revealed his search of Mr Williams' office was called off shortly after the spy was found dead.

Mr Hall said 'there was stuff in there of a sensitive nature' in the bag but, when asked what, he said he could not remember.

Mr O'Toole added: 'That's about as helpful as a London pea souper.'

Earlier, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the police officer in charge of the investigation, returned to give evidence to the inquest and told the coroner she had no knowledge of the memory sticks, or the bag, until this morning.

'Had I known about their existence, I would have expected them to be disclosed and any relevant information to be sent to my team,' she said.

It is not clear what relevance if any the sticks and the bag have to the investigation into Mr Williams' death, but DCI Sebire said that MI6 should have told her about their existence.

It was also disclosed that MI6 searched some of Mr Williams' 'electronic media' without telling the police.

'What I knew was that Gareth's email accounts had been checked but I did not know that other media had been checked,' DCI Sebire said.

Meanwhile, a forensic scientist has been asked to appear again at the inquest, and a new MI6 witness has been asked to give evidence anonymously.

The inquest is due to conclude on Wednesday, but there is a chance now it could continue for longer.

The painstaking investigation has drawn a 20-month blank for detectives.

On Monday, Ros Hammond, a police forensic scientist, expressed hope that tests on a green towel found in the kitchen of Mr Williams' Pimlico apartment could yield a breakthrough within a matter of weeks.

The inquest also heard from a forensic Scientist and from the pathologists who carried out three separate post-mortems on Mr Williams' body.

They told the court all their examinations had proved to be inconclusive, and spoke of the difficulties they encountered because Mr Williams' body was badly decomposed.

A period of up to 10 days passed between when they believe he died and when his body was first examined.

However Benjamin Swift, a Home Office pathologist, said that although the cause of death was 'unascertained', he believed that poisoning or asphyxiation such as suffocation were 'probably rather than possibly' to blame.

Tests on the Mr Williams body did not reveal signs of any poisons, but the experts said that they could not rule out the possibility that a poison could have disappeared as the body decomposed.

Scotsman : Gareth Williams inquest: MI6 and police ‘failed to disclose clues’

Gareth Williams inquest: MI6 and police ‘failed to disclose clues’

May 2, 2012

MI6 and a senior detective have been accused of failing to disclose vital evidence in the death riddle of code-breaker Gareth Williams.

A coroner suggested on Tuesday that the counter-terrorism officer was not being “completely impartial” towards the secret services during the Scotland Yard inquiry.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster was criticised after his assistant was told he had offered evidence as “helpful as a London pea-souper” at the inquest into Mr Williams’ death.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox and the family’s lawyer both delivered angry outbursts after it emerged that nine computer memory sticks and a black bag were overlooked for 21 months after the death.

The lead detective on the case was told about the evidence only on Monday.

Dr Wilcox told DS Broster, who was unable to rule out MI6 involvement in the death, that he was offering “total non-sequitur” reasons for failing to pass on evidence.

“I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case,” she told him at Westminster Coroner’s Court.

As Dr Wilcox ordered police to bring the missed evidence into the inquest, family barrister Anthony O’Toole told police they had not taken the incident seriously enough.

The lawyer said: “If this had not involved SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] and it was the Kray twins you were investigating, you would have gone into this in far more detail.”

The North Face bag – similar to the one in which Mr Williams was found dead at his flat – was found by officers under his desk at MI6’s London HQ.

Members of Mr Williams’ family shook their heads as Detective Constable Colin Hall, of the force’s counter-terrorism SO15 branch, said his search of the Vauxhall HQ was called off shortly after the code-breaker was found dead.

DC Hall said “there was stuff of a sensitive nature” in the bag, but when asked what, he said he could not remember. Mr O’Toole added: “That’s about as helpful as a London pea-souper.”

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the lead officer on the case, said she had no knowledge of memory sticks in his cabinet at work or of the bag.

She said: “I would have expected to have been told.”

DC Hall was ordered to re-examine the black bag in the courtroom as the inquest heard its last day’s evidence.

Fitness enthusiast Mr Williams, 31, was found naked, curled up in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, on 23 August, 2010.

The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday. when the coroner will hear final legal submissions before delivering her verdict.

Orange UK News : Errors hindered spy death probe

Errors hindered spy death probe

May 2, 2012

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

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

Various reasons for the delay were offered, based on false assumptions about the agent's whereabouts.

One MI6 line manager said he thought Mr Williams must be stuck on a train when he missed a meeting seven days before his remains were found.

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

Either that, or he was working on coursework, they thought.

Yet Mr Williams was so punctual one colleague was said to have likened him to a Swiss clock, with non-attendance at a meeting being most out of character.

A contrite secret services boss - named only as SIS F - acknowledged the blunders, admitting Mr Williams's no-show should have been flagged two to four hours after being noted.

"We are profoundly sorry about what happened," she said.

"It shouldn't have happened and we recognise that the delay in finding Gareth's body has made it even harder for the family to come to terms with his dreadful death and we are truly sorry for that.

"I also appreciate the delay had some impact on the police investigation."

The family's lawyer, Anthony O'Toole, pulled no punches in describing this impact.

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

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

The slow response of the secret services was not, however, the only error feared to have hampered the inquiry.

As the inquest neared its end, MI6 and a senior detective were accused of failing to disclose vital evidence.

Nine computer memory sticks and a black bag were overlooked for 21 months after the death, with the lead detective on the case told of them only this week.

The North Face bag - similar to the one in which the agent was found dead - was discovered by officers under his desk at MI6's London HQ.

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

And the spy's relatives were left shaking their heads as Detective Constable Colin Hall, of the Met's counter-terror SO15 branch, said his search of the agent's Vauxhall headquarters was called off shortly after the death was discovered.

The case was then plagued by further false steps when forensic teams mistakenly identified what they thought was a significant spot of DNA on Mr Williams's hand in 2010.

It took them until March this year to realise it matched a scientist at the crime scene.

Human error was blamed, with the wrong number for the sample being logged on a computer.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox spelt out the damage done: "My concern, and I'm sure the police's concern, was the amount of time spent in the investigation on what was a false lead."

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

The forensic officer responsible, Paul Stafford Allen, apologised for any "distress" caused to the family by his transcription error, expressing his "deep regret".

But apologies, and promises that changes have since been made to prevent such slip-ups recurring, will not give the family the answers they crave.

Express : SECRET AGENTS MAY HAVE KILLED SPY IN THE BAG SAYS DETECTIVE

SECRET AGENTS MAY HAVE KILLED SPY IN THE BAG SAYS DETECTIVE

By Cyril Dixon | May 2, 2012

A SENIOR detective admitted yesterday that a member of the British secret service might have killed body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster said he could not rule out intelligence agents being involved in the brilliant codebreaker’s death.

The admission came as Det Supt Broster was accused of giving MI6 too much control over evidence relating to the 31-year-old’s death.

In a day of fiery exchanges at the inquest into Mr Williams’ death, he was asked why he did not seize all his property from MI6 headquarters.

Instead, he allowed Secret Intelligence Service officers to examine the items discovered in Mr Williams’ locker and near his desk.

Anthony O’Toole, the Williams family solicitor, said: “So if the person who killed Gareth Williams is a ­member of SIS, you did nothing to investigate him?”

Det Supt Broster replied: “You are putting words in my mouth. If they are a member of SIS, they should be tracked down and prosecuted like anybody else.”

He added: “I am not saying a ­member of the SIS is not involved. I don’t know.”

The officer – a member of Scotland Yard’s SO15 counter-terrorism branch – was appointed linkman between the spies and police investigating Mr ­Williams’ death. His task was to seize potentially-important evidence and hand it over to Detective Chief ­Inspector Jackie Sebire, the lead officer looking into the mystery.

But the SO15 officer admitted nine computer memory sticks and a North Face holdall, like the one Mr Williams’ body was in, had been left with MI6.

Spy chiefs were allowed to analyse them and Det Chief Insp Sebire knew nothing of the sticks until yesterday.

Westminster Coroner Fiona Wilcox said to him: “I suggest in fact ­Detective Superintendent Broster that you have not been completely impartial in this case.” The officer said he was “completely impartial”, but added: “With hindsight it is something SO15 could have done.”

He insisted that he had recovered and passed on all “relevant” information and said the security service was “trusted” and “responsible”.

Super-fit cyclist Mr Williams was on secondment at MI6 from the GCHQ listening centre in Cheltenham, Glos.

His naked body was found inside a padlocked red holdall in his flat in Pimlico, London, on August 23.

The hearing continues.

3 News (NZ) : UK detective: MI6 held onto dead spy's items

UK detective: MI6 held onto dead spy's items

By Sylvia Hui | May 2, 2012

British spy services failed to pass on evidence to detectives investigating the death of a spy whose naked body was found locked inside a sports bag, an official said. The revelation drew criticism and concerns that the secret service was not acting impartially in the case.

The MI6 overseas spy agency found nine computer memory sticks at Gareth Williams' workplace but did not hand them over to detectives until this week, said Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading an inquest into the death.

Williams, 31, worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ. He was attached to the MI6 overseas spy agency when his remains were found in August 2010 at his London apartment inside the bag, and placed in a bathtub.

Sebire told a London inquest hearing that she did not become aware of the memory sticks found by MI6 officers in Williams' office until Monday. She said she also did not know about a black gym bag - similar to the one Williams' body was found in - that officers discovered at the workplace.

"I would have expected to have been told," she told Westminster Coroner's Court. "What I knew was that Gareth's email accounts had been checked but I did not know that other media had been checked."

Coroner Fiona Wilcox criticised British agents for the failure to pass on the evidence.

"I suggest that this means you have not been completely impartial in this case," she told Michael Broster, a counter-terrorism officer who was called to give evidence about the search of Williams' office.

Detectives were ordered to re-examine the black gym bag in the courtroom Wednesday, the last day of the inquest.

Investigators have been baffled by how exactly Williams died and have so far made no arrests, although a senior detective has told the inquest she believes that at least one other person must have been involved.

Williams' relatives maintain that his death had to do with his highly secret work. Police have suggested it may have been due to a sexual encounter gone awry.

AP

News 24 (SA) : UK spy death remains a mystery

UK spy death remains a mystery

May 2, 2012

London - It is unlikely the death of a British spy whose naked body was found padlocked in a bag in his bath will ever be fully explained, the coroner told the final day of his inquest on Wednesday.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was "unlikely" the circumstances of Gareth Williams' 2010 death "will ever be satisfactorily explained" given that "most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered".

Wilcox said she did not have enough evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing in the death of Williams, a high-flying codebreaker with the MI6 external intelligence agency, despite a plea from his family's lawyer.

She will instead deliver a narrative verdict, listing the possibilities but failing to reach a conclusion.

Williams' family have previously said they believe secret agents versed in the "dark arts" tried to cover up his death, while the detective heading the investigation said on Tuesday she was convinced someone else was involved.

"My strongest belief is that a third party was involved and I would ask people to search their consciences and come to us to find some resolutions to this case and some peace for his family," Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said.

The inquest looked into whether Williams could have padlocked himself in the bag alone, after speculation he might have done so as part of a sex game, but one expert said even escapologist Harry Houdini "would have struggled" to pull off the feat.

Pathologists said Williams probably died from poisoning or suffocation, but decomposition of his body reduced the scope for pinpointing the cause of death.

The spy's employers at MI6 failed to report him missing for a week, the inquest has heard.

Police also told the inquest they had not examined some of Williams' possessions including nine memory sticks because his bosses at MI6 said they were irrelevant.

Police found women's clothing worth about £20 000 in Williams' flat, while the inquest also heard he visited bondage sites, filmed himself nearly naked, and was once found tied to a bed.

His sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest Williams had been unhappy at MI6, where he was seconded from Britain's intelligence monitoring centre.

- SAPA

IOL : Spy police ‘gave special treatment to MI6’

Spy police ‘gave special treatment to MI6’

By CHRIS GREENWOOD | REUTERS | May 2, 2012

Scotland Yard was accused yesterday of undermining the inquiry into the death of spy Gareth Williams by giving MI6 special treatment.

On a day of drama at the inquest into Mr Williams’s death, a senior detective was accused of failing to be “completely impartial” when he dealt with potentially vital evidence.

And coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox raised deep concerns over the failure of police to seize all of 31-year-old Mr Williams’s possessions from his MI6 office.

Another detective was forced to admit he only made a “cursory search” of the office. Detective Constable Colin Hall was accused by barrister Anthony O’Toole, who represents the Williams family, of being “as helpful as a London pea souper”.

Mr O’Toole said: “If this had not been the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] and it was the Kray twins or someone else you would have gone into this in far more detail wouldn’t you?”

The final hours of evidence at the inquest into Mr Williams’s mysterious death were dominated by claims that police failed to put MI6 under the spotlight. Officers did not interview spies directly and their questions were channelled through counter terrorism detectives, who only replied with general and anonymous summaries.

The codebreaker’s naked and decomposing body was found in a padlocked North Face holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London, in August 2010.

The coroner revealed that fresh evidence, including nine memory sticks and another North Face holdall, had been discovered. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, told Westminster Coroner’s Court that she was only made aware yesterday of the memory sticks and an inventory of other items left at Mr Williams’s office.

And MI6 confirmed for the first time that his laptop was checked by spies before being handed to police.

Dr Wilcox said Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who acted as a “firewall” between MI6 and police because of his high-level security clearance, had failed to pass on relevant information.

She said: “Don’t you think the murder inquiry and those responsible for it should have been investigating that evidence and not the person providing the evidence to you?

“If this had been information provided to you by any other agency it would have been seized by your officers, not left to those responsible to look at them and tell you what they contain, particularly given the public anxiety and concern around this death. You are not being completely impartial because an impartial investigator would have taken those exhibits and examined them himself.”

But Mr Broster insisted SIS has been “very helpful”. He added: “I have seen no information of relevance that somebody is involved. I am not saying a member of SIS is not involved, I don’t know.”

The inquest was adjourned until today when a verdict is expected.

- Daily Mail

Telegraph : Gareth Williams verdict: the case reviewed

Gareth Williams verdict: the case reviewed

It could have been straight out of a crime novel: the secretive world of spies, a bizarre unexplained death, a police puzzle and wild goose chases and a hidden life of womens’ clothing and bondage websites. But for the death of MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams, it was very much a case of fact being stranger than fiction.

By Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | May 2, 2012

From the moment his naked, decomposing body was discovered in a padlocked sports bag in a bath in August 2010 the mysterious death grabbed the public attention and fuelled an army of conspiracy theories.

Over eight extraordinary days at Westminster Coroners’ Court, involving more than 40 witnesses including anonymous spies speaking from behind a screen, an incredible story emerged, albeit one that asks more questions than it answers.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox vowed to carry out a “full, fair and fearless” inquiry to determine how Gareth came to die and whether sinister forces had a hand.

What followed was an unending series of twists and turns and unprecedented scenes of men trying to lock themselves in to hold alls, potential evidence emerging 20 months after his death and accusations of cosy relationships between senior police officers and MI6.

And at the heart of it was a family devastated by grief, stunned by a secret life they never knew, determined for answers and traumatised by an apparent disregard for their son’s wellbeing.

The death

The body of Mr Williams was discovered naked, in a foetal position in a padlocked North Face hold all measuring just 81cm by 48cm.

It was found in the bath of the Pimlico flat in London where he lived alone while on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ on August 23, 2010.

When found it had been sitting there for a week and was badly decomposed.

Because of the sensitive nature of his job a convoluted police investigation began.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire led the Met team investigating the death. But because neither she nor her officers were suitably cleared for national security data, officers from the Met’s counter terrorism unit acted a conduit between her and MI6.

His last known activity was browsing a cycling website in the early hours of Monday August 16.

The secret life

A hidden life of Mr Williams also emerged during the painstaking investigation.

He had a penchant for buying expensive womens’ clothing, had visited bondage websites, tied himself to his bed and was recorded on his phone prancing naked but for a pair of leather boots in front.

Missing

The first riddle was how Mr Williams could have been missing for a week at one of the country’s most sensitive organisations without anyone raising the alarm.

The codebreaker was known for his meticulous time keeping and professionalism and should have been back at work from a foreign trip on Monday August 16.

He did not show up all that week and missed two pre-arranged meetings with other intelligence officers.

Despite working in a small office with just three others, no one thought it strange.

His line manager, known only as witness G, thought he must have forgotten he was on a course or something similar and made only the most cursory attempts to contact him by phone.

There were also suggestions of confusion over who was responsible for his whereabouts as he was due to return to GCHQ, having cut short his secondment, the week after he was found.

He was not officially classed as missing until Monday August 23 and even then it took another four hours before the police were notified and his body discovered.

Alive or dead

Central to the case was whether he could get in to the bag himself and, if not, whether he was alive or dead when placed in it.

Two experts in confined space rescue or “unusual occurrences” tried and failed more than 400 times to climb in to a bag unaided and lock it.

Videos of their attempts were shown to the hearing.

One concluded even Harry Houdini would struggle and that Mr Williams was “dead or unconscious” when he went in to the bag.

Pathologists would later estimate that “poisoning or asphyxiation” were the most likely causes of death and that he would have been overcome by carbon dioxide within three minutes of being placed in there.

But because the body was so badly decomposed several poisons, including cyanide and chloroform, could not even be tested for.

The third party

The police investigation had its own problems.

No usable DNA was recovered from the flat and police spent more than 18 months chasing one encouraging sample before discovering it belonged to one of the forensic officers who attended the scene. An error in recording it for checking had sent police on a wild goose chase.

However, DCI Sebire is convinced a third party was involved and that the death is “suspicious”.

Weak traces of DNA of at least two other people were found on the bag but they may never be sufficient for a match.

The “Old Boys” club

The issue of how much help DCI Sebire received from MI6 and the counter terror officers acting as the link was also a constant focus.

Anthony O’Toole, the family lawyer, raised concerns over what assurances were taken that none of Mr Williams’ work equipment and belongings were “interfered” with before being handed to police.

He was concerned that counter terror officers simply accepted what the intelligence services told them because they were acting almost under an “Old Boys Act”.

In dramatic events on Tuesday, Dr Wilcox accused Det Supt Michael Broster, who headed up the counter terror team, of not being “completely impartial”.

It emerged nine memory sticks possibly belonging to Mr Williams and a sports bag similar to one he was found in were discovered at MI6 but never passed to the investigating team.

Det Supt Broster insisted he was impartial throughout.

The family trauma

For Mr Williams’ parents Ian and Ellen and sister Ceri Subbe, the hearing has been a daily ordeal.

On several occasions relatives were overcome with emotion, especially as they heard of the apparent disregard and apathy his colleagues had in noticing he was missing.

MI6 said it was “profoundly sorry” for the failures.

The shock of learning of Mr Williams alternative lifestyle will also have taken its toll but they acted with dignity throughout.

Their lawyer Mr O’Toole has suggested those specialized in the “dark arts” were involved in the death and that all the family want are answers.

Future

DCI Sebire has insisted the investigation will continue until answers are found.

Results are expected within weeks as to whether a DNA sample has been recovered from a towel found in the kitchen.

And a full review of the case will be carried out in light of all the evidence that has emerged during the inquest.

No evidence that his death was linked to his work or his private life has been unearthed and the inquest has failed to answer many key questions.

For the police and the family the quest goes on but unlike the crime novels, this mystery may never be solved.

The Week : Spy-in-bag death can be solved if police are allowed to do their job

Spy-in-bag death can be solved if police are allowed to do their job

Crispin Black | May 2, 2012

THE WESTMINSTER Coroner investigating the death of GCHQ mathematician Gareth Williams in 2010 has delivered a narrative verdict after listening to the evidence of 39 witnesses over seven days. This means that the circumstances of a death are recorded without attributing the cause to a named individual. But it’s a narrative verdict with a twist. She has made it clear that she believes that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ Gareth Williams was unlawfully killed.

She has shown both ingenuity and common sense in framing her formal verdict in this way. But it’s not a surprise. It was clear from the outset that Madam Coroner suspected foul play - she referred in court to the police investigation a number of times as a "Category A Murder Investigation". Technically, it is only an investigation into a ‘suspicious death’.

Towards the end of the process, her own dissatisfaction with the police investigation became abundantly clear. In an electrifying moment mid-afternoon yesterday she snapped. Visibly wearying of the answers of Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, the counter-terrorism officer acting as liaison between MI6 and the police investigation, she suggested angrily that he had not been "totally impartial".

He was coming to the end of a rough hour or so in the witness box trying to explain why he hadn't passed nine memory sticks found in Gareth Williams's locker at MI6 to Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the detective in charge of the investigation.

The spooks had apparently assured him they were not relevant.

He hadn't seen fit to mention to anyone that a black North Face holdall similar to the one in which Williams was found dead had been found beneath his desk at Vauxhall Cross. It didn't help that Broster's account of the search of the locker didn't seem to tally with the account given earlier in the day by an equally evasive and unimpressive subordinate who had assisted him.

Broster's uncomfortable experience in the witness box - he looked absolutely furious as he left the building - made embarrassingly clear the shortcomings in the police investigation.

Because DCI Sebire and her team do not have the security clearances to deal with Top Secret matters of national security, they have not been allowed to enter MI6 HQ or question any of Gareth Williams's colleagues at either GCHQ or MI6. These aspects of the investigation have been undertaken by officers from Counter Terrorism Command like Broster who have been security vetted.

Quite why Sebire and her team can't be put through the 'developed vetting' procedure isn't clear. It does not take that long and she and her team have been on the case for 20 months now. The absurdity of this was underlined in court on Tuesday.

When Williams's overall boss at MI6 'Witness D' gave evidence, it was entirely proper that he did so from behind a screen. He is a spook and therefore his identity should be protected. The Coroner, the family and the lawyers could all see him face to face but court officials and journalists could not. We could hear the questions and answers but not see anything. Sitting with us also unable to see anything was DCI Sebire. One wonders what she made of Witness D's evidence. His memory didn't seem to be too good - unusual in a spook.

‘Witness G’, Williams’s immediate superior, also giving evidence from behind a screen earlier in the inquest – failed to impress. In her summing up the Coroner described his evidence as beginning ‘to stretch bounds of credibility’.

This is much more serious than just a slightly unwieldy protocol to protect national security. It is hard not to conclude that MI6 is being protected in some way from a proper investigation. Sebire hasn't been able to interview any spooks and she has had to rely on the judgment of others about physical evidence.

As the Coroner said to Broster, "Don't you think the murder inquiry and those responsible for it should have been investigating that evidence and not the person providing the evidence to you?" The Coroner's implication was clear and you could see the penny dropping with Broster as she said it. A few minutes later under heavily sarcastic questioning from Anthony O'Toole, the lawyer for the Williams family, he let slip: "I am not saying a member of SIS is not involved, I don't know."

Although I greatly admire the way Fiona Wilcox has conducted the inquest I don't agree with her pessimistic summing up that it is "unlikely" that Gareth Williams's death "will ever be satisfactorily explained". The answer is out there somewhere.

The way the police investigation has been conducted does not command public confidence and as currently organised seems unlikely to unravel the mystery. DCI Sebire, who has been convinced all along that "a third party was involved" has clearly done her best in difficult circumstances, but a whole avenue of investigation dealing with Williams's work colleagues has been deliberately closed off to her. As she made clear throughout the inquest she is convinced she can unravel the mystery. Let her do her job.