This Is Somerset : Army veteran claims to have solved spy in a bag mystery

Army veteran claims to have solved spy in a bag mystery

May 10, 2012

Body in the bag spy Gareth Williams could have easily locked himself inside the holdall in which he died, an Army veteran claimed yesterday.

The inquest into the MI6 agent's death heard how a number of experts unsuccessfully attempted to lock themselves inside a bag up to 300 times.

But Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49 – a sergeant in the Royal Artillery for 22 years – discovered a simple method by which a holdall can be zipped up and locked from the inside without assistance.

The technique is the reverse of a well-known trick used by airport thieves to steal from locked bags, as long as they are flexible and the sides can be pinched together.

Intrigued by the mysterious case of the MI6 agent, based at Cheltenham, he asked his daughter Izzy, 16, to climb inside an identical North Face bag to test his theory.

The teenager, who at 5ft 5in was 3in shorter than Gareth, easily fitted inside the bag in the foetal position before partially closing it.

She drew her legs up to her body and was able to draw the two zip pulls together while leaving a gap for her hands to protrude through and close the padlock.

Izzy then tensed her body and the zip simply sealed itself leaving her successfully shut inside the bag holding the key to the padlock.

But crucially, the procedure is said to be much easier in a bath where the occupant of the bag can push against the sides for assistance.

Jim, of Shrewton, Wiltshire, served around the world as a sergeant with the 33 Regiment, Royal Artillery, for 22 years until he retired five years ago and has been a reservist ever since.

He claims that, despite Mr Williams being taller than his daughter, this would not have made much difference.

He said: "The man on TV tried it 300 times and I was amazed he couldn't do it.

"I've told my friends and show them and their jaws drop – it is so obvious, maybe people are thinking too much into it.

"She is 5ft 5in and he was 5ft8in but when you're in the foetal position inside that height doesn't make much difference. She had a bit of a struggle pulling the bag but she wouldn't have been as strong as him. I could easily see that he would be able to do it. She did it on the floor and it would have been much easier for him in the bath because he could put pressure on the sides to manoeuvre himself in. Once you show people how you do it, their jaws drop. I wonder if the services do know this method – but they don't want it known."

A similar technique is known to be used to steal from locked holdalls, where the end of the bag can be squeezed together to create 'slack' in the zip. This creates enough room for an opening in the zip without unlocking the padlocks.

Mr Fetherstonhaugh contacted the Met Police via the force's 101 number and he was provided with a serial number but they have yet to respond to him. A spokesman for the force refused to comment yesterday.

The revelation raises questions over the coroner's findings, which concluded Mr Williams' death "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated".

Mr Williams' former landlords told the inquest how they once found him handcuffed alone to a bed, suggesting he had a fetish for restraint.

Scotland Yard's commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe this week said he has ordered a review of the investigation into the death of Mr Williams.

International Business Times : MI6 Spy In The Bag Gareth Williams: Army Veteran Shows Getting Inside The Sports Bag And Locking Self Is Easy

MI6 Spy In The Bag Gareth Williams: Army Veteran Shows Getting Inside The Sports Bag And Locking Self Is Easy

By Drishya Nair | May 10, 2012

The compelling case of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, found dead and padlocked in a bag in 2010, is yet to be solved. A veteran army officer demonstrated how Williams could have zipped himself inside the sports bag without any help and perhaps been suffocated to death.

A retired sergeant in the Royal Artillery, Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49, says it is not only highly possible that Williams locked himself in the bag without any aid, but it is also a very simple and easy task to perform (including padlocking oneself).

Many MI6 agents, after Williams' death, tried more than 300 times to lock themselves up in similar sports bags but failed.

"The man on TV tried it 300 times and I was amazed he couldn't do it. I've told my friends and show them and their jaws drops - it is so obvious, maybe people are thinking too much into it," Fetherstonhaugh said.

But the army veteran claims to have discovered a way in which one can get inside a bag, zip it and even lock it with a padlock, without any assistance.

The technique discovered by Fetherstonhaugh is apparently the reverse of a popular trick used by airport thieves to steal from locked bags as long as they are flexible and the sides can be pinched together, reports Mail Online.com.

Fetherstonhaugh, after discovering this method, called the police but has got not any response yet.

The ex-army sergeant was intrigued ever since Williams' mysterious circumstances of death hit headlines. To examine his theory, he asked his 16-year-old daughter Izzy to climb inside a similar North Face bag without any assistance.

Izzy, who stands 5ft 5ins (3ins shorter than Gareth) managed to easily fit inside the bag. She could not only draw the zip together but was also able to padlock herself.

The procedure can be carried out much more easily in a bathtub, since the occupant can push against the sides of the tub for assistance.

According to Fetherstonhaugh, when one is in a foetal position in the bag, the height of a person does not make too much of a difference, so the fact that Williams was 3 ins taller than Izzy wouldn't matter much.

"She is 5ft 5 and he was 5ft 8 but when you're in the foetal position inside that height doesn't make much difference. She had a bit of a struggle pulling the bag but she wouldn't have been as strong as him. I could easily see that he would be able to do it," the army veteran said.

Now the question arises as to why the experts were unable to do the same. It seems, according to experts, there wasn't enough room to manoeuvre when the bag was kept in the bathtub.

It has been two years since Williams' death and despite extensive investigation, the case does not seem to be getting anywhere.

Police believe that at the time of the 31-year-old's death, a member of either MI6 or GCHQ was in the flat.

At the inquest, coroner Fiona Wilcox told Westministers coroner's court that it was "highly unlikely" that Williams got inside the red holdhall on his own.

There are no foot or fingerprints from the scene of death and fifteen of Williams' colleagues have already been swabbed for DNA samples.

In a recent development in the case, a green towel from a shelf in Williams's kitchen with traces of human residue was found. It could lead to a breakthrough in the case.

Williams' former landlords had reported of an incident at the inquest about how William had once handcuffed himself to a bed alone and needed assistance to free himself later. This points to a possible fetish for restraint that Williams might have harbored.

Daily Mail : Army veteran claims spy-in-bag could easily have locked himself in holdall... and proves it with his 16-year-old daughter

Army veteran claims spy-in-bag could easily have locked himself in holdall... and proves it with his 16-year-old daughter

* Teenager measures 5ft 5ins, just 3ins shorter than MI6 agent Gareth Williams

By Julian Gavaghan | May 9, 2012

Body in the bag spy Gareth Williams could have easily locked himself inside the holdall in which he died, an Army veteran revealed today.

The inquest into the MI6 agent’s death heard how a number of experts unsuccessfully tried to lock themselves inside a bag up to 300 times.

But Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49 - a sergeant in the Royal Artillery for 22 years - discovered a simple method by which a holdall can be zipped up and locked from the inside without assistance.

The technique is the reverse of a well-known trick used by airport thieves to steal from locked bags, as long as they are flexible and the sides can be pinched together.

Intrigued by the mysterious case of the MI6 agent, he asked his daughter Izzy, 16, to climb inside an identical North Face bag to test his theory.

The teenager, who at 5ft 5ins was 3ins shorter than Gareth, easily fitted inside the bag in the foetal position before partially closing it.

She drew her legs up to her body and was able to draw the two zip pulls together while leaving a gap for her hands to protrude through and close the padlock.

Izzy then tensed her body and the zip simply sealed itself leaving her successfully shut inside the bag holding the key to the padlock.

But crucially, the procedure is said to be much easier in a bath where the occupant of the bag can push against the sides for assistance.

Jim, of Shrewton, Wiltshire, served around the world as a sergeant with the 33 Regiment, Royal Artillery, for 22 years until he retired five years ago and has been a reservist ever since.

He claims that, despite Mr Williams being taller than his daughter, this would not have made much difference.

He said: ‘The man on TV tried it 300 times and I was amazed he couldn’t do it.

‘I’ve told my friends and show them and their jaws drops - it is so obvious, maybe people are thinking too much into it.

‘She is 5ft 5 and he was 5ft 8 but when you’re in the foetal position inside that height doesn’t make much difference.

‘She had a bit of a struggle pulling the bag but she wouldn’t have been as strong as him. I could easily see that he would be able to do it.

A similar technique is used to steal from locked holdalls, where the end of the bag can be squeezed together to create ‘slack’ in the zip.

This creates enough room for an opening in the zip without unlocking the padlocks.

However, one of the reasons why other experts said they couldn't zip themselves in bags was because there wasn't enough room to manoeuvre in a bathtub.

Mr Fetherstonhaugh contacted the Met Police via the force’s 101 number and he was provided with a serial number but they have yet to respond to him.

A spokesman for the force refused to comment today.

The revelation raises questions over the coroner’s findings, which concluded Mr Williams’ death ‘unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated’.

Mr Williams’ former landlords told the inquest how they once found him handcuffed alone to a bed, suggesting he had a fetish for restraint.

To test the method, reporter Claire Hayhurst, who is 5ft 4in tall and of slight build similar to Mr Williams, zipped herself into the bag without assistance.

She repeated the task a number of times on video and was eventually able to do it in less than three minutes.

Telegraph : Spy death: It is possible to lock yourself into a bag, claims soldier

Spy death: It is possible to lock yourself into a bag, claims soldier

By Richard Alleyne | May 9, 2012

A coroner concluded that Gareth Williams, the spy found dead in a bag, was probably unlawfully killed because experts were unable to lock themselves into the holdall – despite trying more than 300 times.

But now an amateur has shown that it can be done in a development which could throw the findings into doubt.

Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49 – a retired sergeant in the Royal Artillery – discovered a simple method by which a holdall can be zipped up and locked from the inside without assistance.

Intrigued by the mysterious case of the MI6 agent Gareth Williams, he asked his daughter Izzy, 16, to climb inside an identical North Face bag to test his theory.

The teenager, who at 5ft 5 ins was 3 ins shorter than Mr Williams, easily fitted inside the bag in the foetal position before partially closing it.

She drew her legs up to her body and was able to draw the two zip pulls together while leaving a gap for her hands to protrude through and close the padlock.

Miss Fetherstonhaugh then tensed her body and the zip simply sealed itself leaving her successfully shut inside the bag holding the key to the padlock.

But crucially, the procedure is said to be much easier in a bath where the occupant of the bag can push against the sides for assistance.

Sgt Fetherstonhaugh, of Shrewton, Wilts., served around the world as a sergeant with the 33 Regiment, Royal Artillery, for 22 years until he retired five years ago and has been a reservist ever since.

He claims that, despite Mr Williams being taller than his daughter, this would not have made much difference.

He said: "The man on TV tried it 300 times and I was amazed he couldn't do it.

"I've told my friends and show them and their jaws drops – it is so obvious, maybe people are thinking too much into it.

"She is 5ft 5 and he was 5ft 8 but when you're in the foetal position inside that height doesn't make much difference.

"She had a bit of a struggle pulling the bag but she wouldn't have been as strong as him. I could easily see that he would be able to do it.

"She did it on the floor and it would have been much easier for him in the bath because he could put pressure on the sides to manoeuvre himself in.

"Once you show people how you do it, their jaws drop. I wonder if the services do know this method – but they don't want it known."

A similar technique is used to steal from locked holdalls, where the end of the bag can be squeezed together to create "slack" in the zip.

This creates enough room for an opening in the zip without unlocking the padlocks.

Mr Fetherstonhaugh contacted the Met Police via the force's 101 number and he was provided with a serial number but they have yet to respond to him.

A spokesman for the force refused to comment.

The revelation raises questions over the coroner's findings, which concluded Mr Williams' death "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated".

Mr Williams' former landlords told the inquest how they once found him handcuffed alone to a bed, suggesting he had a fetish for restraint.

Warning: members of the public are warned not to imitate the actions in this video

Daily Mail : You are not above the law Met chief tells MI6 agents as he demands unprecedented access to solve spy-in-the-bag murder

You are not above the law Met chief tells MI6 agents as he demands unprecedented access to solve spy-in-the-bag murder

* Tests on microscopic human traces on a hand towel in the spy’s flat could identify his killer
* Employees at MI6 and GCHQ could face mass voluntary DNA screening within weeks

By Daily Mail Reporter | May 9, 2012

Britain’s top policeman told MI6 last night that no one is above the law as he demanded unprecedented access in a bid to solve the murder of spy Gareth Williams.

Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said there was ‘nothing in law’ to stop police making secret agents give statements and forensic samples.

The Scotland Yard chief said employees at MI6 and GCHQ could face mass voluntary DNA screening within weeks.

Detectives believe tests on microscopic human traces on a hand towel in the spy’s flat could identify his killer.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: ‘There is no difference in law, as you would expect if someone has committed a serious crime, no matter who they are.’

Asked if MI6 will grant full access, he said: ‘They do not have to sign up to it, it is called the law. There is no reason why they need to agree to it.’

No one has been arrested over the murder of Mr Williams, whose naked body was discovered in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat in August 2010.

Mr Hogan-Howe said: ‘There is no difference in law, as you would expect if someone has committed a serious crime, no matter who they are.’

Asked if MI6 will grant full access, he said: ‘They do not have to sign up to it, it is called the law. There is no reason why they need to agree to it.’

No one has been arrested over the murder of Mr Williams, whose naked body was discovered in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat in August 2010.

His family lashed out at MI6 last week after a coroner ruled he was probably unlawfully killed and the case may never be solved.

Fears remain that the solution to the riddle of his death could lie within MI6 or that a secret agent could even be responsible for the murder.

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

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

Speculation over the exact nature of his work has been growing since Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a a document to stop details being released about his job on security grounds.

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

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

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

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

Tom Pettifor | April 23, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

Why did it take so long to raise the alarm?

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

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

Were the dark arts of the spooks involved?

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

Was Mr Williams being followed?

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

But he did not reveal by whom.

Was Mr Williams’s work behind his death?

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

Did a sex game go wrong?

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

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

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

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

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

By Daniel Miller | May 6, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Press TV : MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner

May 4, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ISH/MA/HE

Daily Post : Spies face DNA tests in Gareth Williams probe

Spies face DNA tests in Gareth Williams probe

by Owen R Hughes, DPW West | May 4, 2012

POLICE investigating the death of Anglesey codebreaker Gareth Williams will take DNA samples from members of the secret services in a bid to find out how he died.

MI6 came under fire as a coroner said she was sure a third party locked the maths wizard inside the red holdall in which his body was found in his bathtub at his London flat in August 2010.

Dr Fiona Wilcox said he was probably killed and it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death.

A source at the Metropolitan police confirmed that the collection of DNA samples was being widened as part of the continuing probe but could not confirm who was being targeted.

Despite the 21 month police investigation and eight day inquest into the death of Mr Williams, 31, of Valley, his family are no closer to knowing how he died.

The inquest exposed serious errors in the probe, which was also initially hampered by the week long delay in the MI6 reporting that Mr Williams had not attended work.

Mr Williams’s relatives attacked failures by secret services and police after the coroner said “many agencies fell short” in their investigation of the death riddle.

It is now hoped that a re-focusing of the investigation and new evidence that emerged at the inquest can help shed more light on the mysterious case.

Family friend Colin Torr, from Valley, said: “It would have been nice for the family to have had some kind of closure but there were no firm conclusions from the inquest.

“There have clearly been errors made in the investigation and with MI6 involved I don’t know if we will ever find the truth.

“The family are held in great respect in the village and people continue to rally around them.”

Mr Williams would have been unlikely to invite a third party who was not a family member into his home, Dr Wilcox observed, adding: “If a third party was present at the time of his death, in my view that third party would have to have been someone he knew or someone who was there without an invitation.”

Criticising the inquiry, she warned it was unlikely the mystery would “ever be satisfactorily explained”.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said the inquest had raised “several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry”.

Wired : MI6 Codebreaker Attended U.S. Security Conference Before His Death

MI6 Codebreaker Attended U.S. Security Conference Before His Death

Kim Zetter | May 3, 2012

A top British codebreaker who died a mysterious death in his flat two years ago had just returned from a computer security conference in the United States before his death, according to information disclosed during an inquest this week.

The body of Gareth Williams, a codebreaker with Britain’s MI6 spy agency, was discovered stuffed into a sports bag in his bathtub on Aug. 23, 2010, though he’s believed to have been killed Aug. 15.

Williams had just returned to London on Aug. 11 after spending six weeks in the United States, where he attended the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas as part of a contingent of British spies, according to witnesses who spoke at the inquest. He attended Black Hat in 2008 as well.

It’s believed Williams may have also attended Black Hat’s companion hacker conference, DefCon, which follows Black Hat and draws many of the same attendees. In 2010, Black Hat was held July 24 to 29, while DefCon ran from July 30 to Aug. 1.

Black Hat is one of the top security conferences in the world, targeting the professional security crowd, while DefCon is geared more specifically to hackers. Law enforcement agents, the military and undercover spies regularly attend both conferences — often undercover — to keep pace with the latest research and learn what hackers are up to. They also recruit hackers for professional work.

DefCon holds an annual spot-the-fed contest to out undercover agents as a good-natured sport. Attendees who spot a fed receive an “I spotted a Fed” T-shirt, while the outed agent gets a trophy T-shirt of his own to take back to his office, sporting the phrase “I was spotted at DefCon.”

Not everyone wants to be outed or plays by the conference ground rules for working undercover. Several years ago, undercover agents believed to be working for Israel’s Mossad spy agency were kicked out of the conference after registering as journalists and posing as a French film crew from Canal Plus.

It’s not known specifically why Williams attended Black Hat or if he and his colleagues attended incognito. A Black Hat organizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Williams, who was 31 when he died, was found inside a North Face nylon sports bag in the bathtub of his apartment. His nude body was in the fetal position, with his arms folded across his chest. The bag was closed with a padlock, and two keys to the padlock were found underneath Williams’ body inside the bag.

His mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were laid out on a table nearby; the phone had been restored to its factory settings. There were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and no signs of a struggle.

Williams was described by those who knew him as a “math genius” who graduated from Bangor University at the age of 17 with a degree in mathematics. He’d begun his university studies while still in secondary school. In 2001 he joined Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s listening post, helping to break coded Taliban communications, among other things. He was considered a “world-class intelligence officer” and had won two awards for codebreaking, according to his boss at GCHQ.

In 2009, he was loaned out to MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, for a three-year stint, but asked to be transferred back to GCHQ after a year. He was preparing to move back to his old job around the time he was killed.

Williams had worked in a four-man team as an expert codebreaker and shortly before his death had been in contact with two secret agents working in the field in the U.K., according to testimony at the inquest.

The Daily Mail quoted anonymous sources last year saying that Williams had been working on secret technology to track stolen money being laundered through Britain by Russian mafia. The technology was reportedly designed to allow MI6 agents to follow money from bank accounts in Russia to criminal gangs in Europe via internet and wire transfers.

He also worked on another secretive project to develop devices for stealing data from mobile phones and laptops using wireless technology.

“He was involved in a very sensitive project with the highest security clearance,” the anonymous source told the Daily Mail. “He was not an agent doing surveillance, but was very much part of the team, working on the technology side, devising stuff like software.”

The source indicated that Williams’ work to disrupt the Russian mafia could have put him at risk.

“Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams,” the source said.

Williams also had reportedly worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the United Kingdom. He had made repeated visits to the United States to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al-Qaida official in Pakistan and three men who were convicted in 2009 of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights.

Investigators said during the inquest that there was no evidence Williams was killed as a result of the work he was doing, but they acknowledged that a full investigation had been thwarted by the spy agencies who employed Williams, raising suspicions that the agencies might have been involved in his death or at least know who was responsible for it.

Hours before he died, surveillance cameras captured Williams in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood while he was shopping at the luxury department store Harrods. Williams was expected at work the next day, but never showed up. MI6 did not report him missing, however, until Aug. 23, at which point his body had decomposed, thwarting attempts to determine the precise cause of death.

The spy agencies also failed to hand over nine thumb drives found in Williams’ locker at work. The drives were released to investigators only this week. Other electronic equipment that Williams used at work was handed over to Scotland Yard investigators four days after Williams’ body was discovered, raising questions about whether they had been cleaned by the spy agencies first.

Family and friends testified that Williams was unhappy with his work environment at MI6 and felt he didn’t fit in with his colleagues. During the inquest, testimony revealed that the coder had conducted unauthorized searches of an MI6 database that could have put him at risk if he was discovered. Investigators said, however, that MI6 was apparently unaware that Williams had conducted the searches.

A coroner said at the inquest that while it appeared unlikely that British spy agencies played a role in the coder’s death, it was still a “legitimate line of inquiry” for the investigation.

Investigators found no fingerprints or other any other evidence indicating someone had been with Williams the night he died, or that anyone beyond his family had ever been in his apartment. Investigators said at the inquest that small traces of incomplete DNA had been found on the tiny padlock that had been used to closed the bag in which Williams’ body was stuffed. The only other DNA evidence found in the apartment that didn’t belong to Williams or his family was found on a green hand towel in the kitchen.

Authorities plan to take DNA evidence from 50 colleagues who worked with Williams at MI6 to determine if there is a match.

Daily Mail : 50 agents face DNA tests over spy-in-the-bag killing as coroner brands death 'unlawful' and puts MI6 in the frame

50 agents face DNA tests over spy-in-the-bag killing as coroner brands death 'unlawful' and puts MI6 in the frame

* 15 colleagues of Gareth Williams have already given DNA evidence
* Coroner: 'It is unlikely the spy's death will ever be satisfactorily explained'
* Dr Fiona Wilcox says lack of compelling evidence removes possibility of unlawful killing verdict but says it is probable his death was 'illegal'
* 'It would appear that many agencies fell short' during the investigation
* Coroner: British Secret Service's involvement 'still a legitimate line of inquiry'
* MI6 chief apologises 'unreservedly' to Mr Williams' family over the way the police inquiry was hampered by his colleagues
* Family pay emotional tribute to their 'special and adored son and brother' and blast MI6's 'reluctance and failure' in helping detectives

By Stephen Wright and Chris Greenwood | May 3, 2012

Police are taking DNA samples from up to 50 colleagues of body-in-the-bag spy Gareth Williams.

Officers strongly suspect a member of the security services, working for either MI6 or GCHQ, was in the 31-year-old's flat on the night he died.

Fifteen of his colleagues have already given their DNA to police and officers plan to take swabs from dozens more.

Investigators hope detailed analysis of a scruffy green hand-towel recovered from a shelf in his kitchen could soon result in a forensic breakthrough.

Details of the extraordinary DNA sweep emerged as a coroner ruled that Mr Williams, whose naked body was found in a locked red North Face bag in the bath of his central London apartment, was probably 'unlawfully killed'.

In a dramatic narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox told Westminster coroner's court it was a 'legitimate line of inquiry' that the codebreaker was killed by a colleague, as he would only have let someone he trusted into his home.

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

Dr Wilcox said serious questions remain over an iPhone of Mr Williams's that was mysteriously wiped of all data just hours before he died in August 2010.

She added that the forgetfulness of some employees at MI6, where Mr Williams had been on secondment from GCHQ, the Government's listening post, 'stretched probability'.

She refused to rule out that a colleague in the shadowy world of intelligence was involved.

Yesterday Mr Williams's family accused MI6 of withholding vital clues and failing to make 'basic inquiries' into his whereabouts until a week after his disappearance.

And they called on the head of Scotland Yard, Bernard Hogan-Howe, to review the 21-month investigation personally.

Mr Williams's sister Ceri and their parents Ian and Ellen attacked the 'total inadequacies' of the inquiry.

In a statement released by their lawyer, they said: 'Our grief is exacerbated by the failure of his employers at MI6 to make even the most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare that any reasonable employer would have taken.

'We are also extremely disappointed over the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information.'

Last night Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, apologised 'unreservedly' for the failure of Mr Williams's colleagues to raise the alarm promptly, which meant the body was left to decompose for a week in the sweltering top-floor flat in Pimlico.

Mr Williams was a maths prodigy who graduated with first-class honours in computer science aged 17 and completed a PhD four years later. As well as being a cycling fanatic and successful fell runner, he had a wide-ranging passion for the arts and high-end fashion.

He also hoarded a £20,000 collection of designer women's clothing, browsed fetish websites and filmed himself dancing naked except for a pair of cowboy boots.

But in a painstaking two-hour examination of the evidence, Dr Wilcox rejected theories that the reclusive prodigy's eccentric private life had any link to his death.

She also said he probably did not die in a solo sex game that went catastrophically wrong, because he was not a risk-taker.

Dr Wilcox said she was 'sure that a third party placed the bag into the bath and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag'.

She told Mr Williams's family that she hoped the inquest would give them some comfort, adding that 'it would appear that many agencies fell short' during the investigation into his death, leaving 'most of the fundamental questions unanswered'.

Dr Wilcox concluded Mr Williams was alive when he got into the North Face holdall where his body was found.

She said she was certain someone else put it in the bath of his windowless ensuite bathroom, probably to contain bodily fluids, before closing the door behind them.

The coroner said the spy would have died quickly, either from hypercapnia, the fatal accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood, or from a mystery poison.

A range of poisons, including cyanide, insulin, chloroform and amyl nitrate could not be detected if they were used because of the advanced state of decomposition.

Detectives were last night already preparing to interview and take DNA samples from dozens of staff at MI6's London headquarters and GCHQ in Cheltenham.

Officers said human traces have been found on the hand towel recovered from Mr Williams's kitchen and the 'very promising' results of highly sensitive DNA testing could be ready within weeks.

After the inquest, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said there were several 'new lines of inquiry'.

She said: 'It is highly likely that a third party was involved in Gareth's death and I urge anyone who had contact with him to search their conscience and come forward.'

Last night Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt announced an urgent review of the new evidence and police blunders as a result of the inquest.

33 KDAF : Coroner Mystified by Death of Spy Found Naked in Bag

Coroner Mystified by Death of Spy Found Naked in Bag

CNN | May 2, 2012

London -- It is unlikely that the death of a British spy found at his home in 2010 -- his naked body padlocked inside a large red carrying bag stowed in the bathtub -- will ever be satisfactorily explained, coroner Fiona Wilcox said Wednesday.

Gareth Williams, an MI6 agent known for his mathematical genius and codebreaking talent, was found dead in August 2010.

Following an official investigation by the coroner's office, the "most fundamental questions as to how Gareth died remain unanswered," Wilcox said, adding that there was "endless speculation but little real evidence."

There was a key to the bag in which he was found inside it with him, and there were others in his apartment, Wilcox said.

There was no sign of a break-in or robbery in his neat, tidy apartment, she said Wednesday. She described his body as "peaceful" and said there was no indication of a struggle.

British media have reported that Williams' Internet history showed an interest in sex games and bondage. But DNA traces suggest other people may have been in his apartment.

The coroner's inquest into his death heard that Williams was not reported missing for more than a week, despite the sensitive nature of his work, meaning many vital clues were lost to decomposition.

UK media have reported about the 31-year-old's apparent interest in bondage and claustrophilia, a fetish for enclosure in very confined spaces.

Reports about the "body-in-a-bag spy" describe how two experts spent days trying to figure out whether Williams, who was athletic and of medium height, could have contorted himself in such as way as to lock himself into the North Face holdall bag, with a key to the padlock inside.

Video provided to the court shows one of them, Peter Faulding, folding himself laboriously into an identical bag, measuring just 32 inches by 19 inches (81 by 48 centimeters), placed in a bathtub.

Faulding, who specializes in rescuing people from confined spaces, told the inquest that he had tried to lock himself into the bag 300 times without success, according to the Press Association news agency. A second expert witness, also of a size and build similar to Williams, tried 100 times to re-enact the feat without succeeding.

But neither ruled out definitively the possibility that Williams could have somehow done it alone. A small trace of someone else's DNA was found on the bag, helping spawn all kinds of theories -- that he was perhaps drugged by a foreign spy who then locked him in the bag, or was the victim of a kinky sexual liaison gone wrong.

The detail that the closets in Williams' central London flat contained thousands of dollars' worth of designer women's clothing and shoes, some of which had been worn, as well as women's wigs and cosmetics, added fuel to the fire of speculation.

Another revelation came from a former landlord and landlady, who told how they had once found Williams tied by his wrists to the headboard of his bed, after he shouted for help.

Williams said he had wanted to see if he could get free, landlady Jennifer Elliot told the court, but she and her husband "thought it was more likely to be sexual than escapology," according to the Press Association.

Williams was recruited into the intelligence services straight from university, working with Government Communications Headquarters before MI6. The nature of his work and questions around why his spy agency bosses took so long to raise an alert about his absence have added to the intrigue surrounding his death.

In a courtroom scene reminiscent of a spy thriller, his boss testified from behind a screen and was identified only as SIS F -- the Secret Intelligence Service being the official name for MI6.

She apologized to Williams' family for the service's failure to act sooner, but said his lifestyle choices were not a concern for the agency, suggesting it has moved on from the rigid mores of past decades, when closet homosexuality or illicit affairs opened up possibilities for blackmail.

"There is no set template for what their lifestyle should be," SIS F said of today's intelligence agents, according to the Press Association. "Individuals have lifestyle and sexual choices and sexual preferences which are perfectly legitimate."

She acknowledged that Williams had made a number of unauthorized computer searches at work but played down the significance of this fact, the agency said.

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

A transcript of the call to police said that Williams was last spoken to on Friday, August 13, and that calls to his home number and cell phone had gone unanswered. His sister had also been unable to reach him.

The caller mentioned that Williams had "recently been pulled off of a job" and said it was unclear if he might have "taken this badly."

The family's lawyer accused MI6 of showing "total disregard for Gareth's whereabouts and safety" before he was found dead at his government-provided home, the Press Association reported.

Concerns over national security have been a factor in the 20-month delay in holding Williams' inquest, and an agency more used to working in the shadows has had an uncomfortably bright light shone into its practices.

As well as adding to his family's distress, the initial delay in reporting Williams' death means forensic specialists simply cannot answer many of the most pressing questions.

Testing did not give conclusive results because the body had decomposed significantly after nine days in the summer heat of his top-floor apartment, toxicology reports posted online say.

Traces of alcohol and a chemical matching the party drug GHB were found, but both can occur naturally as part of the decomposition process, one document says. Williams was teetotal, so "even a small amount of alcohol could affect cognitive capacity," it notes.

A series of photographs provided by the Metropolitan Police show the tidy, impersonal interior of the spy's Pimlico home and the small, white-tiled bathroom where his body was found.

A bicycle parked in the hallway is a clue to Williams' more regular passion, cycling. A glimpse through the bedroom door shows a bed half-made, clothes lying on it. But little else can be gleaned from the images.

Media reports have homed in on expert testimony that despite Williams' solitary lifestyle, tiny traces of DNA from "at least two" other people were found in his apartment.

But who those visitors were and whether they hold the clue to the riddle of the agent's mysterious death are yet more questions that remain unanswered.

Williams' family, with whom he was close, denies that he was gay or had a secret, unorthodox sex life.

They believe someone else was there either when Williams died or afterward, their lawyer, Anthony O'Toole, told a hearing held before the inquest began, and they suspect some degree of expert cover-up was involved.

"The impression of the family is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services -- or evidence has been removed post-mortem by experts in the dark arts," O'Toole said, according to the Press Association.

Telegraph : The death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'criminally mediated'

The death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams was 'criminally mediated'

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was unlawfully killed by a third party “on the balance of probabilities” a coroner ruled today.

By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 2, 2012

In a sensational narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox said a third party was involved in his death and that is was likely to have been “criminally mediated”.

The coroner had earlier ruled that because of the lack of evidence she could not return a formal verdict of unlawful killing.

But in her narrative she concluded that he was most probably killed.

She said: “I am satisfied so that I am sure that a third party placed the bag (which contained Gareth) in to the bath and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag.

“The cause of death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.

“I am therefore satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully.”

Mr Williams’ naked, decomposing body was discovered in a sports hold all in the bath at his Pimlico flat in London on August 23, 2010.

Dr Wilcox said it was "highly unlikely" that his mysterious death was connected to bondage activities and that he could have died from the effects of "some unknown poison".

"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 or from the effects of some unknown poison."

She acknowledged that Mr Williams, who was found naked in a padlocked bag, had demonstrated a passing sexual interest in bondage, but she did not believe it had been a factor in his death.

Fundamental questions surrounding the death remain unanswered and his "highly unusual" death may never be explained. she said.

She said there had been “endless speculation but little evidence”.

The coroner, sitting at Westminster Coroner’s Court, said the circumstances of the death “immediately raised the possibility of foul play”.

Summing up, Dr Wilcox said despite a two year police investigation and seven days of evidence “most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered”.

“It is unlikely this death will ever be satisfactorily explained.”

The body of Mr Williams, 31, was discovered in a sports holdall in the bath at his Pimlico flat in London on August 23, 2010.

Police have never been able to solve the case but are certain a third party was involved.

Pathologists and confined spaces experts have also concluded that the spy was probably alive when he went in to the bag and died shortly after.

Dr Wilcox said IT experts who examined his computer history found he had only visited bondage websites on four separate dates.

She said there was also no evidence that he had researched claustrophilia – where people gain sexual gratification from being in enclosed spaces.

Dr Wilcox said the amount of internet activity regarding bondage formed a "tiny, tiny, tiny" part of his browser history.

Explaining her reasons for ruling out the involvement of bondage in his death she said in order for Mr Williams to have got into the bag in the bath alone and unaided, he would have left foot and fingerprints around the bath.

Dr Wilcox said she believed if Mr Williams had got into the bath alone he would have taken a knife with him as he was a "scrupulous risk assessor".

In addition she said there was no evidence of semen found in the bag during forensic examination.

Dr Wilcox also said she did not believe the large collection of female clothing pointed to the suggestion he was a transvestite.

Dr Wilcox said £20,000 collection of haute couture clothes were too small for Mr Williams to have worn and were also in their original wrapping. She suggested it was more likely that he had bought the clothes, which included 26 pairs of shoes and boots, as presents.

The hearing was told all three lawyers, representing the family, Met Police and MI6, were agreed that there was insufficient evidence to allow a verdict of unlawful killing.

Dr Wilcox agreed and added that an open verdict “would not do justice to the positive findings that I can make”.

At the conclusion of the inquest, the chief of SIS, Sir John Sawers apologised to Mr Williams' family for the mix-up which saw MI6 fail to report his disappearance for a week.

In a statement delivered by MI6 lawyer Andrew O'Connor, Sir John said the service should have acted more swiftly when Mr Williams failed to turn up to work in August 2010.

Mr O'Connor said: "On behalf of the whole organisation, Sir John regrets this deeply and apologises unreservedly."

He said "lessons have been learned, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences".

Sir John paid tribute to the spy, saying in the statement: "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."

Mr Williams' family hit out at the failures of MI6 to raise the alarm after the spy went missing, saying their "grief is exacerbated" by it.

In a statement read out by their solicitor after the inquest into his death concluded, they said they were "extremely disappointed" at the secret services' "reluctance and failure" to make relevant information available to the death inquiry.

They also attacked the "total inadequacies" of the inquiry by Metropolitan Police counter-terror branch SO15 into MI6 and called on Scotland Yard's chief to look into how the investigation would proceed in light of this.

The Williams family has waited 21 months to find out how he died and whether someone else was involved. They were moved to tears in court as police, scientists and secret agents all said investigations had drawn a blank.

Jackie Sebire, the lead detective on the case, said Scotland Yard will review lines of inquiry in its investigation in the wake of the inquest.

Added attention could turn on the expert mathematician's colleagues, she indicated.

Police have no suspects in their inquiry but Ms Sebire says she remains convinced Mr Williams' death was suspicious.

USA Today : Coroner: U.K. spy found in sports bag likely killed

Coroner: U.K. spy found in sports bag likely killed

May 2, 2012

LONDON (AP) – A coroner said Wednesday a British spy whose naked body was found inside a locked sports bag was likely killed in a criminal act, but acknowledged the riddle of how he met his mysterious death may never be solved.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the demise of code breaker Gareth Williams, 31, would "ever be satisfactorily explained," despite a 21-month police inquiry, and seven days of expert evidence to an inquest hearing.

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

Wilcox said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act" and acknowledged it was possible that an intelligence agency colleague may have been involved.

It is "likely that Gareth entered the bag alive and then died very soon afterwards," the coroner said as Williams' family listened to her verdict inside Westminster Coroner's Court.

The coroner moved to dispel wild theories that have swirled around the case — insisting there was no evidence of a sexual encounter gone wrong, of suicidal intent, or that Williams' death was linked to a supposed interest in bondage.

She said there was no evidence that the death was tied to work, amid speculation the spy could have been the target of Russian criminal gangs or an al-Qaeda extremist.

Wilcox said it appeared "extremely unlikely" that Williams could have climbed inside the sports bag and locked it himself. Two different specialists attempted to recreate the feat hundreds of times without success.

Given testimony that described Williams as deeply private — shunning his colleagues outside of work — and wary of strangers as a result of his secret work, she said a potential killer must have been a friend, or entered his home uninvited.

Williams was discovered in the fetal position inside the bag, his arms calmly folded across his chest and with two keys to the bag's padlock underneath his buttocks.

Pathologists told the inquest that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but acknowledged they can't be certain because his cadaver badly decomposed as it lay undiscovered for several days.

Wilcox said that while there wasn't evidence to support a specific verdict of unlawful killing — which would need a high burden of proof — it was her opinion that the spy was probably unlawfully killed.

She said that while it appeared unlikely, it continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry" that British intelligence agencies may have had a role.

MI6 colleagues failed to report Williams as missing for a week, meaning that police and medical experts lost vital chances to gather evidence. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire also told the inquest that British spy services had failed to pass on evidence in the case until this week: nine computer memory sticks that had been found at Williams' workplace.

John Sawers, the head of MI6, said in a statement released following the verdict that he apologized "unreservedly" to the Williams family for the spy agency's failure.

Police are uncertain exactly how Williams died and have so far made no arrests, though their investigation into the spy's death remains active.

Family lawyer Anthony O'Toole has previously said Williams' relatives suspect "the dark arts of the secret services" may have been behind a cover up of the true circumstances of his death.

Wilcox dismissed claims that a fetish for sadomasochism or transvestitism may have been behind Williams' death. There was no evidence the spy was interested in any such thing, Wilcox concluded. She added that she believed rumors may have been stoked by a "third party to manipulate the evidence," without elaborating.

Wilcox delivered a so-called "narrative verdict" — a lengthy but inconclusive ruling which is available when there isn't clear evidence of natural causes, suicide or enough proof of unlawful killing.

In Britain, a corner's task is to outline the circumstances of how and when a person died — rather than apportion blame, or recommend criminal charges.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Wilkes Barre (PA) Times-Leader : Coroner: UK spy found in sports bag likely killed

Coroner: UK spy found in sports bag likely killed

AP | May 2, 2012

LONDON (AP) — A coroner says a British spy whose naked body was found inside a locked sports bag was likely killed in a criminal act, but acknowledged the riddle of how he met his mysterious death may never be solved.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said Wednesday it was unlikely that the demise of codebreaker Gareth Williams, 31, would “ever be satisfactorily explained,” despite a 21-month police inquiry, and seven days of expert evidence to an inquest hearing.

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

Wilcox said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a “criminally meditated act.”

Fremont Tribune : Coroner: UK spy found in sports bag likely killed

Coroner: UK spy found in sports bag likely killed

Associated Press | May 2, 2012

A coroner says a British spy whose naked body was found inside a locked sports bag was likely killed in a criminal act, but acknowledged the riddle of how he met his mysterious death may never be solved.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said Wednesday it was unlikely that the demise of codebreaker Gareth Williams, 31, would "ever be satisfactorily explained," despite a 21-month police inquiry, and seven days of expert evidence to an inquest hearing.

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

Wilcox said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act."

---

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

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LONDON (AP) _ A coroner acknowledged Wednesday that the puzzling death of a British spy whose naked body was found inside a locked sports bag may never be solved.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said it was unlikely that the demise of Gareth Williams, 31, would "ever be satisfactorily explained," despite a 21-month police inquiry, and her own weeklong series of inquest hearings.

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

Wilcox said "most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered," despite the efforts of detectives, Britain's intelligence agencies and the spy's family. She told Williams' relatives, who were at Westminster Coroner's Court to hear the verdict, that evidence presented during the inquest hearing wasn't sufficient to support a verdict of unlawful killing which they had sought.

However, Wilcox said that while it appeared unlikely, it continued to be a "legitimate line of inquiry" that British intelligence agencies may have been involved.

Family lawyer Anthony O'Toole has previously said Williams' relatives insist his secret work must be connected to his death. They suspect "the dark arts of the secret services," may be behind a cover up, O'Toole said.

Wilcox delivered a so-called "narrative verdict" _ a lengthy but inconclusive ruling which is available when there isn't clear evidence of natural causes, suicide or unlawful killing.

In Britain, a coroner's task is to outline the circumstances of how and when a person died _ rather than apportion blame, or recommend criminal charges.

Police confirmed Wednesday that an investigation into the spy's death remains active.

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

Experts told the hearing that it appeared almost impossible that Williams could have climbed inside the sports bag and then locked it himself.

Police have indicated Williams' death may have had links to his private life and an apparent interest in sadomasochism _ possibly during a sexual encounter gone awry. The hearing was told Williams previously had to call for help after he tied himself to his bed and couldn't escape.

His relatives, however, insist his demise must be related to his work and suspect foul play.

Pathologists told the hearing that poisoning or asphyxiation may have killed Williams, but acknowledged they can't be certain of the exact cause because his cadaver badly decomposed as it lay undiscovered for several days.

MI6 colleagues failed to report Williams as missing for a week _ believing he may be on a secret assignment which they were unaware of _ meaning that police and medical experts lost vital chances to gather evidence.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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.

Sky : Spy Death: Unlawful Killing Verdict Ruled Out

Spy Death: Unlawful Killing Verdict Ruled Out

Mark Stone, Sky reporter | May 2, 2012

A coroner investigating the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams has said there is insufficient evidence to consider a verdict of unlawful killing.

Dr Fiona Wilcox said a narrative verdict was the most appropriate option available to her as an open verdict "would not do justice" to her findings.

Mr Williams' body was found curled up naked in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, in August 2010.

Dr Wilcox, who has spent seven days listening to evidence from 39 witnesses, is due to deliver her verdict later today over his mysterious death.

A narrative verdict is an option open to a coroner when other verdict options do not fit the case. It is a short factual statement outlining the facts.

It does leave open the option to include any failures by any party relevant to the circumstances of a death.

The lawyer for Mr Williams' family, Anthony O'Toole, believes that in the balance of probability, to use his words, the codebreaker's death was unlawful killing.

However, he accepts there is perhaps insufficient evidence to come categorically to that conclusion.

The very fact that Mr Williams' body was found locked in a bag would lead some to believe that perhaps there was a third party involved.

Indeed, the police have said all along that it is their belief that a third party was involved.

Dr Wilcox has questioned all of those who appeared in person and listened as lawyers for Mr Williams' family, as well as lawyers representing both the Metropolitan Police and MI6 cross-examined the witnesses.

Evidence included some surprising revelations, including the disclosure that MI6 had failed to pass over some of Mr Williams' belongings from his office at MI6.

The officer in charge of the investigation into his death only found out about the existence of some of the items on Tuesday.

"Had I known about their existence, I would have expected them to be disclosed and any relevant information to be sent to my team. I would have expected to have been told," DCI Jackie Sebire told the court.

A senior Metropolitan Police officer also admitted that he had relied on MI6 to decide which of Mr Williams' belongings was relevent to the investigation into the death.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster said that he trusted MI6 to give him all the information he needed.

Responding to that admission, the coroner said: "Shouldn't the investigators be examining the items, not the people providing them?

"I would suggest that you are not being an impartial investigator in this case. An impartial investigator would have seized the items themselves."

Mr O'Toole put it more directly to Supt Broster.

"If the person who killed Gareth was a member of the Secret Intelligence Service, you did nothing to investigate because you believed that the organisation was trustworthy?"

The wide range of witnesses in this inquest began with Mr Williams' sister Ceri Subbe who talked fondly of her brother.

She described him as "a country boy" who had expressed frustration with his secondment from GCHQ in Gloucestershire to MI6 in London.

Friends of Mr Williams also gave evidence. Among them was Sian Jones, a fashion consultant.

"We were childhood sweethearts and I would just say we were very, very close," she told the court last week.

She, and other witnesses were asked how they could explain the fact that £20,000 of women's clothes and shoes were found in the flat where Mr Williams' body was discovered.

Ms Jones and Ms Subbe both told the inquest that Mr Williams was a very generous man and that the clothes were likely to be gifts. Ms Jones said he had frequently bought her clothes and handbags.

"He was a truly generous person. It wouldn't surprise me if they were gifts," she said.

His family listened as other uncomfortable details about his private life were discussed. He had visited bondage websites, the court was told, but only on four occasions in two years.

The inquest was also told he had once tied himself to a bed and had to rely on his landlord to free him.

Mr Williams' professional life was examined in minute detail as well. He was described as a brilliant man, highly intelligent and part of a team whose "Herculean efforts" in cryptology had won departmental awards at GCHQ.

Staff at MI6 gave evidence anonymously from behind a screen. They were pressed on why it took them eight days to report Mr Williams missing.

One MI6 officer, identified only as witness G said he first thought Mr Williams was stuck on a train, then thought perhaps there had been a mix up with holiday.

"In hindsight, knowing what I know now, should I have taken action? Absolutely," witness G said.

Another witness, SIS-F, apologised for Witness G's lack of action.

"SIS are profoundly sorry about what happened. It shouldn't have happened. We recognise the delay (of a week) in finding Gareth's body has made it harder to come to terms with his death," SIS-F said.

The delay in reporting him missing made the pathologists work very hard, the court heard. When Mr Williams' body was eventually discovered it was badly decomposed.

The three post-mortem examinations could not establish the cause of death. Three pathologists told the inquest that the decomposition hindered their work.

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.

The police officer in charge of the investigation said at the start of the inquest that she believed the crux of the case surrounded the bag Mr Williams was found in.

The police still do not know how Mr Williams came to be in that bag. If he was alone, they do not know how he locked it from the outside.

If he was not alone, then who else was there and what motive did they have for killing him?

The police investigation had drawn a succession of blanks.

New evidence heard in this inquest for the first time might help them draw new leads in the coming months.

The police have repeatedly said there is still a chance of the breakthrough they need.

Channel 4 : Spy inquest ends with more questions than answers

Spy inquest ends with more questions than answers

May 2, 2012

The coroner in the inquest of Gareth Williams says we may never know how the MI6 codebreaker whose body was found in a locked holdall met his end.

The mysterious death of MI6 agent Gareth Williams may never be be "satisfactorily explained", an inquest has concluded.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said "most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered" despite a multimillion-pound police investigation.

The 31-year-old's decomposing naked body was discovered padlocked inside a large North Face bag in the bath in his flat in Pimlico, central London on August 23, 2010.

Mr Williams, from Anglesey, North Wales, was working for the foreign intelligence service MI6 as a codebreaker at the time of his death, after being seconded from the the GCHQ eavesdropping station.

Colleagues had failed to raise the alarm when he failed to turn up to work a week earlier.

Dr Wilcox said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Mr Williams's death as she criticised "shortfalls" by MI6 in passing on evidence to police.

But she said "there was no evidence to support that he died at the hands of" spies.

The coroner said she was "satisfied so that I'm sure that a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath" and said it was "highly unlikely" that Mr Williams got inside his red North Face holdall alone.

She added: "If Gareth had been carrying out some kind of peculiar experiment, he wouldn't care if he left any foot or fingerprints."

Dr Wilcox recorded a narrative verdict, saying the evidence did not prove "beyond all reasonable doubt" that the spy had been killed by a third party - the standard of proof necessary for a verdict of unlawful killing.

But she told the court: "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully."

Family's grief 'exacerbated' by MI6 failures

Mr Williams's family said in a statement: "To lose a son and a brother at any time is a tragedy. 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."