Notes From The Borderland : Gareth Williams Timeline

TIMELINE/THE KNOWN FACTS [scroll down]

By Larry O'Hara | June 26, 2012

Some facts below are contested, and others will in time become so. Nonetheless, a basic outline is essential for serious analysis.

2010

March/April: Williams reportedly told both MI6 and GCHQ that he was being followed by two (white) men in their 40s, but was apparently not believed .

May: 'unconfirmed' (and disputed) sighting of Williams at Bar-Code gay bar, Vauxhall (near MI6 HQ)

June-July: Williams has dealings with two couples, who may (or may not) be one and the same

Couple 1, of Caucasian appearance, had brief words with him between four and six times a week in the Patisserie Valerie coffee-shop & similar locations near Holland Park Tube Station .

Couple 2, of Mediterranean appearance, visited his home on one occasion at least, and did not use the intercom system to gain entry to the flat itself: perhaps indicating they had a key .

11th August: returns from a holiday in the USA using Washington's Foster Dulles airport, reportedly spoke to his sister Ceri on the phone the same day . Also visited Patisserie Valerie .

13th August: went & returned alone from watching drag cabaret artiste Jimmy Woo at the Bistrotheque gay club Bethnal Green East London .

14th August: CCTV captures him entering Holland Park Station, wearing cream trousers, red shirt & carrying a white plastic bag at 2.59pm. According to Sian Lloyd-Jones, he rang her that day, and this is the last time she actually spoke to him .

15th August: images show him shopping at Harrods and nearby in Brompton Road SW7, at 2.30pm. Wearing the same clothes--giving the impression he may have stayed out overnight .

18th August: in one account attributed to Ceri, the last day he was known to be alive--they spoke by phone . Another version says, rather, she tried but was unable to contact him. To complicate matters further, it has been reported that Williams failed to attend a meeting at MI6 that day . If both things (contact with his sister/failing to attend Vauxhall Cross) are true, a day of great significance.

23rd August: c.4.40pm, Williams’ body found by two police officers, in the predominant account alerted by MI6 about non-attendance at work that day. The lesser known version is that Ceri alerting the police (and also MI6) led to them visiting. According to Lloyd-Jones, Ceri called her at 11am that day, worried she had got no answer from Gareth over the weekend . Both versions can be reconciled, but it is nonetheless still unclear as to whether the initiative to formally act on Williams missing came from MI6 themselves or they were prompted by Ceri. As will be seen later such 'cognitive dissonance' is of great importance in this case. Thus began the ongoing police investigation ‘Operation Finlayson’.

24th August: Welsh police call at the home of Gareth Williams' parents (who were on holiday) to inform them .

25th August: first inconclusive post mortem carried out by Dr Ben Swift .

26th August: family formally identify mortal remains .

1st September: inquest opened & adjourned

3rd September: the date on which Williams had been due to return to GCHQ (& possible promotion)

6th September: Met Police release selected CCTV images of Williams' movements, and appeal for a mysterious "Mediterranean couple" to come forward.

8th September: inquest re-opened, and then re-adjourned, pending further autopsy (a second had been performed by this time) and information.

26th September: memorial service held at Bethel chapel in Holyhead, attended by family members and Sir John Sawers (MI6 Chief)

28th October: third and to date final post-mortem, by Dr Dick Shepherd, again inconclusive as to cause of death. Police repeat appeal for information on the elusive 'Mediterranean couple'

29th October: start of a slew of stories linking Williams' death to claustrophilia/bondage/sado-masochism in the media.

22nd December: Met Police release highly distinctive e-fits of the elusive 'Mediterranean couple' and publicise Williams' visit to a gay club, browsing bondage web sites & so forth. Police admit he could not have climbed into the bag and locked it without help, and assert that he was therefore not alone in the flat.

26th December: interview given by Sian Lloyd-Jones to the Mail on Sunday puts the cat among the media/spook pigeons.

2011

15th February: coroner Paul Knapman re-opens & adjourns the inquest, delayed again for further toxicological tests.

31st March: the date Knapman gave for a resumption of proceedings, came & went. As did he--retired, replaced by the experienced Dr Fiona Wilcox, who took up her new post before noon on April 1st.

5th April: exemplary 'Week in Week Out' documentary on the Williams case screened in Wales, greeted with deafening silence elsewhere.

25th June/13th August: Daily Mail claim inquest will resume in September (it didn’t)

23rd August Met Police tell BBC Wales this is “still an active investigation”

2012

30th March: pre-inquest review begins, full inquest scheduled to follow three weeks later. Series of claims made by family (they suspect murder by practitioners of ‘dark arts’) and police: the Mediterranean couple no longer important, one DNA trace on body now stated to be from a forensic scientist involved in the investigation.

23rd April: inquest resumes [fuller chronology to follow].

1st May: Fiona Wilcox tells Detective Superintendent Michael Broster he was biased towards MI6, due to keeping evidence from Sebire.

2nd May: Dr Wilcox delivers a narrative verdict stating this was an “unnatural death…mediated by criminality”, and that on the balance of probability Gareth was “unlawfully killed”. Very brave, in the circumstances. Sebire, meanwhile, is “actively pursuing new leads”.

Telegraph : Gareth Williams timeline: how the mystery of the 'spy in the bag' unfolded

Gareth Williams timeline: how the mystery of the 'spy in the bag' unfolded

How the Daily Telegraph covered the mysterious case of Gareth Williams, the MI6 worker found dead in a sports bag.

By Daily Telegraph reporters | April 25, 2012

[see original for links]

25 August 2010: A GCHQ worker in his 30s is found dead in a large sports bag in his bath. He was on secondment to MI6, police believe. His mobile telephone and sim cards had been carefully laid out on a table. He had been there sometime and his body had decomposed.

26 August 2010: The dead man is named as Gareth Williams. Police believe he may have been killed by a "jealous lover" but they do not rule out the possibility his death was linked to his intelligence work. There were no signs of forced entry and a post mortem is inconclusive. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is given updates on the probe as part of scheduled intelligence briefings. His parents, Ellen and Ian, return from holiday to identify their son.

27 August 2010: Friends say Williams was "one of life's innocents" who could have fallen in with "unsafe" company as details emerge about his brilliant mathematical abilities. Geraint Williams, a maths teachers at Bodedern Secondary School, said the "exceptional" pupil had "the best brain I have ever seen". Friends disclosed that Mr Williams travelled to the United States at least three times a year for up to a month at a time, throughout his time working for GCHQ. It is believed he was working with the National Security Agency, the national listening station near Baltimore, as well as possibly the CIA and FBI in Washington. He was working for MI6 at the time of his death. Philip Johnston profiles GCHQ, the British evesdropping agency.

28 August 2010 Williams' family attacks "completely false" smears about his private life. It is reoported that the spy was gay or even a transvestite, and that bondage equipment had been found in his flat.

29 August 2010 Williams was recruited by GCHQ scouts while studying at Cambridge University, it emerges. He worked at the Super Computer Centre, developing techniques to speed up data encryption, before taking postings at RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire and the US NSA's Fort Meade base. He was due to start work at GCHQ's Cyber Security Operations Centre after his posting at MI6 came to an end.

30 August 2010 Murder detectives tell the Daily Telegraph Williams may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to stop his code-breaking work. They say Williams returned from a foreign trip on August 11 and was last seen alive on August 15 - eight days before his body was discovered. Sources close to the inquiry said they are looking at the possibility that his body was manhandled into the bag in order to remove it from the premises. A pathologist remains unsure how Williams died. His family pay tribute to a "generous, loving, son, brother and friend".

2 September 2010 A coroner reveals Mr Williams was padlocked into the sportsbag when he was found dead.

6 September 2010 Police suspect Mr Williams was poisoned - and launch a hunt for a Mediterranean-looking couple who visited the Pimlico safehouse before he died. CCTV footage shows the spy shopping in the West End wearing a red t-shirt and beige trousers.

12 September 2010 Mr Williams was working on systems to defend the banks of the City of London from foreign attack at the time of his death, the Sunday Telegraph learns. One theory being examined is that Mr Williams may have had an approach from a rival agency, and either rebuffed it without informing his superiors or initially agreed to cooperate then got cold feet. If such an approach had been exposed there would have been severe political and diplomatic repercussions, making it expedient for Mr Williams to be killed.

20 September 2010 Police now believe Mr Williams' death was linked to an unusual sex game. Officers have ruled out almost every other possibility. They have come to the view that Gareth Williams probably died after climbing into the bag which was then locked by another person. Detectives believe he was probably indulging in a sadomasochistic game in which he got a thrill from being helpless. It is likely that once locked and left in the bag, he died from a combination of causes including suffocation and dehydration, which sources said can be hard to identify in a post-mortem inquiry.

24 September 2010 Mr Williams is buried at Holyhead, Anglesey. Sir John Sawers, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, tells mourners: "Gareth was a hugely talented person and very modest as well. He did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security." Other MI6 and GCHQ staff enter the church through a back door to protect their identities.

29 October 2010 Tests on Mr Williams' body found no trace of drugs, alcohol or poison - reinforcing the sex game theory.

22 December The keys to the padlock were found inside Mr Williams' North Face holdall, under his naked body, it emerges.

23 December 2010 Mr Williams had visited bondage websites, gay bars and drag clubs in the weeks before his death, police reveal. He also maintained a £15,000 collection of women's clothes by designers including Stella McCartney and Christian Louboutin. They were in sizes that would have fitted the 5ft 8ins spy. Unknown to his family and colleagues, Mr Williams had attended two short courses in fashion design at the Central St Martin's College of Art and Design in London during evenings and weekends, one in 2010 and one in 2009.

27 December 2010 Mr Williams had intended to give the clothes away as gifts, Sian Lloyd-Jones, a childhood friend says. "I truly believe that Ceri and I were going to receive the clothing. He was so generous you wouldn't believe," she said. She reveals Mr Williams was training to take on a new identity and had a second passport.

16 December 2010 The inquest into Mr Williams death is adjourned again to allow more tests. Dr Paul Knapman says the case has made little progress, the 'Mediterrean' couple have not been traced and a break-through looks unlikely.

31 March 2012 An interim hearing before a full inquest takes place. A lawyer representing Mr Williams' family says he could have been killed by someone who specialised in the "dark arts of the secret services". The MI6 worker had recently qualified for "operational deployment". Finger prints and DNA evidence was wiped from the scene of the crime in a cover-up, the family believe. It emerges that DNA found on Mr Williams' hand, which officers believed could lead them to his killer, belonged to one of the police forensics worker. The code for the sample had been incorrectly logged by LGC, the forensics company.

3 April 2012 Scotland Yard apologises for "administrative errors'' during its probe. The force said it was responsible for giving a coroner three names for the same witness. Elizabeth Guthrie is expected to be questioned about her contact with Mr Williams in the months before his death. The coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, told a pre–inquest review last week that ''there has been some confusion'' over her identity.

21 April 2012 Ahead of the inquest, Mr Williams' family says their emotions remain "very raw". His aunt, Judith Thomas, says: "We could fill newspapers with words to describe Gareth. You couldn't find enough paper in this world to say how we feel about him."

22 April 2012 Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, met Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, hours after Gareth Williams' body was discovered. MI6 feared detectives would extend their probe into sensitive areas, including the nature of Mr Williams' work.

23 April 2012 The inquest continues. Mr Williams' sister, Ceri Subbe, tells Dr Fiona Wilcox that her brother did not enjoy the "flash car competition and post-war drinking culture" of MI6, and had applied to return to Cheltenham but MI6 were slow in approving his request.

24 April 2012 Fragments of another person's DNA were discovered on the outside of the bag in which Gareth Williams was found, the inquest heard. The traces were discovered on the toggle attached to the zip and the padlock used to lock the bag, it was revealed. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who led the police investigation into Mr Williams’ death, told the inquest: “My thought or opinion since I went into the scene is that a third party had been involved in the death or in putting the bag in the bath.”

The inquest also heard that MI6 held an internal investigation into Mr Williams' death. Andrew O’Connor, the lawyer for the Secret Intelligence Service, told coroner Fiona Wilcox that MI6 had carried out its own internal review. He said: “The fruits of that internal investigation were shared with the police at the time.” Dr Wilcox replied that she had not seen the results of the inquiries and asked for any report that had been produced to be submitted to the inquest.

25 April 2012 Mr Williams was once discovered tied to his bed posts wearing only boxer shorts. The maths prodigy was living alone in Cheltenham at the time and had to call for help in the middle of the night to be set free. His landlady and landlord, who lived below him heard his yells and were met with the “shocking” scene, Westminster Coroners’ Court heard. Searches of his home computers seized after his death revealed that he had been visited "websites of claustrophillia, and he also had access to bondage and sado masochism websites, the inquest has heard earlier in the day.

But a friend told the inquest Mr Williams was straight and not a transvestite. Elizabeth Guthrie, who had only known Mr Williams since 2009, said he may have had women’s clothing in his flat as “support strategy” for female friends. She said he would not have let anyone in to his flat unless he had a “very strong relationship” with them.

26 April 2012 MI6 officer SIS F tells the inquest that Mr Williams' interest in women's clothing and sadomasochism would not have prevented him becoming a spy. The inquest also heard that Mr Williams had conducted unauthorised searches on the MI6 database that could have put him at risk to “hostile and malign” parties.

Denise Stanworth, a toxicologist, told the inquest that traces of the date rape drug GHB were found in the body of Gareth Williams. They possibly occurred naturally. A panel of forensics experts which reviewed the post mortem findings was unable to rule out the use of certain poisons, such as cyanide and chloroform.

27 April 2012 Williams may have been able to get in the bag himself, the inquest hears. Despite experts failing to complete the bizarre task more than 100 times, a specialist said it could not rule out that someone with training could achieve it.

But a second expert, Peter Faulding, said he tried and failed to get into the bag 300 times. “My conclusion is he was placed in the bag unconscious or was dead when he was put in the bag. I cannot say it is impossible but I think even Houdini would struggle with this one.”

30 April 2012 A pathologist says Mr Williams probably died from poisoning, suffocation or strangulation. But Dr Richard Shepherd, a second pathologist, said he believed Mr Williams died inside the bag - probably from the build up of carbon dioxide.

Belfast Telegraph : Dead MI6 spy's sister casts new doubt on official account of his death

Dead MI6 spy's sister casts new doubt on official account of his death

No alarm was raised over disappearance despite missed meeting, says Williams’ sister

Kim Sengupta | April 24, 2012

Gareth Williams, the MI6 officer who was found dead in a padlocked holdall in his bath, was so unhappy about "friction" at work and the "rat race" that he had asked for a transfer back to his previous post, his family has disclosed.

The 31-year-old cipher specialist died a week before he had been due to return to work at GCHQ, the government listening post.

"He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race," his sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest into his death yesterday. "He even spoke of friction in the office. The job was not quite what he expected. He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with."

Mr Williams's family believes that he may have been executed by secret agents specialising in the "dark arts", with a cover-up subsequently organised to ensure the that his killers did not face justice.

Yesterday Ms Subbe insisted it was inconceivable that her brother would have voluntarily allowed anyone who had not been cleared by the security agencies into his home in Pimlico, south-west London. "He was very strict about only allowing people who had been vetted to visit his flat. I cannot emphasise enough his conscientiousness," she stressed.

"Gareth did not tell us what specifically he did as a job. Of course we knew where he worked, but he didn't speak about it in any detail."

On 23 August 2010, Mr Williams's family contacted MI6 after not having heard from him for over a week.

On 16 August, he had failed to turn up to chair a meeting at MI6 and was not seen subsequently until the discovery of his naked and decomposing remains. Ms Subbe said she had later spoken to an officer from MI6 who told her that her brother was extremely punctual "and it was highly unlikely for him to miss a meeting like that". Yet no alarm was raised by MI6 over an operative suddenly going missing.

The coroner, Fiona Wilcox, acknowledged that Mr Williams's death was "highly controversial" and has led to a "great deal of anxiety". Agents from MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) and GCHQ will be giving their evidence from behind a screen. There would be "a real risk of harm to national security and international relations" if some of those giving evidence were identified, she said.

The inquest heard Mr Williams was a prodigy who took his O-levels aged 10 and began a degree course at Bangor University aged 16. Ms Subbe told the court that her brother "adored music, theatre and the arts, and fashion" and had undertaken two six-week design courses at Central St Martin's in London.

Officers from GCHQ and MI6 had held that Gareth Williams organised his own accommodation privately in the house at Alderney Street, Pimlico, as Anthony O'Toole QC, speaking for his family, pointed out. But there was evidence, he claimed, that it was a "safe house" used by the intelligence service. The inquest heard a statement from Vanessa Scott, who worked for an estate agency, W A Ellis, saying: "The Secretary of State had taken a contract on the property in 2003 and the tenancy would be continued."

The Scotland Yard homicide team carrying out the investigation into Mr Williams's death was not able to talk directly to members of MI6 and GCHQ, the inquest was told. Instead they had to give their questions to SO15, the Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command, which carried out the interviews on their behalf.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, from the Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command, stressed that the agencies co-operated fully with Scotland Yard, adding he was not aware of MI5, MI6 or SO15 carrying out their own independent investigations into Mr Williams's death. Asked by Dr Wilcox whether she was surprised that women's clothes worth £20,000 had been found at her brother's place, Ms Subbe said they were "possibly a gift", as her brother had been generous.

She had not, however, been given any clothes herself and did not know of anyone else who had received any items.

PC John Gallagher, who found Mr Williams's body, said his attention was caught on entering the flat by a woman's wig hanging on a chair as well as a mobile phone and two SIM cards on a table.

On going into the bathroom he noticed a bulging red holdall in the bath with the zip padlocked together. "I am realising it is something serious and my concern was to not damage anything in a crime scene." He lifted the bag up, when he could see red fluid seeping out. "Then there was the smell," he said. "Probably as a result of moving the bag. It is unusual because normally you would expect to smell it earlier," he said.

The inquest continues.

---

Williams's death: Timeline

11 August 2010 Mr Williams returns to Britain from a fly-drive holiday to the West coast of the United States.

15 August He is captured on CCTV in London's Knightsbridge after shopping at Harrods.

16 August He fails to turn up at MI6 to chair a meeting. No alarm is raised.

23 August Mr Williams's family alerts the police after not hearing from him for a week. His body is discovered padlocked inside a holdall in a bath in his top-floor flat at 36 Alderney Street in Pimlico.

1 September Westminster Coroner's Court hears a post-mortem examination has failed to establish the cause of death.

30 March 2012 A pre-inquest review hears that Mr Williams's family suspects an agent specialising in the "dark arts" may have covered up his death.

Independent : 'Spy in a bag' may have been executed by secret agents, coroner hears

'Spy in a bag' may have been executed by secret agents, coroner hears

Dirty tricks may mean killers will never face justice

Kim Sengupta | March 31, 2012

An MI6 officer whose body was found in a holdall may have been executed by secret agents specialising in the "dark arts", with a cover-up subsequently organised to ensure that his killers did not face justice, a court heard yesterday.

The highly charged allegations came at a coroner's hearing which was also told it was virtually impossible for Gareth Williams to have locked himself inside the bag, but that the hunt for those who may have killed him was sidetracked by a major forensic blunder.

The mix-up, over DNA found on the body, was discovered only two weeks ago – while the investigation into one of the most high-profile spy cases of recent times has been going up a blind alley for the best part of a year.

Westminster Coroner's Court in London was also told that MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) had not checked on Mr Williams's whereabouts for more than a week, even though he had failed to turn up for work. As a result, his remains were so decomposed and contaminated that scientists had been unable to ascertain the cause of death.

Anthony O'Toole, representing Mr Williams's relations, told the court: "The impression of the family is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services – or evidence has been removed post mortem by experts in the dark arts."

Mr O'Toole said Mr Williams "could have been actively deployed" as an agent up to five months before his death. There was a "bland statement" from MI6 "that the death was nothing to do with his work", said the lawyer. "To properly explore the circumstances of the death, we need to establish the deceased's work," he added.

Mr Williams worked as a cipher and codes expert for GCHQ, the Government listening station, but had been on secondment with MI6 since March 2010. His body was found at his flat in Pimlico, south-west London, in August 2010 in a North Face holdall sealed by a padlock.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire told the court that traces of DNA found on one of Mr Williams's hands were previously been regarded as a "key line of inquiry". But it subsequently emerged that "actually the DNA evidence was contamination by a scientist at the scene".

The laboratory responsible, LGC Forensics, last night apologised to Mr Williams's family. "LGC identified the partial profile as matching that of a Metropolitan Police scientist who was involved in the original investigation," a spokeswoman for the company said.

The coroner, Dr Fiona Wilcox, said: "What I am concerned about is that there is a system in placed to detect the error. Human errors will always occur.

"There has been so much public speculation and so much public anxiety that this is the reason the court has to act to address it."

Mr Williams's family, said Mr O'Toole, was concerned a third party who may have been present at his death has still not been traced. There was the DNA evidence which turned out to be contaminated and also, supposedly, a footprint. But both leads had come to "dead ends".

Examination of a door knob which may have provided incriminating material could not be carried out because the expert tasked with doing so found the door had been removed and the knob taken out, said the lawyer.

The inquest into Mr Williams's death, expected to begin in April, will hear from his colleagues at MI6 (who will give evidence anonymously) and GCHQ, toxicology experts, bag experts, as well as from his sister. It will also hear that he may have died after breathing too much carbon dioxide.

Dr Wilcox said she wanted the circumstances of Mr Williams's death to be re-enacted in court. "I want it demonstrated in court how somebody could have got into the bag, done it up and locked it from outside when confined inside. It's the fundamental issue in this case: whether Gareth Williams was able to lock the bag when he was inside."

But Vincent Williams, representing Scotland Yard, held there was no need for such a demonstration. A panel of experts had concluded it "would have been very difficult, if not impossible" for him to lock the bag from the inside.

Timeline: The mysterious death of Gareth Williams

15 Aug 2010

31-year-old Gareth Williams, a cipher and codes expert who worked at the GCHQ listening post in Cheltenham, is seen alive for the last time.

23 Aug 2010

A colleague at GCHQ reports Williams missing. His body is found later that day at his flat in Pimlico, London.

30 Aug 2010

Detectives say they are looking at whether Williams may have been killed by a foreign intelligence agency.

1 Sept 2010

An inquest hears that Williams's remains were discovered padlocked into a sports bag, which was in an empty bath at his flat.

6 Sept 2010

Police appeal for help in tracing a couple of Mediterranean appearance, pictured left, who were seen entering Williams's flat earlier in the summer.

22 Dec 2010

Police reveal that Williams had accessed bondage websites and visited a drag show, amid suggestions that the death could have been the result of a sex game gone wrong.

March 2012

After 18 months of investigation, police discover that a trace of DNA found on Williams's hand came from a crime scene scientist. They also find that the couple they were tracing were irrelevant to the inquiry.