Daily Post : Gareth Williams: MI6 spy from Anglesey may have been poisoned says detective

Gareth Williams: MI6 spy from Anglesey may have been poisoned says detective

Former Metropolitan Police murder squad detective Colin Sutton has shared his theory on the death of the Anglesey spy found dead in a holdall

By Rhodri Barker | June 23, 2014

A former senior murder squad detective claims an Anglesey spy whose body was found in a holdall may have been poisoned in a “perfect killing”.

The riddle of Gareth Williams’s death appeared resolved last year after a top-level police probe concluded that he probably died alone in an accident.

But former Metropolitan Police murder squad detective Colin Sutton has now challenged that view with a sensational new theory of his own.

Sutton, who was the most senior detective at the scene on the day of the gruesome discovery almost four years ago, revealed he has lingering doubts about the code-breaker’s death.

His view chimes with that of Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox, who recorded two years ago that Mr Williams was unlawfully killed. Her verdict was later overturned.

Police broke into Mr Williams’s flat in Pimlico in London in August 2010, and found his decomposing remains in a red bag padlocked from the outside.

Mr Sutton has now voiced fears that the flat may well have been "cleaned" of all incriminating traces while any poison in Mr Williams’s system may have been impossible to detect by then.

“The first thing that struck me was how hot it was. It was August yet the heating was on full blast,” he said, recalling arriving on the scene on the day of the discovery.

“It made me think immediately that the heating could have been left on to accelerate the decomposition of Gareth's body.

“If he had been poisoned then the chemical compounds might have vanished by the time toxicology tests were conducted.”

He added: "There is also the possibility that something very unusual and hard to detect was used to poison Gareth. It may seem far fetched but we know that Alexander Litvinenko was killed four years earlier in London with a rare radioactive isotope.

“I remain convinced the flat was tidied up after his death. That may have been to protect national security - or it might have been something more sinister. If that is the case, then it could have been the perfect murder."

Mr Williams, from Valley in Anglesey, was a maths PhD graduate who began working at GCHQ in Cheltenham in 2001.

Toronto Star : U.K. spy found dead had complained of friction at work, family says

U.K. spy found dead had complained of friction at work, family says

Cassandra Vinograd | Associated Press | April 23, 2012

LONDON—A British codebreaker had complained of friction at the country’s overseas spy agency before his naked and decomposing body was found inside a padlocked sports bag, his family told an inquest Monday.

Gareth Williams worked for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service GCHQ and was attached to the country’s MI6 overseas spy agency when his body was found in the bag in the bathtub of his central London home Aug. 25, 2010. While detectives have suggested Williams, 31, may have died in a sex game gone wrong, his family has countered that British spy agencies may have been involved in the death.

An inquest being held into his death will investigate whether Williams could possibly have climbed inside the sports bag and locked it from the inside. There were no signs of struggle, and no drugs or poison in Williams’ body, the discovery of which launched a flurry of conspiracy theories.

Women’s dresses and shoes worth around 20,000 pounds ($32,000 Canadian) were also found at the flat, creating another mystery in an already complex case. They had never been worn.

The coroner leading the inquest agreed Monday to allow four intelligence agents to give evidence anonymously.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox acknowledged “there will be a real risk of harm” to national security and international relations if the identities of some of those giving evidence at the inquest are exposed.

Williams’ sister was the first to give evidence to the inquest, saying that her brother was unhappy with the “rat race” in London and had requested to be sent back to GCHQ’s headquarters in Gloucestershire, western England.

“The job was not quite what he expected,” Ceri Subbe said. “He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with.”

Subbe told the inquest Monday that she did not believe her brother would let a potential killer into his flat, saying he was extremely careful.

A lawyer for the dead man’s family said last month that “a member of some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services” might be responsible for his murder, fuelling speculation that he was killed by foreign spies and that MI6 might have covered it up.

At the time of his death, Williams was on a three-year secondment to MI6, which deals with foreign espionage matters and is headquartered at a large, modern, imposing building on the banks of the River Thames which often features in James Bond films.

But Subbe said her brother had wanted to return to his old post as a code breaker at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the state eavesdropping service which is based in a striking doughnut-shaped modernist building in Cheltenham, western England.

He had wanted to escape London for the countryside and return to a quieter pace of life, she said.

“His enthusiasm had begun to fade,” she said. “I think the job wasn’t quite what he had expected.”

A keen cyclist and hill runner, who gained a university first-class degree in mathematics at the age of just 17, Williams was single and intensely private.

She told the inquest that, in April 2010, Williams had sought to end his secondment to MI6. He had been due to return to Cheltenham just days after his body was found.

His body was not discovered until his family reported him missing, up to 12 days after he was last seen, raising questions about his employer’s apparent lack of concern.

Policeman John Gallagher told the inquest how he made the grim discovery of Williams’ body when he went to the man’s apartment to check on the missing spy.

Toxicology tests found no traces of alcohol, drugs or poison in his body.

Experts later consulted by police said Williams could not have locked himself inside the bag.

Police have made no arrests in the case and are still not certain exactly how Williams died. But Scotland Yard raised the possibility that criminal charges could still be filed, telling the inquest Monday that it objected to the release of some material to the media because that could prejudice future criminal proceedings.

The inquest is due to hear from 37 witnesses, including four unnamed members of the intelligence services.

In Britain, inquests must be held when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or from unknown causes. However, the coroner’s task is to determine the cause of death, rather than to identify any suspect.

With files from Reuters

Evening Standard : Body-in-bag spy's family demand answers from inquest 18 months on

Body-in-bag spy's family demand answers from inquest 18 months on

Kiran Randhawa | February 20, 2012

The family of an MI6 spy found dead in a sports bag are demanding that they are finally told what happened to him.

The badly decomposed body of Gareth Williams, 31, was found 18 months ago in a holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico. Although a series of toxicology tests was performed to determine what caused his death, it still remains unexplained.

A pre-inquest review into the case will be held on March 29 at Westminster coroner's court, and a full inquest is expected to begin three weeks later.

Mr Williams's family hope a blanket of secrecy over the case will finally be lifted.
Trefor Lloyd Hughes, a friend of the family, told the Standard: "They need to know what happened to Gareth. I hope we finally get some real answers.

"Let's hope the family can gain some solace at last. They have been in the dark for so long and have no idea what happened to their son.

"They need answers to end their agony. I have no doubt some higher influences will be involved here which may stop certain information from getting through, but I would say the family need peace."

Mr Hughes, 64, a councillor and retired ambulance worker from Holyhead, Anglesey, lived across the road from Mr Williams's parents Ian and Ellen for several years. Their sons grew up together and he remains a good friend of the family.

He added: "It's taken so long for this inquest to come along. I will be really disappointed if further information comes out years down the line that didn't come out during this inquest.

"It will be hard for his parents to go through it, but we are all hoping this will be the end. You do get annoyed they have had to wait this long though. It's absolutely disgraceful."

As many as 40 of Mr Williams's colleagues from GCHQ and MI6 are expected to give evidence at the inquest, although their testimony is likely to be heard in secret to protect their identities.

Police found the cycling enthusiast's naked body zipped and padlocked in a red North Face holdall on August 23 2010 at his flat less than a mile from MI6's headquarters in Vauxhall. There were no signs of a struggle.

The property was used by MI6 as a safe house. Mr Williams, a GCHQ codebreaker on secondment, had not been at work for several days.

Pimlico People : Inquest held in Pimlico spy murder

Inquest held in Pimlico spy murder

By James Mass | February 2, 2012

Almost two years after the mysterious death of Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy whose body was found in a holdall in his Pimlico flat, an inquest is to be finally held.

Having carried out toxicology tests and a prolonged investigation police were unable to form a conclusion on the bizarre case. Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner for Westminster, is due to hold the hearing in April. A pre-inquest review will be held on 29th March at Horseferry Road Coroner's Court.

It's been reported that as many as 40 colleagues of the deceased from GCHQ and MI6 will provide evidence.

Mr Williams' badly decomposed body was found on 23rd August 2010 by an officer who was alerted by Williams' sister who anxiously called because she had not heard from her brother in ten days.

Daily Mail : Coroner to investigate the riddle of the spy in a bag nearly two years after his death

Coroner to investigate the riddle of the spy in a bag nearly two years after his death

* A hearing into Gareth William's death to be held in April
* His body was found in a padlocked bag in a bath

By Rebecca Camber | January 30, 2012

An inquest into the death of an MI6 spy is to be held nearly two years after his body was discovered in a locked holdall.

The bizarre death of Gareth Williams, who was found in a padlocked bag in the bath of his central London flat, has baffled detectives.

Despite a series of toxicology tests and an exhaustive investigation into the 31-year-old’s background and his movements, police have been unable to establish what led to his death in August 2010.

Now Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner for Westminster, has announced she will hold a full hearing into the death of the spy in April.

She will hold a pre-inquest review on March 29 at Horseferry Road Coroner’s Court, with a full inquest expected to begin three weeks later.

The hearing is expected to call as many as 40 of Mr Williams’s colleagues from GCHQ and MI6 to give evidence, although their testimony is likely to be heard in secret to protect their identities.

The spy’s badly decomposed body was found on August 23 at his flat in Pimlico, barely a mile from the headquarters of MI6 in Vauxhall.

The property was used by MI6 as a safe house. Mr Williams, a cycling enthusiast, had not showed up at work for several days. But it was only when his sister rang police from her home in Chester to say she had not heard from him in over ten days that an officer went to the flat.

There he discovered Mr Williams’s naked body zipped and padlocked in a red North Face holdall. There were no signs of a struggle.

On a table were two iPhones, a number of SIM cards and an Apple notebook computer, suggesting that robbery had not been a motive.

There have been a number of conspiracy theories about Mr Williams’s death, including the possibility of an assassination by a foreign power.

Detectives have, however, discounted many of the more lurid suggestions.

At the time of his death, the mathematician had been seconded from GCHQ in Cheltenham to MI6 to work on top-secret computer systems to detect and prevent cyber-attacks on Britain’s banks and infrastructure and eavesdrop on terrorist communications.

Calgary Herald : Inquest may unravel truth of spy in a bag

Inquest may unravel truth of spy in a bag

Killing could be personal or professional

By Patrick Sawer | The Telegraph | January 29, 2012

It remains one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of the secret services.

When the body of an MI6 spy was found locked in a large gym bag in the bath of his apartment in August 2010 it led to a rash of conspiracy theories, from the disturbing to the bizarre.

Nearly 18 months on, police have been unable to establish what led to the death of Gareth Williams, despite toxicology tests and an exhaustive investigation into his background.

But Dr. Fiona Wilcox, the recently-appointed coroner for Westminster, has decided that the time is right to attempt to record the first official account of what happened to the 31-year-old spy.

She will hold a Pre-Inquest Review (PIR) on March 29 at Horseferry Road Coroner's Court. A full inquest will begin three weeks later, probably at a larger venue, and is expected to last three to four days.

The PIR is required to establish who will give evidence and, crucially, in what form. Attending will be a member of Scotland Yard's investigation team and legal representatives of GCHQ and MI6. A solicitor is understood to have been appointed by Williams's parents, Ian and Ellen, to represent his family.

It is expected that some or all of the evidence from as many as 40 of Williams's colleagues will be held "in camera" to protect their identities and the content of their statements.

The spy's badly decomposed body was found on Aug. 23 at his flat in Pimlico.

The property was used by MI6 as a safe house. In what was apparently a secret services in-joke, the building was owned by a British Virgin Islands-registered company called New Rodina, meaning "new motherland" in Russian.

Williams had missed work for several days, but it was only when his sister, Ceri, called police from her home in Chester to say she had not heard from him in more than 10 days, that a constable went to the top-floor apartment.

He made a gruesome discovery. The flat was "spotless," but in the bath was a red holdall from which red liquid was seeping. It had been padlocked.

Inside, the officer found a body so contorted that he initially assumed the "legs and arms had been cut off." There were no signs of a struggle.

On a table were two iPhones, a number of SIM cards and an Apple notebook computer, suggesting it was not a robbery. News of the find - and its description by detectives as "a tidy job" - prompted speculation that Williams had fallen victim to a hit instigated by a foreign power.

Williams, a brilliant mathematician who took a degree course at Bangor university while in his early teens, had been seconded from GCHQ - the government's listening centre in Cheltenham - to MI6 to work on secret computer systems to detect and prevent cyber-attacks on Britain's banks and infrastructure and eavesdrop on terrorist communications.

At the time of his death it is believed he was researching British vulnerability to Russian, Turkish and Chinese gangs - any one of them capable of targeting him.

There was even talk that a couple, who appeared to be Mediterranean and claimed to have a key to his flat weeks before Williams's death, were Mossad agents. Police have been unable to trace the pair.

But in December 2010, Det. Chief Supt. Hamish Campbell, head of Scotland Yard's homicide command, said the killing was not linked to the spy's work, but his private life.

It was disclosed that Williams had viewed websites on bondage and visited gay clubs and detectives turned to the possibility that he died as a result of a sado-masochistic game, perhaps after his partner panicked and fled.

"We are very sure that someone else was in that flat," said Campbell.

Williams's family angrily denied suggestions that he would have behaved in that way. He was known to have attended drag shows and police disclosed that unworn women's dresses and wigs had been found in the wardrobe.

Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, said Williams did "really valuable work with us in the cause of national security."

Some question what it was that he did for "the cause," and if it got him killed.

His family hopes the inquest will help answer that question.

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

TMCnet : Coroner adjourns inquest into death of British spy

Coroner adjourns inquest into death of British spy

Associated Press | February 18, 2011

LONDON (AP) — A coroner said Tuesday it is increasingly unlikely that police will be able to track down a couple they want to interview about the death of a British codebreaker whose naked and decomposing body was found inside a padlocked sports bag.

Paul Knapman is overseeing an inquest into the death of Gareth Williams, who was discovered in the bathtub of his London home on Aug. 23. Police have made no arrests and are not certain how the 31–year–old employee of code–breaking agency GCHQ died.

At an inquest hearing Tuesday, Knapman said it was "less and less likely" that a man and woman seen at Williams' home weeks before his death would be found.

The couple, described as in Mediterranean appearance and aged between 20 and 30, were seen at the door of Williams' apartment block in June or July, and indicated to a witness that they had a key.

Knapman said police had to face the fact that "in six months or so they have not come forward" and no new clues have emerged.

Williams' death has spawned fevered speculation and conspiracy theories, as police have tried to determine whether it was linked to his work or to his personal life.

Detectives have said inquiries showed Williams had viewed bondage–related websites, and have suggested he may have died in a sex game gone wrong.

Security officials have downplayed suggestions that Williams' death was connected to his work. He was working on attachment to the foreign spy service, MI6, when he died.

Toxicology tests found no traces of drugs or poisons that may have led to his death. Experts consulted by police said Williams could not have locked himself inside the bag — which was fastened with a padlock — and could have survived for only 30 minutes inside before suffocating.

In Britain, inquests must be held any time someone dies unexpectedly, violently or from unknown causes. The goal is to determine the cause rather than to affix blame.

Knapman said about 40 of Williams' fellow spies had been interviewed by police and could be called to give evidence anonymously at the inquest.

He adjourned the hearings until March 31, so police can get results from more forensic tests.

Sky News [blog] : A Failing Investigation

A Failing Investigation

Martin Brunt | February 15, 2011

So we'll probably never know the how, why or who in the bizarre death of codebreaker spook Gareth Williams.

Police have admitted they haven't found the mystery couple who visited him and are still awaiting the results of forensic/toxicology tests six months after he was found suffocated and naked inside a locked sports bag in the bath of his flat.

The inquest into his death has been postponed again while police continue to try to unravel his complicated life.

Up to forty of his spook colleagues from MI6 and GCHQ may give evidence at the inquest, but will be granted anonimity.

And those potential witnesses aren't even being interviewed by the investigation team.

They, unusually, are being quizzed by counter-terror detectives, who then pass the information to homicide police.

They can hardly be surprised then by the many conspiracy theories that abound.

Readers, feel free to add your own.

You might help the cops.

AP : Coroner adjourns inquest into death of British spy

Coroner adjourns inquest into death of British spy

AP | February 15, 2011

LONDON (AP) — A coroner said Tuesday it is increasingly unlikely that police will be able to track down a couple they want to interview about the death of a British codebreaker whose naked and decomposing body was found inside a padlocked sports bag.

Paul Knapman is overseeing an inquest into the death of Gareth Williams, who was discovered in the bathtub of his London home on Aug. 23. Police have made no arrests and are not certain how the 31-year-old employee of code-breaking agency GCHQ died.

At an inquest hearing Tuesday, Knapman said it was "less and less likely" that a man and woman seen at Williams' home weeks before his death would be found.

The couple, described as in Mediterranean appearance and aged between 20 and 30, were seen at the door of Williams' apartment block in June or July, and indicated to a witness that they had a key.

Knapman said police had to face the fact that "in six months or so they have not come forward" and no new clues have emerged.

Williams' death has spawned fevered speculation and conspiracy theories, as police have tried to determine whether it was linked to his work or to his personal life.

Detectives have said inquiries showed Williams had viewed bondage-related websites, and have suggested he may have died in a sex game gone wrong.

Security officials have downplayed suggestions that Williams' death was connected to his work. He was working on attachment to the foreign spy service, MI6, when he died.

Toxicology tests found no traces of drugs or poisons that may have led to his death. Experts consulted by police said Williams could not have locked himself inside the bag — which was fastened with a padlock — and could have survived for only 30 minutes inside before suffocating.

In Britain, inquests must be held any time someone dies unexpectedly, violently or from unknown causes. The goal is to determine the cause rather than to affix blame.

Knapman said about 40 of Williams' fellow spies had been interviewed by police and could be called to give evidence anonymously at the inquest.

He adjourned the hearings until March 31, so police can get results from more forensic tests.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Daily Mail : 'Spy in the bag' inquest delayed as police chase new leads

'Spy in the bag' inquest delayed as police chase new leads

By Mail On Sunday Reporter | January 16, 2011

The mystery over the MI6 spy found locked in a sports bag has taken a new twist after his inquest was delayed.

The hearing into the death of Gareth Williams, 31, was due to take place at Westminster Coroner’s Court on February 15, but it has now been adjourned and no new date has been set.

The postponement to allow further investigations by police will raise fresh questions about the baffling case.

Detectives are following new leads about a couple who called at his flat before he died. They have received several possible names for the man and woman who visited the codebreaker’s MI6-owned flat in Pimlico, London, in June or July last year.

Mr Williams’s body was found at the apartment inside a padlocked North Face holdall on August 23. Two post-mortems failed to establish how he died, while toxicology tests found no evidence of drugs, alcohol or poisons in his system.

At a Press conference last month, detectives issued e-fit pictures of the man and woman, both believed to be in their 20s and of Mediterranean appearance.

They were let into the block of four flats by a tenant on the ground floor. The couple told her they had keys to Mr Williams’s flat, number four, but said they were there to visit someone called Pier Paolo.

Reuters : Dead MI6 worker visited bondage sites, drag cabaret

Dead MI6 worker visited bondage sites, drag cabaret

By Michael Holden | December 23, 2010

LONDON (Reuters) - Police probing the death of a man who worked for MI6 said on Wednesday he had visited bondage websites and had a wardrobe full of thousands of pounds worth of unworn women's clothing.

Gareth Williams, 30, was found by police on August 23 at his top floor flat in Pimlico, central London, not far from MI6 headquarters. Officers discovered his naked, decomposing body in a zipped and padlocked holdall bag in an empty bath.

Detectives said an examination of his phones had revealed that on a few occasions he had accessed websites relating to bondage and escape from bondage.

Williams had also visited a drag cabaret 10 days before his body was found and had tickets for two other shows. There was also an unconfirmed sighting of him at the "Barcode" gay bar in south London in May.

"Gareth's death remains suspicious and unexplained, and enquiries into the circumstances continue," said Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the inquiry.

Media reported that Sebire was now convinced someone else had helped put him into the bag.

Nothing was believed to have been stolen from the flat and there was no sign of any forced entry or disturbance inside. Toxicology tests on his body have found no traces of alcohol, drugs or poisons.

Police also disclosed that Williams had a collection of dresses and shoes worth about 15,000 pounds in his wardrobe which were new and appeared to be unused.

Williams had been attending a fashion course for beginners at Clerkenwell in central London, detectives said.

They also issued e-fits of a couple, both of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 20 and 30, who had paid a visit to Williams' flat about a month before he was found dead.

The couple had suggested to a witness in the communal area of the block at that time that they had a key to his flat which they had been given by someone called "Pier Paulo."

"Gareth was a very private individual, and we know he would not have given his keys to anyone other than close family," Sebire said. "I am asking this man or woman, or anyone who recognizes them, to encourage them to come forward."

The mysterious nature of the death has led some to question whether he was targeted because of his work. However, the police inquiry is being carried out by its homicide unit, indicating they believe it is not related to terrorism or spy matters.

Williams was working for MI6, which deals with foreign espionage matters, on secondment from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the state eavesdropping service.

An inquest into his death is due to be heard at Westminster Coroner's Court on February 15 next year.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

MSNBC : Spy death inquiry looks at bondage link

Spy death inquiry looks at bondage link

British police want to question couple in death of intelligence analyst

December 22, 2010

LONDON — A British spy who was found dead in his London flat visited bondage websites and a drag club and had $23,000 worth of unworn designer womenswear in his wardrobe, detectives said Wednesday.

The Guardian newspaper reported that police believe the mystery surrounding Gareth Williams' death will be solved through insights into his private life.

Williams, a 30-year-old official at the code-breaking agency GCHQ, was found inside a red North Face sports bag at his central London apartment on Aug. 23. Williams was working on attachment to the MI6 spy agency, but security officials believe it is unlikely that his killing was connected with his work. Toxicology tests showed there were no traces of drugs or poisons that may have led to his death.

Offering new details, police said they hoped to determine conclusively whether Williams' death was linked to his personal life and to trace two people seen at the communal door of Williams' apartment block in June or July.

The man and woman, described as Mediterranean in appearance in their 20s and dressed casually, were buzzed through the communal entrance at the flats in Alderney Street by another resident in late June or July, The Guardian said. They said they had been given a key and were on their way to the apartment that Williams lived in.

"Gareth was a very private individual, and we know he would not have given his keys to anyone other than close family," said Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, head of the inquiry into his death.

Sebire said it was still unclear whether Williams died as a result of a sex game gone wrong, and called on any former partners to contact police.

"There is forensic evidence that indicates the presence of other people that we have not been able to eliminate yet," Sebire said.

Experts called in by police have assessed that Williams could not have locked himself inside the bag — which was fastened with a padlock — and could have survived for only 30 minutes inside before suffocation. The keys to the Yale padlock were found inside the bag, The Guardian said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell said, head of Scotland Yard's homicide command, said police had been reluctant to make public details of Williams's private life, knowing it could prove distressing to his family.

Detectives said Williams used his iPhone to visit websites on bondage in the months before his death, The Guardian reported. Four days before he died, he went to a drag club called Bistrotheque in Bethnal Green, east London, to see an act called Jimmy Woo, and had tickets for two similar performances at a pub in Vauxhall, close to MI6 headquarters.

"We feel there is some small subgroup of the community, or individuals, who may know something about this matter and the nature of Gareth's death," Campbell said.

An inquest will be held at Westminster coroner's court on Feb. 15.

This article includes reporting msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press.

UTV News : Couple sought as police say bondage websites could hold key to spy's death

Couple sought as police say bondage websites could hold key to spy's death

December 22, 2010

• Gareth Williams's death not linked to job say detectives
• Women's designer clothes found in dead man's flat

Senior detectives believe the mystery death of the spy Gareth Williams will be solved by getting an insight into his private life after they revealed he had visited bondage websites and a drag club and had £15,000-worth of unworn designer womenswear in his wardrobe.

Williams's decomposed body was discovered in a padlocked holdall in his flat, less than a mile from MI6 headquarters in London where he was a senior analyst.

Police believe he died a week earlier, in the early hours of 16 August, and that someone else was present. For months they have struggled to answer basic questions about the death. Tests have shown no signs of a struggle or forced entry into the flat, and no sign that he was drugged.

Yesterday, Scotland Yard's detectives gave their best account of Williams's death. They revealed:

• He used his iPhone to visit websites on bondage and escape from bondage in the months before his death.

• He must have been padlocked into the red North Face holdall by someone else as it was impossible for him to have locked himself inside.

• Once padlocked in the bag, with the keys inside, he could only have survived for 30 minutes before suffocating.

• Police are desperate to talk to a couple of Mediterranean appearance who visited his block and claimed to have a key to his flat weeks before Williams's death.

• Four days before his death, he went to a drag club called Bistrotheque in Bethnal Green, east London, to see an act called Jimmy Woo, and had tickets for two similar performances at a pub in Vauxhall, close to MI6 headquarters.

• A witness told police that Williams had been seen at a well-known gay bar in Vauxhall months before his death.

When Williams's decomposing body was found by police on 23 August, they also discovered £15,000 of unworn women's clothing, wigs and shoes in his wardrobe. The labels included Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, and Louboutin and were in their original boxes or wrapping paper. Williams had enrolled in two fashion design courses at Central Saint Martins College, in Clerkenwell, London, in 2009 and 2010.

Speculation has been rife that Williams' highly secretive work might explain his death. He worked as an expert on codes at the government's GCHQ eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham before moving to MI6 on a secondment.

But Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of Scotland Yard's homicide command, said: "This is not linked to his work – it's his private life."

He said police had been reluctant to make public details of Williams's private life, knowing it could prove distressing to his family, but were doing so now because his lifestyle could be key to solving whether his death was a sex game gone wrong, manslaughter or murder.

Police needed information from "a small subset of people" who were into alternative lifestyles and pursuits. "We want to speak to individuals who use these websites about bondage, tying up, linking into the drag world."

Police called in an expert in surviving in confined spaces, who concluded there was no way Williams could have padlocked himself into the bag. That means that someone must have been present to lock him in. The keys to the ordinary Yale padlock were found inside the holdall.

Campbell said: "Somebody must have been there to secure him in the bag on a voluntary or involuntary basis. If someone was there and it was a voluntary activity gone wrong, why not cut him free or call an ambulance?

"The alternative scenario is there is maybe something more sinister to it. We just don't know."

The dead man's body showed only two small bruises on his elbows, probably from him struggling and rubbing against the inside of the bag as he began to run out of oxygen.

Toxicology tests show no signs of drugs, although Campbell said it remained possible he had been stunned by something like a karate chop, which could have left no visible trace by the time the corpse was found. Otherwise any blow heavy enough to render Williams unconscious would have been picked up by tests.

"There is no sign of a struggle, no outward signs of anyone inflicting physical violence, no poisoning," said Campbell, who added: "The absence of violence to the body suggests he placed himself in the bag, unless he was stunned or unconscious. If that was done, it was not through drugs or super-secret injections."

The official cause of death is still inconclusive, but Campbell said: "It is most likely suffocation, but we can't be certain."

He said that Williams was a deeply private man and neither his employers nor his family knew he had enrolled into a course at a fashion college. There was no evidence that he was gay.

Police yesterday released efit images of a man and woman who visited the flats where Williams lived weeks before his death. The Mediterranean couple, who were in their 20s and dressed casually, were buzzed through the communal entrance at the flats in Alderney Street by another resident in late June or July. They said they had been given a key and were on their way to flat four, the property Williams lived in.

Williams, from Anglesey, north Wales, was last seen alive on 15 August, eight days before he was found dead.

An inquest will be held at Westminster coroner's court on 15 February.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2010

570 News : UK police say slain spy likely died a week before his body was locked inside a sports bag

UK police say slain spy likely died a week before his body was locked inside a sports bag

David Stringer, The Associated Press | December 22, 2010

LONDON - A British intelligence official discovered dead inside a sports bag probably died a week before he was found and would likely have suffocated within 30 minutes, police said Wednesday as they disclosed new details of their inquiry.

Gareth Williams, a 30-year-old official at code-breaking agency GCHQ, was found at his central London apartment on Aug. 23, but police have had few leads to tie any suspects to his death.

Offering new details, police said they hoped to determine conclusively whether Williams' death was linked to his personal life and to trace two people seen at the communal door of Williams' apartment block in June or July.

The man and woman, both described as aged between 20 and 30 years old, indicated to a witness that they had a key to Williams' home and were last seen walking toward his flat.

"Gareth was a very private individual, and we know he would not have given his keys to anyone other than close family," said Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, head of the inquiry into his death.

Sebire said it was still unclear whether Williams died as a result of a sex game gone wrong, and called on any former partners to contact police.

She said there are people who had visited his home who have not yet been traced.

"There is forensic evidence that indicates the presence of other people that we have not been able to eliminate yet," Sebire said.

Experts called in by police have assessed that Williams could not have locked himself inside the bag — which was fastened with a padlock — and could have survived for only 30 minutes inside before suffocation.

Police said inquiries had shown that Williams had viewed bondage related websites. Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell called on anyone who communicated with Williams through bondage websites to contact them — hoping to better understand how he came to be locked inside the bag.

"We feel there is some small subgroup of the community, or individuals, who may know something about this matter and the nature of Gareth's death," he said.

In a statement issued by the police, Williams' family said they were "still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their son and brother."

Williams was working on attachment to the MI6 spy agency at the time of his death, but security officials believe it is unlikely that his killing was connected with his work. Toxicology tests have confirmed there were no traces of drugs or poisons that may have led to his death.

Metro Police : E-fits issued in death investigation

E-fits issued in death investigation

Bulletin 0000002137 | December 22, 2010

OFFICERS from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command investigating the circumstances into the death of Gareth Williams (date of birth 26.09.78) in August continue to appeal for information.

Police have issued two e-fits of a man and a woman they wish to speak with in connection with the enquiry.

They are described as of Mediterranean appearance, aged between 20-30 years-old.

They called at 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico, SW1 late one evening in June or July, 2010.

Having gained access to the communal area of the building, they intimated that they had a key to Gareth's flat, number 4, and were last seen walking towards it. It is believed they said they had been given the key by a 'Pier Paulo', or something similar.

At this stage, officers are making a further appeal and are urging this man and woman to come forward and assist, so that they can be eliminated from our enquiries.

There are also a number of other points on which officers are asking the public for their help.

Gareth was attending Central St Martins College, Clerkenwell, on a fashion course for beginners - police are urging anyone who knew or met him through the course to come forward if they have any information.

In addition, Gareth's wardrobe contained a collection of female attire, such as dresses and shoes, which were new, and seemingly unused, worth in the region of £15,000, as well as a collection of wigs. If anyone knows where, or when he might have bought such clothing, officers would very much like to speak to them.

Police would also like to hear from anyone who met Gareth on a visit he made to a drag cabaret - 'Bistroteque' in Mile End on 13 August 2010. Gareth had bought tickets for two other shows at the same venue. They also want to speak to anyone who saw Gareth in May 2010, at the 'Barcode' gay bar in Vauxhall, south London, when there was an unconfirmed sighting of him.

Routine forensic examination of Gareth's phones has revealed a limited number of occasions when access was made from them to websites relating to bondage and escape from bondage. Officers would like to talk to anyone who had contact with Gareth via one or more of those sites, who may be able to assist in understanding the circumstances of his death.

Police strongly believe Gareth was not alone in his flat at or before the time of his death and are strongly urging any person, or persons who were there, or knows anything in relation to this, to come forward.

DCI Jacqueline Sebire, the investigating officer, said today: "Gareth was a very private individual, and we know he would not have given his keys to anyone other than close family. I am asking this man or woman, or anyone who recognizes them, to encourage them to come forward and assist us with this enquiry.

"Gareth's death remains suspicious and unexplained, and enquiries into the circumstances continue."

Anyone with information should call the Incident Room in Hendon on 020 8358 0200 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The Williams family said today: "Gareth's family are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their son and brother, they urge anybody to come forward with any information that can assist the police investigation."

The Inquest into Gareth's death will be heard before Westminster Coroner's Court on 15 February 2011.

Gareth Williams returned to the UK from a planned holiday in the US, on Wednesday, 11 August 2010. CCTV enquiries established that on a number of occasions on his return, he was shopping in the West End and Knightsbridge areas.

CCTV images issued by officers (6 September 2010) showed Gareth on Saturday 14 August 2010 at approx 15:00hrs, entering Holland Park underground station.

On Sunday 15 August 2010 Gareth was shopping in Brompton Road, SW7. He went to a cash machine, and then into Harrods. At approx 14:30hrs, CCTV images show him in Hans Crescent, SW1 heading towards Sloane Street, near to the Dolce and Gabbana store.

He was wearing a red t-shirt, beige trousers, and white trainers. Gareth was approx 5ft 7inches tall, with short hair and of a muscular build.

On 23 August 2010, Gareth was found in his flat at Flat 4, 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico, SW1 by uniformed officers. There was no sign of any forced entry to the property, and no signs of disturbance inside.

Gareth was found unclothed, in a zipped and padlocked red 'North Face' holdall which was in an empty bath in the en suite bathroom. Officers do not believe any property was missing from the flat and there was no suggestion the items within the flat were specifically posed. No drugs, or indications of drug usage, were recovered.

The first post mortem on 25 August 2010 established no cause of death. Further examinations of the body were held and results from comprehensive further toxicology tests carried out came back negative, showing no trace of any drugs, alcohol, poisons or any other substances that would indicate cause of death.

Guardian : Couple sought as police say bondage websites could hold key to spy's death

Couple sought as police say bondage websites could hold key to spy's death

• Gareth Williams's death not linked to job say detectives
• Women's designer clothes found in dead man's flat

Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent | December 22, 2010

Senior detectives believe the mystery death of the spy Gareth Williams will be solved by getting an insight into his private life after they revealed he had visited bondage websites and a drag club and had £15,000-worth of unworn designer womenswear in his wardrobe.

Williams's decomposed body was discovered in a padlocked holdall in his flat, less than a mile from MI6 headquarters in London where he was a senior analyst.

Police believe he died a week earlier, in the early hours of 16 August, and that someone else was present. For months they have struggled to answer basic questions about the death. Tests have shown no signs of a struggle or forced entry into the flat, and no sign that he was drugged.

Yesterday, Scotland Yard's detectives gave their best account of Williams's death. They revealed:

• He used his iPhone to visit websites on bondage and escape from bondage in the months before his death.

• He must have been padlocked into the red North Face holdall by someone else as it was impossible for him to have locked himself inside.

• Once padlocked in the bag, with the keys inside, he could only have survived for 30 minutes before suffocating.

• Police are desperate to talk to a couple of Mediterranean appearance who visited his block and claimed to have a key to his flat weeks before Williams's death.

• Four days before his death, he went to a club called Bistrotheque in Bethnal Green, east London, to see an act called Jonny Woo, and had tickets for two similar performances at a pub in Vauxhall, close to MI6 headquarters.

• A witness told police that Williams had been seen at a well-known gay bar in Vauxhall months before his death.

When Williams's decomposing body was found by police on 23 August, they also discovered £15,000 of unworn women's clothing, wigs and shoes in his wardrobe. The labels included Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, and Louboutin and were in their original boxes or wrapping paper. Williams had enrolled in two fashion design courses at Central Saint Martins College, in Clerkenwell, London, in 2009 and 2010.

Speculation has been rife that Williams' highly secretive work might explain his death. He worked as an expert on codes at the government's GCHQ eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham before moving to MI6 on a secondment.

But Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of Scotland Yard's homicide command, said: "This is not linked to his work – it's his private life."

He said police had been reluctant to make public details of Williams's private life, knowing it could prove distressing to his family, but were doing so now because his lifestyle could be key to solving whether his death was a sex game gone wrong, manslaughter or murder.

Police needed information from "a small subset of people" who were into alternative lifestyles and pursuits. "We want to speak to individuals who use these websites about bondage, tying up, linking into the drag world."

Police called in an expert in surviving in confined spaces, who concluded there was no way Williams could have padlocked himself into the bag. That means that someone must have been present to lock him in. The keys to the ordinary Yale padlock were found inside the holdall.

Campbell said: "Somebody must have been there to secure him in the bag on a voluntary or involuntary basis. If someone was there and it was a voluntary activity gone wrong, why not cut him free or call an ambulance?

"The alternative scenario is there is maybe something more sinister to it. We just don't know."

The dead man's body showed only two small bruises on his elbows, probably from him struggling and rubbing against the inside of the bag as he began to run out of oxygen.

Toxicology tests show no signs of drugs, although Campbell said it remained possible he had been stunned by something like a karate chop, which could have left no visible trace by the time the corpse was found. Otherwise any blow heavy enough to render Williams unconscious would have been picked up by tests.

"There is no sign of a struggle, no outward signs of anyone inflicting physical violence, no poisoning," said Campbell, who added: "The absence of violence to the body suggests he placed himself in the bag, unless he was stunned or unconscious. If that was done, it was not through drugs or super-secret injections."

The official cause of death is still inconclusive, but Campbell said: "It is most likely suffocation, but we can't be certain."

He said that Williams was a deeply private man and neither his employers nor his family knew he had enrolled into a course at a fashion college. There was no evidence that he was gay.

Police yesterday released efit images of a man and woman who visited the flats where Williams lived weeks before his death. The Mediterranean couple, who were in their 20s and dressed casually, were buzzed through the communal entrance at the flats in Alderney Street by another resident in late June or July. They said they had been given a key and were on their way to flat four, the property Williams lived in.

Williams, from Anglesey, north Wales, was last seen alive on 15 August, eight days before he was found dead.

An inquest will be held at Westminster coroner's court on 15 February.

• This article was amended on 23 December 2010. The original referred to Jimmy Woo, and Bistrotheque as a drag club. This has been corrected.

Guardian : Who was Gareth Williams?

Who was Gareth Williams?

When the bagged body of an MI6 agent was found in a bathtub, speculation went into overdrive. Was it suicide? Murder? A professional hit, or a sexual game gone wrong?

Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy | November 20, 2010

Three months after his body was found in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat, police still seem no closer to finding out what happened to Gareth Williams.

On Tuesday 24 August, a storm was brewing off the North Wales coast. As gusts reached 50mph in the village of Valley, on Anglesey, two sodden police officers stood at a front door on a close of modern bungalows above the beach. They knocked and knocked. Eventually someone ran out into the rain to tell them that Ellen and Ian Williams were away on holiday in the US. While detectives tried to locate the Williams abroad, someone found Ellen's father, John Hughes, who lived around the corner and broke the news: his 31-year-old grandson Gareth, a boy who had always been fit and healthy, was dead. Grandpa John was so distraught that he tripped, cut his head and had to be taken to hospital.

Then Gareth's uncle, William Hughes, who lived on a farm in nearby Trefor village, got the call. "Gareth couldn't be dead? Surely not?" Uncle William sat numbly with Gareth's 86-year-old great aunt before their open fire, staring at the porcelain figures on the mantelpiece. Gareth had been an exceptional boy, selected to work as some kind of analyst for GCHQ, the government's secret listening station in Cheltenham, but the family never talked about it. And neither did Gareth. He'd been home just three weeks earlier, recalled Hughes, cycling the lanes on his race bike before the whole family had got together. But his life was "now being lived a long way from the family in Anglesey," Hughes said, "so some things we couldn't know."

On 25 August, Ian and Ellen Williams touched down at Manchester airport and were met by police, who officially broke the news that two days earlier in London, a man believed to be their son had been found dead. The body had been found padlocked inside a sports bag in the flat where Gareth was staying. It could have been there for up to a fortnight. As they were escorted to the capital, to join their daughter Ceri, there were news reports everywhere: "British spy murdered." Apparently he had been "stabbed to death". According to stories, Gareth was a brain-box, a techie who "worked with codes", as far as they knew. Was he also a spy, they wondered?

For Ellen and Ian, Gareth's death was a horror story that "destroyed" them. For the rest of the world, it was a rare glimpse into the clandestine world of espionage. His death was compared to that of Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident killed by a poison-tipped umbrella in London 32 years before, and the 2006 murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko. Cold war details increased public fervour. The building in which the body was found was owned by a private company, registered offshore, called New Rodina. Rodina was Russian for "motherland". Did real spies read John Le Carré too?

In the midst of lurid speculation, Ian and Ellen Williams reached London. In normal circumstances, they would be required to make a physical identification. However, given the degree of decomposition, police would rely on family photos. Was Gareth murdered, his distraught family asked. Despite launching a major investigation – Operation Finlayson – Scotland Yard were finding it a hard question to answer. One major problem facing investigators was the length of time that the body had lain undiscovered. Another was that they were being blocked by the security services from probing too deeply into Williams's life. Detectives had no idea what Gareth Williams really did or who he was, and had been unable as yet to find anyone close to him. They needed the family's help.

Gareth's sister Ceri, a physiotherapist, and her husband Dr Chris Subbe, a senior registrar at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, told police they had seen Gareth in June, when he had taken them for tea at the Ritz in London to celebrate their second wedding anniversary. He'd been in the capital for more than six months, but couldn't say what he was doing.

The three spent that afternoon "laughing and joking", and afterwards continued to talk frequently by phone. Ceri last spoke to her brother on 11 August, after he returned from a short trip to the US. He now intended to "tidy things up", before returning to GCHQ in Cheltenham on 3 September.

Ceri's dates matched what police learned from Gareth's former landlady, Jenny Elliot, who had rented him a room in her house near Cheltenham for the 10 years he had worked for GCHQ, before transferring to London last year. Gareth had called her in August, asking if he could return. "Like we were going to say no," Elliot says. "He was about the best lodger you could ever have. I mean, you never heard a word from him. He had no TV, record player, or anything."

Ceri had called her brother again about a week later. No answer. She tried repeatedly, becoming worried. Gareth was like a Swiss watch. Now she contacted the police; the security services were already concerned, as Gareth had failed to show for work. On 23 August, at 6.30pm, a uniformed officer was sent to Williams's top-floor flat in a Georgian townhouse in Alderney Street, Pimlico. It was only a few hundred yards from the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall, and was used by the Secret Intelligence Service as a safe house. A lettings agent who held a spare key showed the policeman in. He was asked to wait downstairs as the officer went up and entered the curtained rooms. The place was "spotless": two iPhones, some sim cards and an Apple notebook sat on a table. Then he entered the bathroom, and found a holdall in the bathtub. Red liquid seeped from it. Inside was a body, in such a contorted position that he thought its "legs and arms had been cut off". Radioing for assistance, the policeman noted that there were no signs a struggle. This was not a robbery or home invasion. It was a "neat job", a euphemism for a professional kill.

Given his clearances and access to classified material, Williams's death triggered alarm across Whitehall. MI5 agents swept through the Alderney Street flat, followed by detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, assisted by SO15, Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command. Alderney Street was cordoned off as Home Office scientists began processing the scene. Once the spooks had departed, it was down to the murder squad to study the evidence. So far, they had a body in an "advanced state of decay". There was no weapon and no sign of forced entry or a struggle.

Concentrating on the holdall and its contents, detectives established that Williams had not been stabbed, shot or hacked to pieces. On August 25, Home Office pathologist Dr Ben Swift carried out a post-mortem that, together with the first batch of toxicological tests, came back "inconclusive". "If we don't know what to look for, and are not guided by what we see or smell on the body, we cannot find it," says a forensic scientist who worked on the Litvinenko case. "We do 50 obvious poisons. Fifty rare. We can do the isotopes. Litvinenko alerted us to that. But in the absence of a specific direction, the possibilities are as limitless as a killer's imagination… and we cannot test for that."

Detectives set out their theories. One reading of the crime scene pointed to a forensically aware hit man. Slender 5ft 7in Gareth had been stuffed inside the near-airtight red North Face sports bag and placed in the bath, containing any spillage and minimising odours, too. The heating was on, increasing the rate of decomposition, which significantly lessened the chances of retrieving evidence from the corpse.

Or perhaps the body in the bag was evidence of a stage-managed "personal event", masterminded by a controlling individual. Was this a suicide (with Williams acting on his own)? Or a sadistic or masochistic sexual act gone wrong (with Williams engaging in some kind of auto-erotic asphyxiation?). "If you can imagine it, then we are investigating it," a detective said in late August. But what would shape police inquiries was the dawning realisation that Gareth Williams had not been alone.

Returning to the holdall, studying the zips and lock, police became certain that he could not have locked himself inside. And there was further proof that someone else must have been in the flat with him: his front door had been locked from the outside.

Criminal psychologists studied the case. One, who spoke anonymously, thought his death might have been a masochistic ritual that had gone wrong: "For a retentive individual with an ever-green mind like Gareth Williams, always on duty and in control, the bag could have been a furtive release."

The Williams family was adamant that the Gareth they knew would not have behaved this way. And, for now, the family was all the police had, since they had found no close friends or lovers. Another pressing problem with their theories was that detectives had failed to turn up any other suspects or accomplices.

Police, pathologists and forensic investigators agreed on one thing only. They would have to focus on the 12 days between the last call Gareth made to Ceri and the discovery of his body on 23 August. Pulling mobile phone records and credit card transactions, scouring hours of CCTV footage, the Operation Finlayson team dug deep, as ever more lurid stories circulated.

"Murdered MI6 worker Gareth Williams was a secret transvestite who may have been killed by a gay lover, detectives said yesterday… Cops found women's clothing that would fit him at his Pimlico flat in central London." The Sun ran with this version of events, while other newspapers, quoting similar unnamed sources, reported that cocaine had been found, a cache of gay pornography, a small armoury of S&M paraphernalia. Williams was also said to have frequently paid for male escorts.

Senior detectives angrily rebutted the stories. Uncle William in Anglesey thought they read like a concerted smear, and wondered why anyone would want to destroy Gareth's reputation after he was dead.

Like most well-constructed character assassinations, however, this one was founded on a grain of fact that made it that much harder to quash. Detectives had been quietly investigating whether Gareth Williams was gay. They had canvassed witnesses in the Vauxhall Cross village of gay clubs and bars, a short walk from Alderney Street. They had also studied Williams's computers and reading matter, his journals, magazines and computer cache. Despite outright denials from his family, detectives were privately certain that Gareth was gay, although they had been unable to find trace of any sexual encounters. They had also come to believe that his sexual orientation was not central to the inquiry (although his sexual preferences might be). There was no evidence of Williams paying for escorts, buying S&M equipment, using porn or drugs of any kind. "This man didn't really even drink," one frustrated detective said.

The police felt they were being hurried along by other parties, keen for the scandal to go away. "Someone, somewhere, who has access to case material, is saying, 'He's queer and asked for it', rather than waiting for the outcome of the case," one veteran detective said.

In North Wales, the family lit their fires, closed their curtains and privately pondered if anyone had ever understood the real Gareth.

At Ysgol Gynradd Morswyn, Gareth's primary school, a short hop between Valley and Holyhead, head teacher Islwyn Williams remembers him as an exceptional pupil. At five, Gareth made a beeline for the school computer and never left it. While most of his classmates were still playing with Lego, Gareth had a GCSE in maths. At the age of 10, he went to secondary school, gaining A grades in A-level maths and computer science at 13. The school contacted Bangor University, which accepted him as a part-time student on a maths degree course. "He was the best logician… with the fastest brain I have ever met," said Geraint Williams, his maths teacher.

Fellow pupils remember Gareth as a loner. Dylan Parry, 34, thought him "isolated" by his intellect. His abilities shut him off from everyone else. He was naive. Parry believed someone "could easily take advantage of him". He recalled Gareth travelling by train each week to university, while still living at home with Ian and Ellen. Too clever for school. Too young for university.

The family downplay his isolation. They point to their closeness and his sporting prowess. By the time he was 17, Gareth had followed his father into competitive cycling. Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, with whom Ian and Gareth rode, says: "He was a really lovely young man, but wasn't a great conversationalist. Gareth wasn't the sort to go to the pub after a race."

In 1997, aged 18, Gareth left home to begin a PhD at Manchester University, acquiring an advanced level of learning that sat uneasily with his elementary life skills, although his academic mentor, professor Terry Hewitt, believed he could take it: "He was very private and worked well on his own. He was certainly not a 'geek' even if he was reserved." His dissertation focused on computer games. They had always been a private passion, with him achieving an online reputation as unbeatable. Three years on, aged 21, Gareth was approached by the British security services, who the university believes had spotted his precocious online gaming abilities. Hewitt recalled: "In 2000, Gareth came into my office and said, 'I'm going to GCHQ'. He had to tell me, as I was his referee for his vetting." Gareth left Manchester and Anglesey behind to sign the Official Secrets Act.

Williams began an advanced maths course at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but withdrew the following year, torn between academia and the demands of his new employer. At GCHQ, he was seen as stable, reliable and potentially brilliant, according to a contractor who worked there at the time. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he recalled that GCHQ was a world in which Gareth fitted, working alone, or in small teams, waist-deep in mathematical problems, challenged by cutting-edge technology and real-time problems. Possibly for the first time, he was part of a community of similarly focused individuals who were taken on for their discretion as well as for their brains, intercepting, monitoring and analysing email and telephone calls from around the world. He did feel the pressure, constantly, according to the contractor, who noted that at GCHQ many technicians were as clever or cleverer than Williams.

Work became his life. There was little time for much outside it, something evidenced by how he chose to live, renting a modest room in the Prestbury area of the town. Inside was a single, child-sized bed, a small chest of drawers, three upright wooden chairs and a gas heater – all furnished by Jenny Elliot. Over the decade he spent there, Williams introduced no luxuries, accumulated no clutter. He brought no one back. He rarely even went out after work, excepting an occasional "drink with colleagues". He worked late into the night and rose early. There was something oppressively austere about him, those colleagues thought, something they used to call his "GDR sensibility". So serious and quiet was he that when he did become animated, he "alarmed people with his unusual laugh".

Due to the nature of his work, it is hard for those who met Gareth to describe what he did, and those who talked to us did so having already left GCHQ. But all agreed that, although very capable, Williams was "a middle-ranking" technician "asserting himself in a number of sensitive areas, any one of which could theoretically have brought him into contact with enemies of our state". While GCHQ gathers intelligence from Europe, Africa and Russia, its partners in the US National Security Agency (NSA) also had access to British and European signals traffic at Menwith Hill, a top-secret RAF base near Harrogate, in Yorkshire.

When Williams arrived at Menwith, shortly after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, GCHQ and the NSA were increasingly focused on the threat of Islamist violence at home and abroad. "Between the UK and the US, we were deluged by the chatter from radicals here and over the Atlantic as they talked on landlines, satellite or mobile phones – with contacts in hot countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as with Saudi, and hubs like Dubai," one former GCHQ security consultant said. "A group around Williams worked on software to assemble, search and analyse the data, drawing out patterns and meanings."

Williams's elevation within GCHQ came with the "Liquid Bomb" plot, where a group of British radicals of Asian origin were found to be planning to detonate home-made explosives on board seven flights to major north American cities. Intercepting emails and phone calls between these plotters and their contacts abroad, Williams flew between the UK and the US, working at Fort Meade (the NSA HQ, in Baltimore).

Williams was brought into close proximity to US intelligence, Islamic radicals and Middle Eastern agents. He would rub shoulders with the Russians, too, according to a foreign intelligence analyst based in the UK, who described how technology and software honed by GCHQ was deployed in tracking a Moscow-backed sleeper cell to which Britain had been alerted as early as 2003. The case blew up in June 2010 when 10 people were arrested in the US and accused of being part of an espionage ring. One of them, a glamorous 28-year-old called Anna Chapman, had lived for five years in the UK. According to the former GCHQ contractor, "Williams had been obsessed by the case, its methodology and characters."

He was now on secondment to MI6, with its focus on foreign targets and intelligence-gathering, becoming more of a spy than a desk-bound technician, although Williams would shortly be called back to GCHQ to work on a new and ambitious project.

He had been liaising again with counterparts at the NSA, who were part of an effort to create an American cyber defence policy, to prevent the siphoning off of secret or commercially sensitive data or a military style assault on defence or civil systems. Its importance was alluded to last month in a speech by home secretary Theresa May, in which she identified cyber crime as among the pre-eminent future threats facing the UK. A cyber crimes specialist who knew Williams revealed that at the time of his death he was researching British vulnerability to Russian, Turkish and Chinese gangs: "He was already on top of it."

Rogue individuals and nation states, Islamist terror groups and radical loners, extortionists and organised criminals – these were just some of those Williams had observed, investigated, disrupted and provoked. Any one of them was capable of reciprocating, lethally.

Back at the Yard, Operation Finlayson detectives were looking at a vast range of potential threats, but still had few clues, no accomplices or even a plausible denouement for a man whose personal and professional inclinations were to camouflage everything he did.

By September, an exhaustive trawl had come up with some CCTV footage. In the frames released to the public, Gareth Williams saunters by Holland Park tube station in west London at 3pm on 14 August, three days after he had last spoken to his sister.

Staff at the nearby Valerie's Patisserie said that in the week before, a man fitting Gareth's description had spent several hours in the cafe on consecutive days, sitting at the rear with a laptop, receiving occasional visitors. One security source said that he believed Williams was "working" in west London – monitoring one of the many foreign embassies in the area – just as he had been "working" while on his recent "holiday" to the US.

Police released footage of Williams on 15 August, too. At 2pm, he was filmed at a cash machine, visiting Harrods, walking at 2.30pm via Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge towards Sloane Street. Soon after he vanished.

By the end of September, after a second barrage of toxicology tests proved inconclusive, Gareth Williams's body was released and laid to rest in North Wales. On 26 September, the extended Williams clan gathered outside the Bethel chapel in Holyhead to bid farewell. Given the florid rumours that had circulated around his death, they were surprised by the appearance there of Sir John Sawers, head of MI6. Williams had been with his service for less than a year, yet Sawyers told reporters, "I wanted to be here today as the only public face of the Secret Intelligence Service. My deepest sympathies go to the family. Gareth was a hugely talented person, and he was very modest and generous as well. He did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security."

What a difference 30 days make. After an investigation that had failed to turn up the smallest vice, Williams was no longer lampooned but celebrated as a very British spy: modest, capable and known well by no one.

As they buried Gareth, Dr Chris Subbe, speaking for his wife Ceri and the family, recalled how they had laughed and chatted with him at the Ritz, celebrating their marriage and his brilliant career. "The world was ours for the taking," he said. "Yet here I am three months later to the day, trying to describe your rich life with my poor words."

Independent : David Randall: Baffling death ...

David Randall: Baffling death ...

October 31, 2010

Surprisingly little attention – given the international hoo-ha his death caused – has been given to Thursday's results of toxicology tests on the body of MI6 mathematician and code expert Gareth Williams. He was found, remember, naked, in a kneeling position, inside a large sports holdall which had been padlocked. The tests showed no trace of poison, alcohol, or drugs in his body, which knocked on the head the idea that Mr Williams had been sedated, bagged up, and left to die.

Other theories, however, continue to flourish, among them the persistent one that Mr Williams was afflicted with a sexual kink only satisfied by severe confinement. The Sun reports that he had recently visited websites on claustrophobia and sadomasochism, allowing them to headline their story: "Bag spook died in 'Houdini' game". Similar reports have been denied in the past, and all police will say is that they continue to seek a couple who were let into Mr Williams's flat shortly before the assumed time of his death.

Toronto Sun : MI6 spy died in sex game gone wrong

MI6 spy died in sex game gone wrong

By QMI Agency | October 30, 2010

Police now believe that Gareth Williams, the former codebreaker for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service MI6 whose body was found naked in a padlocked gym bag in his west London flat, died accidentally from the lack of oxygen during a sex game gone wrong.

British tabloid The Sun reports that police say the 31-year-old man got sexual pleasure from being confined in small places and agreed to be locked in a 32-inch long North Face sports bag.

Police believe Williams died quickly from the heat and lack of air inside the bag while the person who locked him inside was out of the room. When the person realized Williams suffocated to death, he or she put the key inside the bag and moved it to the bath tub where police found the body on Aug. 23.

Toxicology reports came back clean and police have ruled out foul play but are looking for the person who locked Williams inside the bag as well as a couple that visited his apartment a month before his death.

The former codebreaker's computers showed that he visited websites on claustrophilia as well as bondage and sado-masochism.

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

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

By Daily Mail Reporter | October 29, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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