MI6 'body-in-bag' spy learned to pick locks at Las Vegas escapology convention weeks before he died after being sent there to mix with criminals
By Chris Greenwood | May 4, 2012
Spy Gareth Williams may have studied lock-picking and escapology weeks before his naked corpse was found in a padlocked bag.
It has emerged that MI6 sent the 31-year-old to mingle with hackers, fraudsters and other criminals at the Def Con conference in Las Vegas.
It included classes on opening padlocks without keys, escaping from handcuffs, tampering with objects without leaving traces and confounding drug tests.
The event is a magnet for spies from agencies across the world.
Delegates are encouraged to ‘out’ government agents and undercover police officers, raising the possibility that the highly sensitive nature of Mr Williams’s job was exposed.
Earlier this week, the inquest into Mr Williams’s death was told he travelled to Las Vegas for the well-respected Black Hat hackers convention.
The event, which costs more than £1,000 to attend, features high-profile guest speakers and lavish hospitality funded by technology firms.
Less was made of the fact that Mr Williams stayed in the US to attend Def Con at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.
Its unusual conference pass – a working circuit board – was discovered in Mr Williams’s Alderney Street flat.
Two Scotland Yard detectives have already retraced Mr Williams’s steps in Las Vegas and during a week-long driving holiday that followed.
They linked an orange fancy-dress wig discovered at his flat to a shop there, where a member of staff remembered selling it to him.
However, they are unlikely to have discovered what he did during the secretive second conference, which he attended with a team of colleagues.
A British security expert told the Daily Mail he met GCHQ staff at Def Con, but said Mr Williams was not among them.
‘We met for a chat and coffee,’ he said. ‘They were just one of several intelligence agencies that I do business with. I did not see [Mr Williams] and I would remember his face.'
Mr Williams flew back to London on August 11, 2010, but never returned to MI6’s headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.
His family suspect that an agent of the ‘dark arts’ was involved in his murder, in the early hours of August 16.
Detectives have been instructed not to rule out the ‘legitimate line of inquiry’ that an MI6 colleague or foreign agent was responsible.
Delegates queue for hours to pay £60 admission for Def Con, which was founded as an alternative to the main Black Hat conference. Few provide their real names.
In 2010, one of Def Con’s main stands included a huge range of padlocks that attendees were invited to pick.
Elsewhere, three escapology experts gave an hour-long presentation demonstrating how to release handcuffs using slim pieces of metal and skeleton keys.
Delegates could also win a prize by working around supposedly tamper-proof stickers, metal clasps and plastic ties with a range of tools and chemicals without leaving a trace.
Most seminars and talks focused on computer hacking, including password cracking, eavesdropping on phone conversations and seizing control of wi-fi networks.
In one demonstration, a well-known hacker showed that he could make a cash machine spew out notes.
Chester Wisniewski, of computer security firm Sophos, said Def Con has a ‘free-wheeling spirit’ and an ‘anything goes environment’.
He added: ‘There are probably criminals there – anyone from a Russian mafia guy, a child pornographer to God knows who else.
‘It’s a well-known fact that lots of spies and Government agents go.
There is even a game called “spot the Fed”.
If you call them out and they admit to being from an agency the person gets a T-shirt.’
Mr Williams attended the same conference two years earlier, according to one of his colleagues at GCHQ who gave evidence at the inquest.
It was also revealed that Mr Williams ran up a substantial credit card bill at the two 2010 conferences, sending his account into the red.
Daily Mail : MI6 'body-in-bag' spy learned to pick locks at Las Vegas escapology convention weeks before he died after being sent there to mix with criminals
Friday, May 04, 2012
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Wales Online : MI6 spy Gareth Williams killed by foreign agents, claims security expert
Friday, May 04, 2012
MI6 spy Gareth Williams killed by foreign agents, claims security expert
Darren Devine | May 4, 2012
Welsh spy Gareth Williams was murdered by a foreign power because his appetite for bizarre sex games made him a soft target for blackmailers, a security expert claims.
Professor Anthony Glees believes Mr Williams was probably killed after either passing on or refusing to divulge secrets to foreign spies.
An inquest into his death heard how he once had to be rescued by his landlady after tying himself to a bed in an incident she believed was “sexual”.
Prof Glees, head of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said: “It was clear that there was a connection between his private life and the work he was doing being used to effectively blackmail him.
“In other words, it was always possible that the bizarre and unusual sexual interests he was developing had been communicated to a hostile intelligence service.
“It was entirely unintentional, but they got to know of it and encouraged him. He was killed either because he had not given them what they wanted or he had given them what they wanted and they wanted to make sure they left no tracks.”
Mr Williams was found padlocked inside a holdall in the bath at his London flat - coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said it was highly unlikely he got in the bag alone.
Professor Glees has previously said he believes Iranian or Russian spies would have been most likely to target 31-year-old Mr Williams.
In her narrative verdict coroner Dr Wilcox said Mr Williams, from Valley, near Holyhead on Anglesey, was probably the victim of a “criminally mediated” unlawful killing in which poison may have been used.
Dr Wilcox also said it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death of the GCHQ code breaker.
But she said “there was no evidence to support” that Williams, who was on secondment to MI6, died at the hands of spies.
Prof Glees also said nine memory sticks found among Mr Williams’ personal possessions at his office in Vauxhall Cross, London, lend weight to the idea the spy was murdered.
He said: “You wouldn’t expect to get a memory stick out of MI6 or MI5 or GCHQ and Gareth must have known that.
“However to have those sticks was highly irregular and because he was clearly taking risks maybe he was thinking about taking the risk of taking stuff out of MI6.”
The failure of MI6 to hand over the memory sticks to the police was the subject of criticism by the coroner, who accused the security services of hampering the investigation.
MI6 were also criticised for waiting a week before raising the alarm over the spy’s disappearance.
But terrorism expert Michael Burleigh believes the explanation for Mr Williams’ death in August 2010 is more straightforward.
The author of Blood And Rage: A Cultural History Of Terrorism, believes the spy died after a sex game went wrong.
He said the lack of hand or footprints in Mr Williams’ bathroom suggests he got into the bag voluntarily.
Mr Burleigh said part of the game may have involved the others leaving the flat while Mr Williams tried to get out of the bag.
Scientists found traces of "at least" two unknown people in his upmarket London apartment despite evidence Mr Williams rarely invited people over.
The author, who believes Mr Williams was too junior a spook interest a foreign power, said: “I think it’s very likely to be sexual and I think the most plausible explanation, given that he didn’t leave prints on the bath, was that somebody was involved in whatever he was doing.
“I think whoever he was doing this with went away and probably thought he’s got a key in the bag. They went away and maybe panicked and came back and found him dead.
“I don’t believe he was killed and put in the bag because dead bodies are extremely heavy and inert and because of rigor mortis it’s virtually impossible to make them flexible.”
Darren Devine | May 4, 2012
Welsh spy Gareth Williams was murdered by a foreign power because his appetite for bizarre sex games made him a soft target for blackmailers, a security expert claims.
Professor Anthony Glees believes Mr Williams was probably killed after either passing on or refusing to divulge secrets to foreign spies.
An inquest into his death heard how he once had to be rescued by his landlady after tying himself to a bed in an incident she believed was “sexual”.
Prof Glees, head of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said: “It was clear that there was a connection between his private life and the work he was doing being used to effectively blackmail him.
“In other words, it was always possible that the bizarre and unusual sexual interests he was developing had been communicated to a hostile intelligence service.
“It was entirely unintentional, but they got to know of it and encouraged him. He was killed either because he had not given them what they wanted or he had given them what they wanted and they wanted to make sure they left no tracks.”
Mr Williams was found padlocked inside a holdall in the bath at his London flat - coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said it was highly unlikely he got in the bag alone.
Professor Glees has previously said he believes Iranian or Russian spies would have been most likely to target 31-year-old Mr Williams.
In her narrative verdict coroner Dr Wilcox said Mr Williams, from Valley, near Holyhead on Anglesey, was probably the victim of a “criminally mediated” unlawful killing in which poison may have been used.
Dr Wilcox also said it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death of the GCHQ code breaker.
But she said “there was no evidence to support” that Williams, who was on secondment to MI6, died at the hands of spies.
Prof Glees also said nine memory sticks found among Mr Williams’ personal possessions at his office in Vauxhall Cross, London, lend weight to the idea the spy was murdered.
He said: “You wouldn’t expect to get a memory stick out of MI6 or MI5 or GCHQ and Gareth must have known that.
“However to have those sticks was highly irregular and because he was clearly taking risks maybe he was thinking about taking the risk of taking stuff out of MI6.”
The failure of MI6 to hand over the memory sticks to the police was the subject of criticism by the coroner, who accused the security services of hampering the investigation.
MI6 were also criticised for waiting a week before raising the alarm over the spy’s disappearance.
But terrorism expert Michael Burleigh believes the explanation for Mr Williams’ death in August 2010 is more straightforward.
The author of Blood And Rage: A Cultural History Of Terrorism, believes the spy died after a sex game went wrong.
He said the lack of hand or footprints in Mr Williams’ bathroom suggests he got into the bag voluntarily.
Mr Burleigh said part of the game may have involved the others leaving the flat while Mr Williams tried to get out of the bag.
Scientists found traces of "at least" two unknown people in his upmarket London apartment despite evidence Mr Williams rarely invited people over.
The author, who believes Mr Williams was too junior a spook interest a foreign power, said: “I think it’s very likely to be sexual and I think the most plausible explanation, given that he didn’t leave prints on the bath, was that somebody was involved in whatever he was doing.
“I think whoever he was doing this with went away and probably thought he’s got a key in the bag. They went away and maybe panicked and came back and found him dead.
“I don’t believe he was killed and put in the bag because dead bodies are extremely heavy and inert and because of rigor mortis it’s virtually impossible to make them flexible.”
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IOL : Cops turn to ‘spy-in-bag’ iPhone
Friday, May 04, 2012
Cops turn to ‘spy-in-bag’ iPhone
By CHRIS GREENWOOD | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was on Thursday preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: “A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.”
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a “legitimate line of inquiry”.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving “careful consideration” to any new “evidential opportunities”.
Daily Mail
By CHRIS GREENWOOD | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was on Thursday preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: “A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.”
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a “legitimate line of inquiry”.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving “careful consideration” to any new “evidential opportunities”.
Daily Mail
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Press TV : MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner
Friday, May 04, 2012
MI6 spy was unlawfully killed: British coroner
May 4, 2012
A British coroner has said the MI6 spy whose body was found at his government flat was probably “unlawfully killed”, admitting it is “unlikely” the circumstances surrounding his death “will ever be satisfactorily explained."
“The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated," said British coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox in her two-hour narrative verdict at Westminster Coroner's Court.
“I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully," added Wilcox.
The naked and decomposing body of Gareth Williams, a spy for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), was found in the bath at his government flat in south London in August 2010.
An inquest into Williams’ mysterious death opened on Monday 23 April. After seven days of inquest and also considering a 21-month police inquiry, Wilcox said most of the fundamental questions about how he had died remained unanswered.
Prior to the opening of the inquest on Monday, Williams’ family, friends, and neighbors said they feared he might be the victim of a “cover-up."
Williams’ family believes that a member of “some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services” had a role to play in his death.
Wilcox also said that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams’ death.
ISH/MA/HE
May 4, 2012
A British coroner has said the MI6 spy whose body was found at his government flat was probably “unlawfully killed”, admitting it is “unlikely” the circumstances surrounding his death “will ever be satisfactorily explained."
“The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated," said British coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox in her two-hour narrative verdict at Westminster Coroner's Court.
“I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully," added Wilcox.
The naked and decomposing body of Gareth Williams, a spy for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), was found in the bath at his government flat in south London in August 2010.
An inquest into Williams’ mysterious death opened on Monday 23 April. After seven days of inquest and also considering a 21-month police inquiry, Wilcox said most of the fundamental questions about how he had died remained unanswered.
Prior to the opening of the inquest on Monday, Williams’ family, friends, and neighbors said they feared he might be the victim of a “cover-up."
Williams’ family believes that a member of “some agency specializing in the dark arts of the secret services” had a role to play in his death.
Wilcox also said that it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams’ death.
ISH/MA/HE
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Daily Post : Spies face DNA tests in Gareth Williams probe
Friday, May 04, 2012
Spies face DNA tests in Gareth Williams probe
by Owen R Hughes, DPW West | May 4, 2012
POLICE investigating the death of Anglesey codebreaker Gareth Williams will take DNA samples from members of the secret services in a bid to find out how he died.
MI6 came under fire as a coroner said she was sure a third party locked the maths wizard inside the red holdall in which his body was found in his bathtub at his London flat in August 2010.
Dr Fiona Wilcox said he was probably killed and it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death.
A source at the Metropolitan police confirmed that the collection of DNA samples was being widened as part of the continuing probe but could not confirm who was being targeted.
Despite the 21 month police investigation and eight day inquest into the death of Mr Williams, 31, of Valley, his family are no closer to knowing how he died.
The inquest exposed serious errors in the probe, which was also initially hampered by the week long delay in the MI6 reporting that Mr Williams had not attended work.
Mr Williams’s relatives attacked failures by secret services and police after the coroner said “many agencies fell short” in their investigation of the death riddle.
It is now hoped that a re-focusing of the investigation and new evidence that emerged at the inquest can help shed more light on the mysterious case.
Family friend Colin Torr, from Valley, said: “It would have been nice for the family to have had some kind of closure but there were no firm conclusions from the inquest.
“There have clearly been errors made in the investigation and with MI6 involved I don’t know if we will ever find the truth.
“The family are held in great respect in the village and people continue to rally around them.”
Mr Williams would have been unlikely to invite a third party who was not a family member into his home, Dr Wilcox observed, adding: “If a third party was present at the time of his death, in my view that third party would have to have been someone he knew or someone who was there without an invitation.”
Criticising the inquiry, she warned it was unlikely the mystery would “ever be satisfactorily explained”.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said the inquest had raised “several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry”.
by Owen R Hughes, DPW West | May 4, 2012
POLICE investigating the death of Anglesey codebreaker Gareth Williams will take DNA samples from members of the secret services in a bid to find out how he died.
MI6 came under fire as a coroner said she was sure a third party locked the maths wizard inside the red holdall in which his body was found in his bathtub at his London flat in August 2010.
Dr Fiona Wilcox said he was probably killed and it “remained a legitimate line of inquiry” that the secret services may have been involved in the death.
A source at the Metropolitan police confirmed that the collection of DNA samples was being widened as part of the continuing probe but could not confirm who was being targeted.
Despite the 21 month police investigation and eight day inquest into the death of Mr Williams, 31, of Valley, his family are no closer to knowing how he died.
The inquest exposed serious errors in the probe, which was also initially hampered by the week long delay in the MI6 reporting that Mr Williams had not attended work.
Mr Williams’s relatives attacked failures by secret services and police after the coroner said “many agencies fell short” in their investigation of the death riddle.
It is now hoped that a re-focusing of the investigation and new evidence that emerged at the inquest can help shed more light on the mysterious case.
Family friend Colin Torr, from Valley, said: “It would have been nice for the family to have had some kind of closure but there were no firm conclusions from the inquest.
“There have clearly been errors made in the investigation and with MI6 involved I don’t know if we will ever find the truth.
“The family are held in great respect in the village and people continue to rally around them.”
Mr Williams would have been unlikely to invite a third party who was not a family member into his home, Dr Wilcox observed, adding: “If a third party was present at the time of his death, in my view that third party would have to have been someone he knew or someone who was there without an invitation.”
Criticising the inquiry, she warned it was unlikely the mystery would “ever be satisfactorily explained”.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said the inquest had raised “several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry”.
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West End Extra : Coroner records 'unnatural death' verdict, but will we ever know what really happened to the spy found in a holdall?
Friday, May 04, 2012
Coroner records 'unnatural death' verdict, but will we ever know what really happened to the spy found in a holdall?
by JOSH LOEB | May 4, 2012
THE building that hosted the inquest into the death of Gareth Williams is located just steps from Sherlock Holmes’s fictional home in Baker Street.
But perhaps even someone of the calibre of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective might lack the ability to unravel what has already become known as “The Alderney Street Mystery”.
An inquest, held inside the annexe of the creaking Marylebone Council House building in Marylebone Road, concluded this week after seven days of evidence and a blizzard of media coverage.
It has almost certainly been the most complex Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox has heard since taking up the post a year ago, and it is hard to imagine a more haunting case.
Mr Williams, 31, a prodigious agent for MI6, was found dead inside a padlocked holdall in a bath in an en suite bathroom at his Pimlico flat on August 23, 2010.
He was naked and was lying on his back curled up in a partial foetal position.
There were no signs of a break-in or struggle at the property.
The flat was eerily tidy and neither Mr Williams’s fingerprints nor his footprints were evident on the bathroom tiles or sides of the bath.
No forensic traces have yet been pinpointed from which any third party can be identified, but experts are still analysing mystery DNA found on the holdall in the hope this could yield a breakthrough.
In her summing up on Wednesday, Dr Wilcox ruled out the possibility that Mr Williams could have zipped himself into the holdall and locked it, still less accomplished this within the even more restricted confines of the bath.
She said: “I am satisfied so that I’m sure that a third party lifted the bag into the bath and, on the balance of probabilities, locked the bag."
"The cause of his [Mr Williams’s] death is unnatural and is likely to be criminally motivated.”
She said it was probable that Mr Williams had died inside the holdall, adding that it was logical to assume this had been placed in the bath to allow the products of decomposition to drain away.
The door of the bathroom had been shut, preventing the smell from spreading.
Mr Williams worked at MI6’s headquarters in Vauxhall, where he was on a secondment from the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham.
Described as a scrupulous risk assessor, he only ever let vetted people into his flat.
He was last seen alive on Sunday August 15, 2010, and an analysis of one of his iPhones showed it had been reset to factory settings, essentially wiped clean of data, on that date.
Dr Wilcox speculated that “this may have been the phone by which some third party had made some arrangement to meet with Gareth”.
On August 16 Mr Williams failed to appear for work.
Incredibly, he was not reported missing until August 23.
The heating in his flat was on despite the fact that it was a sweltering August, and this caused the corpse to decompose faster than it otherwise would have done.
On the fourth day of evidence, Anthony O’Toole, the lawyer for the Williams family, said MI6’s delay in raising the alarm over the disappearance had produced “horrendous results”.
“Because of the decomposition of the body, any forensic evidence that could have been derived from it has disappeared, so the police investigation has in effect been defeated,” he said.
Dr Wilcox, who recorded a narrative verdict of “unnatural death”, criticised MI6 for this, prompting an apology from the organisation’s chief Sir John Sawers, who promised lessons had been learned.
The court heard that SO15 counter-terrorism command had acted as a conduit between MI6 and DCI Jackie Sebire, the detective leading the case.
But they repeatedly failed to pass potentially vital information on to her.
DCI Sebire said the inquest had raised new lines of inquiry, and she appealed to anyone with any information to come forward, but Dr Wilcox said she believed it was unlikely Mr Williams’s death would ever be satisfactorily explained.
The Williams family have always said they believe “some agency specialising in the dark arts” either had a hand in Mr Williams’s death or cleaned up afterwards.
That impression looks set to remain in the minds of many people, particularly those who have borne witness to this gripping and almost unprecedented window into the cloak-and-dagger world of secret service spooks.
by JOSH LOEB | May 4, 2012
THE building that hosted the inquest into the death of Gareth Williams is located just steps from Sherlock Holmes’s fictional home in Baker Street.
But perhaps even someone of the calibre of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective might lack the ability to unravel what has already become known as “The Alderney Street Mystery”.
An inquest, held inside the annexe of the creaking Marylebone Council House building in Marylebone Road, concluded this week after seven days of evidence and a blizzard of media coverage.
It has almost certainly been the most complex Westminster coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox has heard since taking up the post a year ago, and it is hard to imagine a more haunting case.
Mr Williams, 31, a prodigious agent for MI6, was found dead inside a padlocked holdall in a bath in an en suite bathroom at his Pimlico flat on August 23, 2010.
He was naked and was lying on his back curled up in a partial foetal position.
There were no signs of a break-in or struggle at the property.
The flat was eerily tidy and neither Mr Williams’s fingerprints nor his footprints were evident on the bathroom tiles or sides of the bath.
No forensic traces have yet been pinpointed from which any third party can be identified, but experts are still analysing mystery DNA found on the holdall in the hope this could yield a breakthrough.
In her summing up on Wednesday, Dr Wilcox ruled out the possibility that Mr Williams could have zipped himself into the holdall and locked it, still less accomplished this within the even more restricted confines of the bath.
She said: “I am satisfied so that I’m sure that a third party lifted the bag into the bath and, on the balance of probabilities, locked the bag."
"The cause of his [Mr Williams’s] death is unnatural and is likely to be criminally motivated.”
She said it was probable that Mr Williams had died inside the holdall, adding that it was logical to assume this had been placed in the bath to allow the products of decomposition to drain away.
The door of the bathroom had been shut, preventing the smell from spreading.
Mr Williams worked at MI6’s headquarters in Vauxhall, where he was on a secondment from the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham.
Described as a scrupulous risk assessor, he only ever let vetted people into his flat.
He was last seen alive on Sunday August 15, 2010, and an analysis of one of his iPhones showed it had been reset to factory settings, essentially wiped clean of data, on that date.
Dr Wilcox speculated that “this may have been the phone by which some third party had made some arrangement to meet with Gareth”.
On August 16 Mr Williams failed to appear for work.
Incredibly, he was not reported missing until August 23.
The heating in his flat was on despite the fact that it was a sweltering August, and this caused the corpse to decompose faster than it otherwise would have done.
On the fourth day of evidence, Anthony O’Toole, the lawyer for the Williams family, said MI6’s delay in raising the alarm over the disappearance had produced “horrendous results”.
“Because of the decomposition of the body, any forensic evidence that could have been derived from it has disappeared, so the police investigation has in effect been defeated,” he said.
Dr Wilcox, who recorded a narrative verdict of “unnatural death”, criticised MI6 for this, prompting an apology from the organisation’s chief Sir John Sawers, who promised lessons had been learned.
The court heard that SO15 counter-terrorism command had acted as a conduit between MI6 and DCI Jackie Sebire, the detective leading the case.
But they repeatedly failed to pass potentially vital information on to her.
DCI Sebire said the inquest had raised new lines of inquiry, and she appealed to anyone with any information to come forward, but Dr Wilcox said she believed it was unlikely Mr Williams’s death would ever be satisfactorily explained.
The Williams family have always said they believe “some agency specialising in the dark arts” either had a hand in Mr Williams’s death or cleaned up afterwards.
That impression looks set to remain in the minds of many people, particularly those who have borne witness to this gripping and almost unprecedented window into the cloak-and-dagger world of secret service spooks.
Filed under
Anthony O'Toole,
dark arts,
Fiona Wilcox,
foetal,
iPhone,
Jackie Sebire,
Sherlock Holmes,
Sir John Sawers
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, May 04, 2012 |
link |
email |
TSWKTM home |
SHATASM home |
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Wired : MI6 Codebreaker Attended U.S. Security Conference Before His Death
Friday, May 04, 2012
MI6 Codebreaker Attended U.S. Security Conference Before His Death
Kim Zetter | May 3, 2012
A top British codebreaker who died a mysterious death in his flat two years ago had just returned from a computer security conference in the United States before his death, according to information disclosed during an inquest this week.
The body of Gareth Williams, a codebreaker with Britain’s MI6 spy agency, was discovered stuffed into a sports bag in his bathtub on Aug. 23, 2010, though he’s believed to have been killed Aug. 15.
Williams had just returned to London on Aug. 11 after spending six weeks in the United States, where he attended the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas as part of a contingent of British spies, according to witnesses who spoke at the inquest. He attended Black Hat in 2008 as well.
It’s believed Williams may have also attended Black Hat’s companion hacker conference, DefCon, which follows Black Hat and draws many of the same attendees. In 2010, Black Hat was held July 24 to 29, while DefCon ran from July 30 to Aug. 1.
Black Hat is one of the top security conferences in the world, targeting the professional security crowd, while DefCon is geared more specifically to hackers. Law enforcement agents, the military and undercover spies regularly attend both conferences — often undercover — to keep pace with the latest research and learn what hackers are up to. They also recruit hackers for professional work.
DefCon holds an annual spot-the-fed contest to out undercover agents as a good-natured sport. Attendees who spot a fed receive an “I spotted a Fed” T-shirt, while the outed agent gets a trophy T-shirt of his own to take back to his office, sporting the phrase “I was spotted at DefCon.”
Not everyone wants to be outed or plays by the conference ground rules for working undercover. Several years ago, undercover agents believed to be working for Israel’s Mossad spy agency were kicked out of the conference after registering as journalists and posing as a French film crew from Canal Plus.
It’s not known specifically why Williams attended Black Hat or if he and his colleagues attended incognito. A Black Hat organizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Williams, who was 31 when he died, was found inside a North Face nylon sports bag in the bathtub of his apartment. His nude body was in the fetal position, with his arms folded across his chest. The bag was closed with a padlock, and two keys to the padlock were found underneath Williams’ body inside the bag.
His mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were laid out on a table nearby; the phone had been restored to its factory settings. There were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and no signs of a struggle.
Williams was described by those who knew him as a “math genius” who graduated from Bangor University at the age of 17 with a degree in mathematics. He’d begun his university studies while still in secondary school. In 2001 he joined Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s listening post, helping to break coded Taliban communications, among other things. He was considered a “world-class intelligence officer” and had won two awards for codebreaking, according to his boss at GCHQ.
In 2009, he was loaned out to MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, for a three-year stint, but asked to be transferred back to GCHQ after a year. He was preparing to move back to his old job around the time he was killed.
Williams had worked in a four-man team as an expert codebreaker and shortly before his death had been in contact with two secret agents working in the field in the U.K., according to testimony at the inquest.
The Daily Mail quoted anonymous sources last year saying that Williams had been working on secret technology to track stolen money being laundered through Britain by Russian mafia. The technology was reportedly designed to allow MI6 agents to follow money from bank accounts in Russia to criminal gangs in Europe via internet and wire transfers.
He also worked on another secretive project to develop devices for stealing data from mobile phones and laptops using wireless technology.
“He was involved in a very sensitive project with the highest security clearance,” the anonymous source told the Daily Mail. “He was not an agent doing surveillance, but was very much part of the team, working on the technology side, devising stuff like software.”
The source indicated that Williams’ work to disrupt the Russian mafia could have put him at risk.
“Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams,” the source said.
Williams also had reportedly worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the United Kingdom. He had made repeated visits to the United States to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al-Qaida official in Pakistan and three men who were convicted in 2009 of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights.
Investigators said during the inquest that there was no evidence Williams was killed as a result of the work he was doing, but they acknowledged that a full investigation had been thwarted by the spy agencies who employed Williams, raising suspicions that the agencies might have been involved in his death or at least know who was responsible for it.
Hours before he died, surveillance cameras captured Williams in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood while he was shopping at the luxury department store Harrods. Williams was expected at work the next day, but never showed up. MI6 did not report him missing, however, until Aug. 23, at which point his body had decomposed, thwarting attempts to determine the precise cause of death.
The spy agencies also failed to hand over nine thumb drives found in Williams’ locker at work. The drives were released to investigators only this week. Other electronic equipment that Williams used at work was handed over to Scotland Yard investigators four days after Williams’ body was discovered, raising questions about whether they had been cleaned by the spy agencies first.
Family and friends testified that Williams was unhappy with his work environment at MI6 and felt he didn’t fit in with his colleagues. During the inquest, testimony revealed that the coder had conducted unauthorized searches of an MI6 database that could have put him at risk if he was discovered. Investigators said, however, that MI6 was apparently unaware that Williams had conducted the searches.
A coroner said at the inquest that while it appeared unlikely that British spy agencies played a role in the coder’s death, it was still a “legitimate line of inquiry” for the investigation.
Investigators found no fingerprints or other any other evidence indicating someone had been with Williams the night he died, or that anyone beyond his family had ever been in his apartment. Investigators said at the inquest that small traces of incomplete DNA had been found on the tiny padlock that had been used to closed the bag in which Williams’ body was stuffed. The only other DNA evidence found in the apartment that didn’t belong to Williams or his family was found on a green hand towel in the kitchen.
Authorities plan to take DNA evidence from 50 colleagues who worked with Williams at MI6 to determine if there is a match.
Kim Zetter | May 3, 2012
A top British codebreaker who died a mysterious death in his flat two years ago had just returned from a computer security conference in the United States before his death, according to information disclosed during an inquest this week.
The body of Gareth Williams, a codebreaker with Britain’s MI6 spy agency, was discovered stuffed into a sports bag in his bathtub on Aug. 23, 2010, though he’s believed to have been killed Aug. 15.
Williams had just returned to London on Aug. 11 after spending six weeks in the United States, where he attended the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas as part of a contingent of British spies, according to witnesses who spoke at the inquest. He attended Black Hat in 2008 as well.
It’s believed Williams may have also attended Black Hat’s companion hacker conference, DefCon, which follows Black Hat and draws many of the same attendees. In 2010, Black Hat was held July 24 to 29, while DefCon ran from July 30 to Aug. 1.
Black Hat is one of the top security conferences in the world, targeting the professional security crowd, while DefCon is geared more specifically to hackers. Law enforcement agents, the military and undercover spies regularly attend both conferences — often undercover — to keep pace with the latest research and learn what hackers are up to. They also recruit hackers for professional work.
DefCon holds an annual spot-the-fed contest to out undercover agents as a good-natured sport. Attendees who spot a fed receive an “I spotted a Fed” T-shirt, while the outed agent gets a trophy T-shirt of his own to take back to his office, sporting the phrase “I was spotted at DefCon.”
Not everyone wants to be outed or plays by the conference ground rules for working undercover. Several years ago, undercover agents believed to be working for Israel’s Mossad spy agency were kicked out of the conference after registering as journalists and posing as a French film crew from Canal Plus.
It’s not known specifically why Williams attended Black Hat or if he and his colleagues attended incognito. A Black Hat organizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Williams, who was 31 when he died, was found inside a North Face nylon sports bag in the bathtub of his apartment. His nude body was in the fetal position, with his arms folded across his chest. The bag was closed with a padlock, and two keys to the padlock were found underneath Williams’ body inside the bag.
His mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were laid out on a table nearby; the phone had been restored to its factory settings. There were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and no signs of a struggle.
Williams was described by those who knew him as a “math genius” who graduated from Bangor University at the age of 17 with a degree in mathematics. He’d begun his university studies while still in secondary school. In 2001 he joined Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s listening post, helping to break coded Taliban communications, among other things. He was considered a “world-class intelligence officer” and had won two awards for codebreaking, according to his boss at GCHQ.
In 2009, he was loaned out to MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, for a three-year stint, but asked to be transferred back to GCHQ after a year. He was preparing to move back to his old job around the time he was killed.
Williams had worked in a four-man team as an expert codebreaker and shortly before his death had been in contact with two secret agents working in the field in the U.K., according to testimony at the inquest.
The Daily Mail quoted anonymous sources last year saying that Williams had been working on secret technology to track stolen money being laundered through Britain by Russian mafia. The technology was reportedly designed to allow MI6 agents to follow money from bank accounts in Russia to criminal gangs in Europe via internet and wire transfers.
He also worked on another secretive project to develop devices for stealing data from mobile phones and laptops using wireless technology.
“He was involved in a very sensitive project with the highest security clearance,” the anonymous source told the Daily Mail. “He was not an agent doing surveillance, but was very much part of the team, working on the technology side, devising stuff like software.”
The source indicated that Williams’ work to disrupt the Russian mafia could have put him at risk.
“Some of these powerful criminal networks have links with, and employ, former KGB agents who can track down people like Williams,” the source said.
Williams also had reportedly worked with the NSA and British intelligence to intercept e-mail messages that helped convict would-be bombers in the United Kingdom. He had made repeated visits to the United States to meet with the National Security Agency and worked closely with British and U.S. spy agencies to intercept and examine communications that passed between an al-Qaida official in Pakistan and three men who were convicted in 2009 of plotting to bomb transcontinental flights.
Investigators said during the inquest that there was no evidence Williams was killed as a result of the work he was doing, but they acknowledged that a full investigation had been thwarted by the spy agencies who employed Williams, raising suspicions that the agencies might have been involved in his death or at least know who was responsible for it.
Hours before he died, surveillance cameras captured Williams in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood while he was shopping at the luxury department store Harrods. Williams was expected at work the next day, but never showed up. MI6 did not report him missing, however, until Aug. 23, at which point his body had decomposed, thwarting attempts to determine the precise cause of death.
The spy agencies also failed to hand over nine thumb drives found in Williams’ locker at work. The drives were released to investigators only this week. Other electronic equipment that Williams used at work was handed over to Scotland Yard investigators four days after Williams’ body was discovered, raising questions about whether they had been cleaned by the spy agencies first.
Family and friends testified that Williams was unhappy with his work environment at MI6 and felt he didn’t fit in with his colleagues. During the inquest, testimony revealed that the coder had conducted unauthorized searches of an MI6 database that could have put him at risk if he was discovered. Investigators said, however, that MI6 was apparently unaware that Williams had conducted the searches.
A coroner said at the inquest that while it appeared unlikely that British spy agencies played a role in the coder’s death, it was still a “legitimate line of inquiry” for the investigation.
Investigators found no fingerprints or other any other evidence indicating someone had been with Williams the night he died, or that anyone beyond his family had ever been in his apartment. Investigators said at the inquest that small traces of incomplete DNA had been found on the tiny padlock that had been used to closed the bag in which Williams’ body was stuffed. The only other DNA evidence found in the apartment that didn’t belong to Williams or his family was found on a green hand towel in the kitchen.
Authorities plan to take DNA evidence from 50 colleagues who worked with Williams at MI6 to determine if there is a match.
Filed under
Black Hat,
DefCon,
DNA,
foetal,
liquid bombers,
mysterious
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, May 04, 2012 |
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email |
TSWKTM home |
SHATASM home |
WP home
Daily Mail : So who did kill the spy? Spooks, sex and the vital questions that the inquest couldn't answer
Friday, May 04, 2012
So who did kill the spy? Spooks, sex and the vital questions that the inquest couldn't answer [scroll down]
May 2, 2012
Who put him in the holdall?
Some 400 attempts were made by expert witnesses to padlock themselves inside a North Face holdall identical to the one in which Mr Williams' body was found. Each attempt resulted in failure, so unless Mr Williams was able to pull off this 'amazing' feat, at least one still unidentified person was involved in his death.
The theory that he was placed in the bag while already dead or unconscious was challenged at the inquest by pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd. He said it would be 'extremely difficult' to place a 'floppy' dead body in a foetal position as neat as that in which the corpse was found.
Dr Shepherd did concede that the codebreaker could have been forced into the holdall at gunpoint or while sedated.
While tests continue on scratches found at the end of the bag where his head lay, there were no signs inside the bag of a violent struggle to get out. If Mr Williams was conscious when the bag was sealed he would have quickly passed out and died because of the build-up of carbon dioxide within. He could also have been poisoned.
Furthermore, if a naked Mr Williams had climbed into the holdall while it was in the bath, he would have left hand and footprints. That there were none found suggests that he was already in the bag before it was placed in the bath.
At least one unidentified person would seem to have been present in the bathroom between the time the bag was put in the bath and its discovery by police eight days later.
Yesterday the coroner said: 'In relation to the prints found within the bathroom, in my view what was more significant was what was not found rather than what was found.' She said she was 'sure that a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath'.
Was his death linked to his private life?
That is the official MI6 verdict. While his family portrayed him as a very private man with conventional tastes, the picture that has emerged since his death suggests otherwise.
Police found evidence that Mr Williams looked at bondage websites and visited transvestite clubs and gay bars, though they could not identify any sexual partners. His friends insisted he was heterosexual but could not explain his behaviour.
Mr Williams had a £20,000 collection of women's clothing in his flat, including shoes his own size which had been worn and a long wig. His friends, who knew nothing of the collection, suggest Mr Williams meant to give them away as gifts.
But a video found on one of his phones showed Mr Williams 'gyrating' for the camera naked but for a pair of women's calf-length boots.
His landlady at a former home in Cheltenham had once found him tied to his bedposts wearing only his boxer shorts. She felt that the incident was of a sexual nature. This and his occasional visits to extreme websites coincide with his MI6 training.
There is no firm evidence that Mr Williams derived any kind of sexual pleasure from bondage or confinement, and the coroner raised the possibility that allegations about the spy's private vices were made by a third party to 'manipulate' the evidence. Had a false trail been laid and if so, why?
Did he die as a result of a sex game?
The coroner ruled out any link between Mr Williams' interest in bondage and his death. But suspicions remain. Traces of his semen were found on the floor of the bathroom in which his body was discovered and on his dressing gown.
Someone else's DNA is understood to have been found on a green hand towel in Mr Williams' kitchen, which might yield further clues, even a breakthrough, in coming weeks.
Did he die as a result of a sadomasochistic scenario which went wrong? Was the bag padlocked by a sexual partner who then fled the scene?
Why were the radiators on full blast?
Mr Williams died during August, when central heating would normally be switched off. The fact that it wasn't off in his top floor flat raises a suspicion that it is linked to his death, or at least an attempt to destroy evidence.
The higher temperature would have speeded up the decomposition of the body. Putrefaction would have been further hastened by the fact that the body was curled up inside a holdall.
The holdall also helped contain the tell-tale smell of decomposition. The bath would also have contained and eventually drained any fluids released as the body decayed.
If there was indeed a deliberate effort to speed up decomposition in order to hide the cause of death and delay discovery then it was entirely successful.
By the time pathologists were able to examine Mr Williams' corpse, the decomposition was so advanced they could only guess at cause of death.
Was his death linked to spying?
His family believe so, but we may never know.
MI6 obtained a Public Interest Immunity certificate which kept details of his work for them and GCHQ secret.
They claim Mr Williams was seen as at 'low risk' but he was a highly skilled and trained computer scientist who had recently met two informants and was ready to be deployed on an active mission.
One manager said he made a 'small number' of unauthorised searches on the MI6 database which could have left him open to blackmail.
His flat had been rented by spies since 2003 and he confirmed his sensitive occupation to at least two close friends.
When she reported him missing, GCHQ's human resources chief, told a police switchboard worker that Mr Williams had been 'just taken off an operation' and was unhappy.
The inquest was told this was not true and the coroner ruled her comment may have been 'misinformation' designed to spur police into action. These contradictions did nothing to increase confidence in the security services' account.
Why did MI6 take eight days to call the police?
MI6's behaviour throughout this whole affair has been puzzling and done little to discourage conspiracy theories about its direct involvement in Mr Williams' death.
The codebreaker was a meticulous time-keeper yet he was missing from work for a week before the security services alerted the police.
During that time only cursory attempts were made to contact him. His line manager – known at the inquest as MI6 Officer G – came in for particular criticism at the inquest.
The delay was crucial in the pathologists' subsequent inability to give a definite cause of death. Even after his bosses decided he was missing there was still a four-hour delay before raising the alarm.
Given his work as a spy, this seeming laxity is amazing. It is also puzzling that the security services apparently wanted the police to be the first people through the door of their own 'safe house', to hunt for a missing operative.
Did MI6 undermine the inquiry?
Anthony O'Toole, lawyer for the Williams family, asked an officer from the Met's SO15 counter-terrorism branch: 'If this wasn't the SIS and it was the Kray twins or someone else, you were investigating, you would have gone into far more detail, wouldn't you?'
As the inquest progressed it became clear that there was a disconnect between the anti-terrorist police officers who were security vetted to visit MI6 HQ and their colleagues on the outside investigating the death.
Officers from SO15 went to Vauxhall Cross and examined Mr Williams' locker and desk. There were nine memory sticks in the locker and a North Face holdall, similar to the death bag, under the desk, containing a number of personal items and work material.
Detective Constable Colin Hall, of the counter-terror branch, told the inquest he did not take the computer memory sticks because he was told by MI6 they contained material 'of a sensitive nature'. He said he was also told to leave the bag in situ.
In fact the investigative team learned of the suppressed evidence only during the inquest. They were also kept in the dark about MI6's examination of the dead man's 'electronic media'.
It seems the SO15 officers were serving the interests of the security services rather than those of the murder squad.
MI6 failed to provide formal statements to the inquest. This may well have been the fault of SO15 officers who did not press for anything more than anonymous summaries of informal interviews rather than sworn statements.
The coroner said this had affected the quality of evidence heard at inquest. The security services were also slow in handing over key other evidence.
The inquest heard that Mr Williams's GCHQ computer was not handed over until six days after his body was discovered and the MI6 one four days later.
Mr Williams also owned four iPhones. Experts are still trying to recover data from one of them. It was wiped on the last day he was seen alive.
Telephone company records suggested that it had never been used.
The MI6 headquarters where Gareth Williams worked at Vauxhall Cross, near Vauxhall Bridge, in south London
Why was there so little forensic evidence?
It wasn't only the bathroom that was suspiciously devoid of clues. Police found no unidentified fingerprints anywhere else in the death flat. All belonged to Mr Williams or his close family.
There was a similar paucity of third party DNA, though forensic scientist Ros Hammond told the inquest there was 'certainly evidence' of at least two unidentified people at the flat.
There was no evidence that the flat had been 'wiped' of prints. Yet circumstances suggest that someone else, who knew their business enough not to leave clues, had been at work there. Probably wearing gloves.
Another spy? His family think so; they believe someone skilled in the 'dark arts' was responsible for Mr Williams' death.
There was no sign of a break-in, but police found that the front door latch could be reached and raised through the letterbox.
The top flat at 36 Alderney Street did not seem to be a very 'safe' safe house at all.
Was he killed by MI6?
The theory that Mr Williams was killed by his employers, Britain's own secret service, is perhaps the most outré and disturbing, better suited to the pages of a sensational spy thriller.
No credible motive has been advanced as to why the spymasters would kill one of their own, in circumstances that would attract the most sensational publicity, in their own safe house, in central London.
However, it was by no means discounted by the coroner. Dr Wilcox said that while there was no evidence to suggest he died at the hands of MI6, 'it is still a legitimate line of inquiry'.
May 2, 2012
Who put him in the holdall?
Some 400 attempts were made by expert witnesses to padlock themselves inside a North Face holdall identical to the one in which Mr Williams' body was found. Each attempt resulted in failure, so unless Mr Williams was able to pull off this 'amazing' feat, at least one still unidentified person was involved in his death.
The theory that he was placed in the bag while already dead or unconscious was challenged at the inquest by pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd. He said it would be 'extremely difficult' to place a 'floppy' dead body in a foetal position as neat as that in which the corpse was found.
Dr Shepherd did concede that the codebreaker could have been forced into the holdall at gunpoint or while sedated.
While tests continue on scratches found at the end of the bag where his head lay, there were no signs inside the bag of a violent struggle to get out. If Mr Williams was conscious when the bag was sealed he would have quickly passed out and died because of the build-up of carbon dioxide within. He could also have been poisoned.
Furthermore, if a naked Mr Williams had climbed into the holdall while it was in the bath, he would have left hand and footprints. That there were none found suggests that he was already in the bag before it was placed in the bath.
At least one unidentified person would seem to have been present in the bathroom between the time the bag was put in the bath and its discovery by police eight days later.
Yesterday the coroner said: 'In relation to the prints found within the bathroom, in my view what was more significant was what was not found rather than what was found.' She said she was 'sure that a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath'.
Was his death linked to his private life?
That is the official MI6 verdict. While his family portrayed him as a very private man with conventional tastes, the picture that has emerged since his death suggests otherwise.
Police found evidence that Mr Williams looked at bondage websites and visited transvestite clubs and gay bars, though they could not identify any sexual partners. His friends insisted he was heterosexual but could not explain his behaviour.
Mr Williams had a £20,000 collection of women's clothing in his flat, including shoes his own size which had been worn and a long wig. His friends, who knew nothing of the collection, suggest Mr Williams meant to give them away as gifts.
But a video found on one of his phones showed Mr Williams 'gyrating' for the camera naked but for a pair of women's calf-length boots.
His landlady at a former home in Cheltenham had once found him tied to his bedposts wearing only his boxer shorts. She felt that the incident was of a sexual nature. This and his occasional visits to extreme websites coincide with his MI6 training.
There is no firm evidence that Mr Williams derived any kind of sexual pleasure from bondage or confinement, and the coroner raised the possibility that allegations about the spy's private vices were made by a third party to 'manipulate' the evidence. Had a false trail been laid and if so, why?
Did he die as a result of a sex game?
The coroner ruled out any link between Mr Williams' interest in bondage and his death. But suspicions remain. Traces of his semen were found on the floor of the bathroom in which his body was discovered and on his dressing gown.
Someone else's DNA is understood to have been found on a green hand towel in Mr Williams' kitchen, which might yield further clues, even a breakthrough, in coming weeks.
Did he die as a result of a sadomasochistic scenario which went wrong? Was the bag padlocked by a sexual partner who then fled the scene?
Why were the radiators on full blast?
Mr Williams died during August, when central heating would normally be switched off. The fact that it wasn't off in his top floor flat raises a suspicion that it is linked to his death, or at least an attempt to destroy evidence.
The higher temperature would have speeded up the decomposition of the body. Putrefaction would have been further hastened by the fact that the body was curled up inside a holdall.
The holdall also helped contain the tell-tale smell of decomposition. The bath would also have contained and eventually drained any fluids released as the body decayed.
If there was indeed a deliberate effort to speed up decomposition in order to hide the cause of death and delay discovery then it was entirely successful.
By the time pathologists were able to examine Mr Williams' corpse, the decomposition was so advanced they could only guess at cause of death.
Was his death linked to spying?
His family believe so, but we may never know.
MI6 obtained a Public Interest Immunity certificate which kept details of his work for them and GCHQ secret.
They claim Mr Williams was seen as at 'low risk' but he was a highly skilled and trained computer scientist who had recently met two informants and was ready to be deployed on an active mission.
One manager said he made a 'small number' of unauthorised searches on the MI6 database which could have left him open to blackmail.
His flat had been rented by spies since 2003 and he confirmed his sensitive occupation to at least two close friends.
When she reported him missing, GCHQ's human resources chief, told a police switchboard worker that Mr Williams had been 'just taken off an operation' and was unhappy.
The inquest was told this was not true and the coroner ruled her comment may have been 'misinformation' designed to spur police into action. These contradictions did nothing to increase confidence in the security services' account.
Why did MI6 take eight days to call the police?
MI6's behaviour throughout this whole affair has been puzzling and done little to discourage conspiracy theories about its direct involvement in Mr Williams' death.
The codebreaker was a meticulous time-keeper yet he was missing from work for a week before the security services alerted the police.
During that time only cursory attempts were made to contact him. His line manager – known at the inquest as MI6 Officer G – came in for particular criticism at the inquest.
The delay was crucial in the pathologists' subsequent inability to give a definite cause of death. Even after his bosses decided he was missing there was still a four-hour delay before raising the alarm.
Given his work as a spy, this seeming laxity is amazing. It is also puzzling that the security services apparently wanted the police to be the first people through the door of their own 'safe house', to hunt for a missing operative.
Did MI6 undermine the inquiry?
Anthony O'Toole, lawyer for the Williams family, asked an officer from the Met's SO15 counter-terrorism branch: 'If this wasn't the SIS and it was the Kray twins or someone else, you were investigating, you would have gone into far more detail, wouldn't you?'
As the inquest progressed it became clear that there was a disconnect between the anti-terrorist police officers who were security vetted to visit MI6 HQ and their colleagues on the outside investigating the death.
Officers from SO15 went to Vauxhall Cross and examined Mr Williams' locker and desk. There were nine memory sticks in the locker and a North Face holdall, similar to the death bag, under the desk, containing a number of personal items and work material.
Detective Constable Colin Hall, of the counter-terror branch, told the inquest he did not take the computer memory sticks because he was told by MI6 they contained material 'of a sensitive nature'. He said he was also told to leave the bag in situ.
In fact the investigative team learned of the suppressed evidence only during the inquest. They were also kept in the dark about MI6's examination of the dead man's 'electronic media'.
It seems the SO15 officers were serving the interests of the security services rather than those of the murder squad.
MI6 failed to provide formal statements to the inquest. This may well have been the fault of SO15 officers who did not press for anything more than anonymous summaries of informal interviews rather than sworn statements.
The coroner said this had affected the quality of evidence heard at inquest. The security services were also slow in handing over key other evidence.
The inquest heard that Mr Williams's GCHQ computer was not handed over until six days after his body was discovered and the MI6 one four days later.
Mr Williams also owned four iPhones. Experts are still trying to recover data from one of them. It was wiped on the last day he was seen alive.
Telephone company records suggested that it had never been used.
The MI6 headquarters where Gareth Williams worked at Vauxhall Cross, near Vauxhall Bridge, in south London
Why was there so little forensic evidence?
It wasn't only the bathroom that was suspiciously devoid of clues. Police found no unidentified fingerprints anywhere else in the death flat. All belonged to Mr Williams or his close family.
There was a similar paucity of third party DNA, though forensic scientist Ros Hammond told the inquest there was 'certainly evidence' of at least two unidentified people at the flat.
There was no evidence that the flat had been 'wiped' of prints. Yet circumstances suggest that someone else, who knew their business enough not to leave clues, had been at work there. Probably wearing gloves.
Another spy? His family think so; they believe someone skilled in the 'dark arts' was responsible for Mr Williams' death.
There was no sign of a break-in, but police found that the front door latch could be reached and raised through the letterbox.
The top flat at 36 Alderney Street did not seem to be a very 'safe' safe house at all.
Was he killed by MI6?
The theory that Mr Williams was killed by his employers, Britain's own secret service, is perhaps the most outré and disturbing, better suited to the pages of a sensational spy thriller.
No credible motive has been advanced as to why the spymasters would kill one of their own, in circumstances that would attract the most sensational publicity, in their own safe house, in central London.
However, it was by no means discounted by the coroner. Dr Wilcox said that while there was no evidence to suggest he died at the hands of MI6, 'it is still a legitimate line of inquiry'.
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Guardian : Gareth Williams and the prurience of the press
Friday, May 04, 2012
Gareth Williams and the prurience of the press
In coverage of the MI6 spy's death, the media persevered with an irresponsible approach to those who stray from sexual norms
Juliet Jacques | May 4, 2012
"On the balance of probability," said Fiona Wilcox, the Westminster coroner working on the inquest, MI6 officer Gareth Williams was "unlawfully killed". Stating that this could not be definitively established and that the case may never be satisfactorily explained, Wilcox also lamented that the "unusual circumstances" – Williams's body was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his London flat – had immediately generated "endless [media] speculation" about his personal life, to the dismay of his family.
Days before Wilcox delivered her verdict, newspapers carried stories about Williams's sexual practices, suggesting that they played a part in his death without waiting for Wilcox to assert her certainty that they did not. Here is the latest example of how the press can "monster" victims, or alleged perpetrators of crimes if they are thought to have diverged from conservative sexual or gender norms, sensationalising personal details (which they've often made considerable effort to root up) in search of saleable stories.
At its worst – during the hunt for Joanna Yeates's killer, for example – this can deny someone their reputation and right to a fair trial. In this case, as in many others, it perpetuates a victim-blaming culture, the implication that Williams's tastes caused his demise being intertwined with homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and a curious mixture of fascination and contempt for BDSM and those who partake in it.
This prurience is as old as the mass media itself. In the Victorian era, the argument about whether or not details about sexual or gender variance should be published ostensibly concerned public morality. As Boulton and Park, two cross-dressers charged with "conspiring and inciting others to commit unnatural offences", awaited trial in 1870-71, the Society for the Suppression of Vice urged newspapers not to document the case. The Pall Mall Gazette refused, but long before Rupert Murdoch got near it, the Times covered everything, including the "medical examination" to which the Metropolitan police illegally subjected Boulton and Park in an attempt to prove that they'd had anal sex, arguing that "its novel and extraordinary features" made it sure to be "of interest to hundreds and thousands" (and, as such, hugely profitable).
Step forward into the 21st century and the terms have changed. It's no longer a matter of the press protecting the public from apparently unspeakable practices, but preventing the press from invading the public's privacy, especially if editors or journalists think aspects of their lives can be easily sold. This is a constant issue for Britain's transgender population: Trans Media Watch presented twice to the Leveson inquiry about how newspapers "out" trans people for solely exploitative reasons, often accompanying their articles with "before and after" photos, old names and anything else that will undermine their hard-fought identities, usually to their great distress.
The nastiest instance – one that parallels the coverage of Williams, rife with speculation about the women's clothing in his home – came when human rights lawyer David/Sonia Burgess was pushed on to the track at King's Cross tube station in October 2010. The tabloids revelled in their "man in a dress" headlines as their journalists trawled through transgender contacts sites for information on Burgess's private life, all published before an arrest was made. With so much made public about Burgess and the defendant, who was also trans, no trial could start from a neutral position, and besides dancing close to the legal line, this coverage served to intimidate anyone else trying to keep their gender variance out of the public eye, magnifying their fears that its revelation may harm their relationships or careers.
The staggeringly irresponsible behaviour of the media over recent decades, as the balance of power between parliament, the police and the press became untenably skewed, is finally being exposed, and the consequences remain to emerge. Will newspaper owners and editors realise that, with their power, comes responsibility not to prejudice investigations, or attack people of trans histories or alternative sexualities just because they can? Will they learn that just because the public may be interested in an angle, or a story, this does not mean that it is in the public interest? Will they ask themselves: whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty" – or respect for the dead?
In coverage of the MI6 spy's death, the media persevered with an irresponsible approach to those who stray from sexual norms
Juliet Jacques | May 4, 2012
"On the balance of probability," said Fiona Wilcox, the Westminster coroner working on the inquest, MI6 officer Gareth Williams was "unlawfully killed". Stating that this could not be definitively established and that the case may never be satisfactorily explained, Wilcox also lamented that the "unusual circumstances" – Williams's body was found in a padlocked holdall in the bath of his London flat – had immediately generated "endless [media] speculation" about his personal life, to the dismay of his family.
Days before Wilcox delivered her verdict, newspapers carried stories about Williams's sexual practices, suggesting that they played a part in his death without waiting for Wilcox to assert her certainty that they did not. Here is the latest example of how the press can "monster" victims, or alleged perpetrators of crimes if they are thought to have diverged from conservative sexual or gender norms, sensationalising personal details (which they've often made considerable effort to root up) in search of saleable stories.
At its worst – during the hunt for Joanna Yeates's killer, for example – this can deny someone their reputation and right to a fair trial. In this case, as in many others, it perpetuates a victim-blaming culture, the implication that Williams's tastes caused his demise being intertwined with homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and a curious mixture of fascination and contempt for BDSM and those who partake in it.
This prurience is as old as the mass media itself. In the Victorian era, the argument about whether or not details about sexual or gender variance should be published ostensibly concerned public morality. As Boulton and Park, two cross-dressers charged with "conspiring and inciting others to commit unnatural offences", awaited trial in 1870-71, the Society for the Suppression of Vice urged newspapers not to document the case. The Pall Mall Gazette refused, but long before Rupert Murdoch got near it, the Times covered everything, including the "medical examination" to which the Metropolitan police illegally subjected Boulton and Park in an attempt to prove that they'd had anal sex, arguing that "its novel and extraordinary features" made it sure to be "of interest to hundreds and thousands" (and, as such, hugely profitable).
Step forward into the 21st century and the terms have changed. It's no longer a matter of the press protecting the public from apparently unspeakable practices, but preventing the press from invading the public's privacy, especially if editors or journalists think aspects of their lives can be easily sold. This is a constant issue for Britain's transgender population: Trans Media Watch presented twice to the Leveson inquiry about how newspapers "out" trans people for solely exploitative reasons, often accompanying their articles with "before and after" photos, old names and anything else that will undermine their hard-fought identities, usually to their great distress.
The nastiest instance – one that parallels the coverage of Williams, rife with speculation about the women's clothing in his home – came when human rights lawyer David/Sonia Burgess was pushed on to the track at King's Cross tube station in October 2010. The tabloids revelled in their "man in a dress" headlines as their journalists trawled through transgender contacts sites for information on Burgess's private life, all published before an arrest was made. With so much made public about Burgess and the defendant, who was also trans, no trial could start from a neutral position, and besides dancing close to the legal line, this coverage served to intimidate anyone else trying to keep their gender variance out of the public eye, magnifying their fears that its revelation may harm their relationships or careers.
The staggeringly irresponsible behaviour of the media over recent decades, as the balance of power between parliament, the police and the press became untenably skewed, is finally being exposed, and the consequences remain to emerge. Will newspaper owners and editors realise that, with their power, comes responsibility not to prejudice investigations, or attack people of trans histories or alternative sexualities just because they can? Will they learn that just because the public may be interested in an angle, or a story, this does not mean that it is in the public interest? Will they ask themselves: whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty" – or respect for the dead?
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Daily Mail : Does spy-in-a-bag's iPhone hold the key to his death? Detectives believe it may have been used to contact his killer
Friday, May 04, 2012
Does spy-in-a-bag's iPhone hold the key to his death? Detectives believe it may have been used to contact his killer
By Chris Greenwood, Crime Reporter | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was last night preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: ‘A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.’
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a ‘legitimate line of inquiry’.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned that the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving ‘careful consideration’ to any new ‘evidential opportunities’.
By Chris Greenwood, Crime Reporter | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was last night preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: ‘A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.’
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a ‘legitimate line of inquiry’.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned that the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving ‘careful consideration’ to any new ‘evidential opportunities’.
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IOL News (Zambia) : Cops turn to ‘spy-in-bag’ iPhone
Friday, May 04, 2012
Cops turn to ‘spy-in-bag’ iPhone
By CHRIS GREENWOOD | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was on Thursday preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: “A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.”
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a “legitimate line of inquiry”.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving “careful consideration” to any new “evidential opportunities”. -
Daily Mail
By CHRIS GREENWOOD | May 4, 2012
Scotland Yard was on Thursday preparing to overhaul the inquiry into the death of Gareth Williams as the spotlight fell on an iPhone belonging to the spy.
Police chiefs are considering replacing the officer who led the investigation from the moment the 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a bag.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire has been temporarily promoted and moved to an East London borough.
Her superiors will re-launch the case within days and could decide that a fresh pair of eyes would help to take advantage of leads thrown up by the explosive inquest into his death.
One of the main focuses of their inquiry is an iPhone found on a table in Mr Williams’s top-floor flat in Pimlico, central London.
The £500 device, one of four owned by the MI6 officer, had been restored to its factory settings, wiping it clean of almost all data, in the late evening of August 15, 2010, only hours before he died.
Doubt remains, however, about how much data is still on the phone and Mr Williams’s inquest heard that a trace of a bondage website visited in October 2009 was found on it.
The mystery deepened when the mobile phone operator told police it had not been used over the previous three months.
Despite this, investigators believe it may have somehow been used to contact whoever killed Mr Williams.
Simon Steggles, of Disklabs, which specialises in retrieving phone data for police, said it may still be possible to find clues on the iPhone.
He said: “A factory reset puts the iPhone into the same state as it would be when you first purchase it. If access to the user’s computer is available, it may be possible to recover data from a back-up.”
Police are considering whether a short video of Mr Williams dancing while wearing nothing but a pair of women’s boots may have been sent to a third-party via the phone.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox found Mr Williams was probably unlawfully killed, getting into the bag alive but then dying from suffocation or a mystery poison.
She highlighted how police missed potentially vital clues by failing to recover his possessions from his workplace, including nine computer memory sticks.
Up to 50 MI6 and GCHQ officers now face having DNA samples taken and being interviewed by counter terrorism detectives. Dr Wilcox refused to rule out that Mr Williams was killed by someone at the intelligence agency, saying it remains a “legitimate line of inquiry”.
Murder squad detectives strongly suspect a member of the security services was in the victim’s flat on the night he died.
Detectives are also pinning their hopes on the results of forensic analysis of human traces recovered from a green hand towel.
But scientists at LGC Forensics have warned the results of low-copy testing, in which tiny traces of DNA are ‘grown’ until they can be identified, could take a further eight weeks.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said senior officers were giving “careful consideration” to any new “evidential opportunities”. -
Daily Mail
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Telegraph : Tensions building between police and spies over Gareth Williams death
Friday, May 04, 2012
Tensions building between police and spies over Gareth Williams death
MI6 fear Scotland Yard is trying to make it a scapegoat for failings in the investigation into the death of the spy found dead in a bag, senior Whitehall sources said yesterday.
By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 4, 2012
Tensions are growing between the intelligence services and police following criticism by the coroner who investigated the death of Gareth Williams.
Concluding the inquest on Wednesday, Dr Fiona Wilcox said that “on the balance of probabilities” Mr Williams was “unlawfully killed” by a mystery third party.
Dr Wilcox criticised the delays in spotting Mr Williams was missing and apparent failures in the handling of potential evidence.
She also said raised that prospect that another spy may have been involved in the death and said it was a "legitimate line of inquiry" for police.
It emerged yesterday that officers were planning to take DNA samples of up to 50 spies as the inquiry in to Mr Williams’ death continues.
A senior Whitehall source said the intelligence services were "frustrated" by the suggestion they had not co-operated fully with the police.
The 31-year-old’s naked decomposing body was discovered in a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his Pimlico home in London in August 2010.
It had been there for a week without anyone raises concerns that the spy, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, had gone missing.
The inquest heard how nine memory sticks that may have belonged to the codebreaker and a bag similar to the one he was found dead in were discovered his office but never handed over to Met Police.
The coroner criticised MI6 and Det Supt Michael Broster, the head of the Met counter-terrorism team that acted as a conduit between the investigating officers and the intelligence services.
However, while MI6 has apologized for the flaws surrounding Mr Williams wellbeing, it has insisted it at no point withheld evidence.
A lawyer for the family has previously suggested someone expert in the “dark arts” of the secret service was linked to the death.
Scotland Yard refused to comment on what future inquiries may be made as a result of the review or whether there are any intentions to interview more intelligence officers.
A small number of them were originally spoken to by police but no formal statement was ever made and signed.
Forensic experts are still examining whether there is DNA on a towel found in the kitchen and hope to have a result within weeks.
An iPhone that was reset the day before Mr Williams is believed to have died also continues to be a focus for the police.
There is no evidence of any calls being made to or from it before it was effectively wiped but it was backed up to a laptop on the same day.
Dr Wilcox questioned whether it may have provided clues such as an arrangement to meet someone over the internet.
However, technology experts believe police failed to properly examine the phone because information could have been retrieved.
MI6 fear Scotland Yard is trying to make it a scapegoat for failings in the investigation into the death of the spy found dead in a bag, senior Whitehall sources said yesterday.
By Tom Whitehead and Martin Evans | May 4, 2012
Tensions are growing between the intelligence services and police following criticism by the coroner who investigated the death of Gareth Williams.
Concluding the inquest on Wednesday, Dr Fiona Wilcox said that “on the balance of probabilities” Mr Williams was “unlawfully killed” by a mystery third party.
Dr Wilcox criticised the delays in spotting Mr Williams was missing and apparent failures in the handling of potential evidence.
She also said raised that prospect that another spy may have been involved in the death and said it was a "legitimate line of inquiry" for police.
It emerged yesterday that officers were planning to take DNA samples of up to 50 spies as the inquiry in to Mr Williams’ death continues.
A senior Whitehall source said the intelligence services were "frustrated" by the suggestion they had not co-operated fully with the police.
The 31-year-old’s naked decomposing body was discovered in a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his Pimlico home in London in August 2010.
It had been there for a week without anyone raises concerns that the spy, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, had gone missing.
The inquest heard how nine memory sticks that may have belonged to the codebreaker and a bag similar to the one he was found dead in were discovered his office but never handed over to Met Police.
The coroner criticised MI6 and Det Supt Michael Broster, the head of the Met counter-terrorism team that acted as a conduit between the investigating officers and the intelligence services.
However, while MI6 has apologized for the flaws surrounding Mr Williams wellbeing, it has insisted it at no point withheld evidence.
A lawyer for the family has previously suggested someone expert in the “dark arts” of the secret service was linked to the death.
Scotland Yard refused to comment on what future inquiries may be made as a result of the review or whether there are any intentions to interview more intelligence officers.
A small number of them were originally spoken to by police but no formal statement was ever made and signed.
Forensic experts are still examining whether there is DNA on a towel found in the kitchen and hope to have a result within weeks.
An iPhone that was reset the day before Mr Williams is believed to have died also continues to be a focus for the police.
There is no evidence of any calls being made to or from it before it was effectively wiped but it was backed up to a laptop on the same day.
Dr Wilcox questioned whether it may have provided clues such as an arrangement to meet someone over the internet.
However, technology experts believe police failed to properly examine the phone because information could have been retrieved.
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The Australian : Elusive truth of MI6 code-breaker Gareth Williams
Friday, May 04, 2012
Elusive truth of MI6 code-breaker Gareth Williams
by: Fay Schlesinger and Fiona Hamilton | from: The Times | May 4, 2012
FOR a man whose private life rivalled the machinations of his employer in its layers of secrecy, it was a hard task for investigators to piece together the real Gareth Williams.
Each nugget of evidence uncovered by forensic scientists, computer analysts and escapology experts seemed to deepen the mystery, raising many questions that, the coroner said on Wednesday, may never be answered.
The women's clothes and wigs, the bondage websites and an episode in which his landlady found him tied to his bed - all were red herrings, the inquest concluded.
There was no suggestion that details were either planted to smear, or part of a blackmail plot, or even linked to a lover or another acquaintance. They were just elements of a life that Williams, a child maths prodigy and fitness enthusiast, lived happily - aside from frustrations with the "red tape" of MI6 and the "rat race" existence of London life.
His tutor at Central Saint Martins college where, unknown to his family, Williams completed two courses in fashion design less than a year before his death, described him as guarded about his private life but open and loquacious in his manner. It is a paradox also reflected in the spy's understated love of expensive and luxurious things.
Asked whether Williams dreamt of moving into the fashion industry, Celia Wain-Heapy told The Times: "A lot of people are quite guarded, they don't want to put their hopes and aspirations out there. They tell you they enjoy it but no more. Gareth was quite private.
"He ended up being painted as a bit of a loner, but that wasn't how I saw him at all. He didn't lack social skills. He was milder-mannered and quiet ... [but] he seemed quite guileless."
Half of all Williams's internet activity concerned women's fashion, the inquest was told, and he had a £20,000 collection of unworn women's clothes, many bought from the couture store Dover Street Market, supposedly for a "tall, slim girlfriend", though Williams was single. There were also 26 pairs of designer shoes, four of them worn, a lot of unused make-up and several wigs, though no women's underwear.
The coroner, Fiona Wilcox, said there was no evidence that he was a transvestite. If the wigs were for himself, she said, they would have been quality specimens rather than the garish orange one found in his flat. A video on a work iPhone, which was deleted but retrieved by police, showed him gyrating naked but for a pair of leather boots, and suggested that he might have derived sexual pleasure from shoes, Dr Wilcox said.
He was not alone in that view, the coroner suggested, and she ruled that this had nothing to do with his death. "Gareth was naked in a bag when he was found, not cross-dressed, not in high-heeled shoes," she said. By contrast with fashion browsing, a "tiny, tiny, tiny" percentage of Mr Williams's web searches were on the subject of bondage or claustrophilia. Four searches in two years was a negligible number, the coroner said, and certainly not enough to suggest that bondage played any part in his death.
His family's lawyer has pointed out that such searches coincided with training courses or potential moves within the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), though police could find no explanation that would put them down to research.
Witness reports that Mr Williams visited gay bars around Vauxhall Bridge, near the MI6 headquarters where he was based, could not be verified by police. Only two friends were identified as being close to Williams. Sian Jones, a former teenage sweetheart who grew up with him in Anglesey, North Wales, said: "I feel he would have been able to confide in me ... and I would not have judged him."
The other friend, Elizabeth Guthrie, 27, seemed a more complex character, who gave different names in a police statement. The name "Misa Guseiri" was dismissed by officers as an administrative error, and they confirmed that she had co-operated with the investigation. Ms Guthrie did not respond to attempts to contact her.
His closest friend was his sister, who described him as the perfect brother and a "scrupulous risk-assessor" on whom no one would wish harm.
Williams was "exceedingly intelligent", the coroner said. He passed a maths GCSE while still at primary school and graduated from university at 17, before joining the government listening post, GCHQ, at the age of 21. As well as cycling, fell running and mountaineering, he loved collecting: maps, CDs, climbing equipment and women's clothes, all stored neatly in his flat, in a trait that matched his "Swiss clock" precision. A bathrobe and duvet, discarded on the floor when Mr Williams was found dead, stood out like a sore thumb, it was said.
So the manner of his death: the lurid speculation, the destruction of privacy and the unknowns, must exacerbate the pain felt by Williams's family. The waste of life seemed to be summed up by his brother-in-law, Chris Subbe, at his funeral in Holyhead. Describing how Williams took his sister and him for tea at the Ritz Hotel in London to celebrate their wedding anniversary, he said they sat listening to a Welsh harpist as the sun set. He said: "It seemed as though the world was there for the taking and yet here we are, trying to describe your rich life with our poor words."
by: Fay Schlesinger and Fiona Hamilton | from: The Times | May 4, 2012
FOR a man whose private life rivalled the machinations of his employer in its layers of secrecy, it was a hard task for investigators to piece together the real Gareth Williams.
Each nugget of evidence uncovered by forensic scientists, computer analysts and escapology experts seemed to deepen the mystery, raising many questions that, the coroner said on Wednesday, may never be answered.
The women's clothes and wigs, the bondage websites and an episode in which his landlady found him tied to his bed - all were red herrings, the inquest concluded.
There was no suggestion that details were either planted to smear, or part of a blackmail plot, or even linked to a lover or another acquaintance. They were just elements of a life that Williams, a child maths prodigy and fitness enthusiast, lived happily - aside from frustrations with the "red tape" of MI6 and the "rat race" existence of London life.
His tutor at Central Saint Martins college where, unknown to his family, Williams completed two courses in fashion design less than a year before his death, described him as guarded about his private life but open and loquacious in his manner. It is a paradox also reflected in the spy's understated love of expensive and luxurious things.
Asked whether Williams dreamt of moving into the fashion industry, Celia Wain-Heapy told The Times: "A lot of people are quite guarded, they don't want to put their hopes and aspirations out there. They tell you they enjoy it but no more. Gareth was quite private.
"He ended up being painted as a bit of a loner, but that wasn't how I saw him at all. He didn't lack social skills. He was milder-mannered and quiet ... [but] he seemed quite guileless."
Half of all Williams's internet activity concerned women's fashion, the inquest was told, and he had a £20,000 collection of unworn women's clothes, many bought from the couture store Dover Street Market, supposedly for a "tall, slim girlfriend", though Williams was single. There were also 26 pairs of designer shoes, four of them worn, a lot of unused make-up and several wigs, though no women's underwear.
The coroner, Fiona Wilcox, said there was no evidence that he was a transvestite. If the wigs were for himself, she said, they would have been quality specimens rather than the garish orange one found in his flat. A video on a work iPhone, which was deleted but retrieved by police, showed him gyrating naked but for a pair of leather boots, and suggested that he might have derived sexual pleasure from shoes, Dr Wilcox said.
He was not alone in that view, the coroner suggested, and she ruled that this had nothing to do with his death. "Gareth was naked in a bag when he was found, not cross-dressed, not in high-heeled shoes," she said. By contrast with fashion browsing, a "tiny, tiny, tiny" percentage of Mr Williams's web searches were on the subject of bondage or claustrophilia. Four searches in two years was a negligible number, the coroner said, and certainly not enough to suggest that bondage played any part in his death.
His family's lawyer has pointed out that such searches coincided with training courses or potential moves within the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), though police could find no explanation that would put them down to research.
Witness reports that Mr Williams visited gay bars around Vauxhall Bridge, near the MI6 headquarters where he was based, could not be verified by police. Only two friends were identified as being close to Williams. Sian Jones, a former teenage sweetheart who grew up with him in Anglesey, North Wales, said: "I feel he would have been able to confide in me ... and I would not have judged him."
The other friend, Elizabeth Guthrie, 27, seemed a more complex character, who gave different names in a police statement. The name "Misa Guseiri" was dismissed by officers as an administrative error, and they confirmed that she had co-operated with the investigation. Ms Guthrie did not respond to attempts to contact her.
His closest friend was his sister, who described him as the perfect brother and a "scrupulous risk-assessor" on whom no one would wish harm.
Williams was "exceedingly intelligent", the coroner said. He passed a maths GCSE while still at primary school and graduated from university at 17, before joining the government listening post, GCHQ, at the age of 21. As well as cycling, fell running and mountaineering, he loved collecting: maps, CDs, climbing equipment and women's clothes, all stored neatly in his flat, in a trait that matched his "Swiss clock" precision. A bathrobe and duvet, discarded on the floor when Mr Williams was found dead, stood out like a sore thumb, it was said.
So the manner of his death: the lurid speculation, the destruction of privacy and the unknowns, must exacerbate the pain felt by Williams's family. The waste of life seemed to be summed up by his brother-in-law, Chris Subbe, at his funeral in Holyhead. Describing how Williams took his sister and him for tea at the Ritz Hotel in London to celebrate their wedding anniversary, he said they sat listening to a Welsh harpist as the sun set. He said: "It seemed as though the world was there for the taking and yet here we are, trying to describe your rich life with our poor words."
Filed under
blackmail,
bondage,
Celia Wain-Heapy,
Chris Subbe,
claustrophilia,
Elizabeth Guthrie,
fashion,
Fiona Wilcox,
iPhone,
makeup,
shoes,
Sian Lloyd-Jones,
wigs
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, May 04, 2012 |
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Independent : DNA on towel may point to spy's killer
Friday, May 04, 2012
DNA on towel may point to spy's killer
Paul Peachey | May 4, 2012
DNA test results on a towel found in the flat of the spy Gareth Williams are not expected for weeks as Scotland Yard continues to follow-up new lines of inquiry into his death.
Police suspect a member of MI6 or GCHQ was in his flat the day he died and will reportedly take DNA samples from up to 50 of his colleagues to try to discover if anyone else was involved.
The coroner this week said that she was sure another person locked Mr Williams, 31, inside the red holdall in which his naked body was found in the bath. Mr Williams, who was security-conscious, was unlikely to let a stranger into his home, the inquest was told.
Experts from LGC, the private laboratory that secured a breakthrough in the case of Stephen Lawrence, are continuing to test a green towel found in the kitchen in the hope that it will yield evidence of another person in his flat. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said the inquest had raised "several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard".
Paul Peachey | May 4, 2012
DNA test results on a towel found in the flat of the spy Gareth Williams are not expected for weeks as Scotland Yard continues to follow-up new lines of inquiry into his death.
Police suspect a member of MI6 or GCHQ was in his flat the day he died and will reportedly take DNA samples from up to 50 of his colleagues to try to discover if anyone else was involved.
The coroner this week said that she was sure another person locked Mr Williams, 31, inside the red holdall in which his naked body was found in the bath. Mr Williams, who was security-conscious, was unlikely to let a stranger into his home, the inquest was told.
Experts from LGC, the private laboratory that secured a breakthrough in the case of Stephen Lawrence, are continuing to test a green towel found in the kitchen in the hope that it will yield evidence of another person in his flat. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, said the inquest had raised "several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard".
Filed under
DNA,
Independent,
Jackie Sebire,
LGC,
towel
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, May 04, 2012 |
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Wales Online : Spy Gareth Williams' inquest verdict prompts 'independent investigation call
Friday, May 04, 2012
Spy Gareth Williams' inquest verdict prompts 'independent investigation call
By David Williamson, WalesOnline | May 4, 2012
EVENTS surrounding the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams and the actions of the Secret Intelligence Service must be independently investigated to protect national security and ensure justice is done, Welsh politicians have claimed.
The coroner’s verdict this week that the 31-year-old codebreaker from Anglesey was “on the balance of probabilities” unlawfully killed has heightened concerns about his death and the investigation following the discovery of his body in a bag in the bath of his London flat.
Former foreign minister and Pontypridd MP Kim Howells said there was now a “very good case” for the Intelligence and Security Committee – of which he is a former chairman – to examine the relationships between the difference agencies involved in the case.
Mr Howells said it was clear there had been “very serious breakdowns in communication” and he wants to know why Mr Williams’ absence from work was not reported earlier.
The coroner said the explanation for the delay began to “stretch bounds of credibility”.
Mr Howell said: “I think we need to be clear about who was responsible and why his absence was not reported... There has been quite clearly a problem of line management here.
“That’s not good enough. It caused the family tremendous grief; it set back the investigation quite seriously.”
Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd demanded an inquiry headed by a high court judge.
It was reported that police strongly suspect a member of MI6 or GCHQ was in his flat the day Mr Williams died and will take DNA samples from up to 50 of his colleagues.
The coroner said on Wednesday that while there was no evidence MI6 was responsible for his death “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry”.
Mr Llwyd described these as “very, very strong words”.
The MP called for greater scrutiny of MI6 and said that the present system of oversight by the Intelligence and Security Committee may no longer be sufficient.
He said: “I’m sure they have the best interests of parliament, the people and government at heart but I think we should be opening it up a little bit more now.”
Deborah Coles, of the campaigning group Inquest, told WalesOnline: “This case demonstrates once again how crucial the inquest process is in holding the state to account and how vital it is that this process is open and transparent. All the more reason why the proposals for inquests to be held behind closed doors, contained in the Government’s Justice and Security green paper, should never be implemented.”
The coroner noted that inquiries had been hampered by breakdowns in communication by her own office, a DNA mix-up by forensics and the late submission of evidence by MI6 to police.
A solicitor representing the relatives of Mr Williams read out a statement saying they were “extremely disappointed” at “total inadequacies” in the probe into the death of their son and brother, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ at the time.
The 21-month investigation has yet to yield a culprit but forensic experts are hoping for a breakthrough from DNA tests on a green towel discovered in his kitchen.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the police investigation, said the inquest had raised “several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry”.
Former Labour MP Mr Howells said all employers had a “duty of care” to their staff and he would have expected Mr Williams’ managers to be “doubly careful” because of the intelligence-related skills he possessed.
He described the official explanations as “pretty feeble”.
Plaid’s Mr Llwyd said: “I’m afraid it’s not good enough. It insults the family and I think it insults the intelligence of the public.”
By David Williamson, WalesOnline | May 4, 2012
EVENTS surrounding the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams and the actions of the Secret Intelligence Service must be independently investigated to protect national security and ensure justice is done, Welsh politicians have claimed.
The coroner’s verdict this week that the 31-year-old codebreaker from Anglesey was “on the balance of probabilities” unlawfully killed has heightened concerns about his death and the investigation following the discovery of his body in a bag in the bath of his London flat.
Former foreign minister and Pontypridd MP Kim Howells said there was now a “very good case” for the Intelligence and Security Committee – of which he is a former chairman – to examine the relationships between the difference agencies involved in the case.
Mr Howells said it was clear there had been “very serious breakdowns in communication” and he wants to know why Mr Williams’ absence from work was not reported earlier.
The coroner said the explanation for the delay began to “stretch bounds of credibility”.
Mr Howell said: “I think we need to be clear about who was responsible and why his absence was not reported... There has been quite clearly a problem of line management here.
“That’s not good enough. It caused the family tremendous grief; it set back the investigation quite seriously.”
Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd demanded an inquiry headed by a high court judge.
It was reported that police strongly suspect a member of MI6 or GCHQ was in his flat the day Mr Williams died and will take DNA samples from up to 50 of his colleagues.
The coroner said on Wednesday that while there was no evidence MI6 was responsible for his death “it is still a legitimate line of inquiry”.
Mr Llwyd described these as “very, very strong words”.
The MP called for greater scrutiny of MI6 and said that the present system of oversight by the Intelligence and Security Committee may no longer be sufficient.
He said: “I’m sure they have the best interests of parliament, the people and government at heart but I think we should be opening it up a little bit more now.”
Deborah Coles, of the campaigning group Inquest, told WalesOnline: “This case demonstrates once again how crucial the inquest process is in holding the state to account and how vital it is that this process is open and transparent. All the more reason why the proposals for inquests to be held behind closed doors, contained in the Government’s Justice and Security green paper, should never be implemented.”
The coroner noted that inquiries had been hampered by breakdowns in communication by her own office, a DNA mix-up by forensics and the late submission of evidence by MI6 to police.
A solicitor representing the relatives of Mr Williams read out a statement saying they were “extremely disappointed” at “total inadequacies” in the probe into the death of their son and brother, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ at the time.
The 21-month investigation has yet to yield a culprit but forensic experts are hoping for a breakthrough from DNA tests on a green towel discovered in his kitchen.
Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, who is leading the police investigation, said the inquest had raised “several new lines of inquiry and the investigation will now refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry”.
Former Labour MP Mr Howells said all employers had a “duty of care” to their staff and he would have expected Mr Williams’ managers to be “doubly careful” because of the intelligence-related skills he possessed.
He described the official explanations as “pretty feeble”.
Plaid’s Mr Llwyd said: “I’m afraid it’s not good enough. It insults the family and I think it insults the intelligence of the public.”
Filed under
Deborah Coles,
DNA,
Elfyn Llwyd,
grief,
inquest,
Jackie Sebire,
Kim Howells,
verdict
by Winter Patriot
on Friday, May 04, 2012 |
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