Gloucestershire Echo : Claims GCHQ's Dr Gareth Williams 'hacked into data on former US President Bill Clinton'

Claims GCHQ's Dr Gareth Williams 'hacked into data on former US President Bill Clinton'

August 30, 2015

The Metropolitan Police are refusing to speculate on fresh claims about the death of Cheltenham codebreaker Dr Gareth Williams, who was found dead in a padlocked holdall in 2010.

According to a report in The Sun on Sunday, GCHQ's Dr Williams had 'hacked into secret data on Bill Clinton', the former United States President.

The paper reported that the 31-year-old, who was on secondment to MI6, 'dug out the guestlist for an event the former American president was going to as a favour for a pal."

This, the paper said, was handed to the friend who was also going to the event.

And it is claimed MI6 bosses were furious about the alleged breach.

A source said: "The Clinton diary hack came at a time when Williams's work with America was of the most sensitive nature."

A Met spokesman told The Sun on Sunday: "The death of Gareth Williams was subject to a thorough investigation and coroner's inquest. We are not prepared to speculate."

The 31-year-old MI6 codebreaker's body was¬ found in a large holdall in the bath of his flat in Alderney Street in Pimlico, London, on August 23, 2010.

The bag was locked, from the outside.

In 2013, the Metropolitan Police issued a report following further inquiries into Dr Williams' death which concluded that he was probably alone when he died.

Previously an inquest had decided that another person or persons were probably involved, as the mathematician was found locked, from the outside, in the bag.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox ruled that the spy would not have been able to lock himself in the bag and was therefore likely to have died at somebody else's hands.

She concluded: "The cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated. I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully."

Dr Williams was coming to the end of a three-year secondment to MI6 in London in August 2010, when he was reported missing by GCHQ, just days before he was due to return to Cheltenham.

Dr Williams, who rented a flat in Bouncers Lane for many years and was a keen cyclist and member of Cheltenham and County Cycle Club, was originally from North Wales.

His family have said they believed the coroner's view "accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth's death.

Earlier this month, there were claims someone had broken into Dr Williams' flat to remove evidence after his death.