Death of a Welsh Spy Week In Week Out

His job was to help safeguard his country. Working for the Security

Services crabbing codes. So how did he end up dead, locked in a bag in

a bath? I think the big clue here is there's no forensics left around

the bath surrounding it, so the bag's in the bath, there's nothing

on the bag, there's nothing. family believe someone in the

Security Services may have been involved. We investigate the detail

from an extraordinary inquest. think there's a possibility there's

been some kind of clean-up or cover-up by MI6.

Today, the coroner said on the balance of probabilities, Gareth

was killed unlawfully. It's exacerbated by the failure of his

employers at MI6 to take even the most basic inquiries as to his

whereabouts and welfare. investigation will refocus and

actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of

inquiry. But will we ever know what happened

For 20 months, questions have been asked about the death of Gareth

Williams in the top floor flat of this London house.

Evidence at his inquest has shed a lot of light on his life-and-death,

but there are still some crucial questions which remain unanswered.

It's likely now there had to be another person involved when Gareth

was locked in a bag. So who is this mysterious person? What part did

they play in Gareth's death? Why hasn't anyone been identified?

don't believe it would be possible for a single person to put Gareth

into that bag in the neat and tidy way in which he was found.

evidence may well be left behind at any crime, but the trick of course

is finding the evidence. And why did MI6 take seven days to report

Gareth missing from work? I've been looking into garreth's

death at this London flat for more than 12 months -- Gareth's death.

I'm calling from BBC Wales. We are doing a programme on Gareth

Williams' death, called Week In Week Out.

Last year, our programme raised serious questions about the

circumstances of Gareth's death death. After we spoke to experts

and family friends. I think that it's really important here to have

everything investigated into. My personal feeling is that probably

the police have maybe hit a brick wall in terms of this personal life.

I also met with someone who worked undercover for MI5 and he expressed

concerns about Gareth's death too. What's significant about the bag

being inside the bath? To me, that would suggest someone had intended

to take the body and dump it somewhere else. They've been

disturbed or spooked so they haven't come back for it.

The death of the MI6 officer from Anglesey has been subject to

intense media speculation, innuendo concerning his private life and

conjecture as the what is work for the Secret Services involved. The

inquest was meant to draw a line under all that speculation, but

evidence has emphasised a secret life that perhaps very few knew

about. The inquest has failed to answer

some fundamental questions. The police investigation has been

plagued with difficulties and we'll be asking if things could have and

should have been done differently. 31-year-old Gareth was laid to rest

in September 2010. The Head of MI6 even attended his funeral on

Anglesey and described Gareth as a hugely talented person who did

really valuable work in the cause of national security.

Ever since then, Gareth's parents have been left wondering if that

work might have had something to do with the death of their son from

Valley 260 miles away in a flat in London.

It's believed Gareth was recruited to GCHQ in Cheltenham after his

talents for playing online games were spotted. From GCHQ, Gareth was

seconded to work here at the headquarters of MI6 for three years.

But at the inquest, we heard from Gareth's sister, Ceri, who said

he'd become unhappy with his job in London.

He disliked office culture, post- work drinks, flash cars,

competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the

office. The job wasn't quite what he expected. He encountered more

red tape than he was comfortable with.

Ceri said that Gareth had asked to leave MI6 and was planning on

returning to Cheltenham and his work at gch CHQ.

-- GCHQ. We met his former landlady in Cheltenham, Jenny Elliott and

she said Gareth calmed to ask if he could have his former lodgings back

and said he hoped to move back in at the beginning of September 2010.

But he never did. His body was discovered just days earlier.

Gareth, whose punctuality has been likened to a swift clock, failed to

show up here to chair a meeting on August 16th. It wasn't until a

colleague eventually called his family that the alarm was raised

seven days after that missed meeting. Then, the police became

involved. PC John Gallagher was despatched to

Mr Williams' top floor flat on Monday August 23rd.

The police video shot later that night shows black squares placed on

the floor to prevent contamination. PC Gallagher told the invest he

found a mobile phone and two SIM cards laid out on a table and his

attention was drawn to to a red ladies wig. By the sofa, a laptop

and another phone in. The spare room were boxes and yellow holdalls

containing �20,000 worth of designer women's clothing and shoes.

Into the master bedroom, clothes were neatly piled on the bed, but a

duvet and dressing gown were uncharacteristically strewn on the

floor. The inquest was shown a 3D graphic

of flat 4 36 Alderly Street and where, in the ensweet bathroom, a

red North Face bag was discovered. PC Gallagher managed to lift it but

became suspicious when red liquid seeped from the bag. A detective

was called to this address and he made a small three inch incision

into the bag and discovered Gareth's body. The flat was sealed,

this was now a crime scene. The police initially described his

death as suspicious, but until they could tell how he died, they

couldn't say for sure if he'd been murdered or whether there might be

another explanation for his death. The postmortem examination would be

crucial. Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd gave evidence at the

inquest and afterwards agreed to discuss his findings with me.

I started looking for things that perhaps my own experience in

restraint may have shown, areas and patterns of bruising that might be

present and there were none. Which lead z you to conclude what? He put

up no significant struck.. It's possible he may have been

threatened and forced to comply without having force applied, but

in the end, an unwilling adult being forced into a bag won't slip

into that bag with no injuries, they will eventually realise the

danger and will begin to fight and struggle and injuries will be

caused. The question of more importance is how the coroner is

considering, the "how" leading up to him being in the bag is of more

significance. We can speculate on a whole series of possibilities for

why he died and it's likely that he asphyxiated if he wasn't poisoned,

it's likely to bes a fix yailted. One of the possibilities is that

Gareth was drugged or poisoned before he ended up in the bag.

Toxicology research found small traces of alcohol and the party

drug GHB but they were tiny amounts that could have occurred naturally

through decomposition, but there's no evidence Gareth used drugs and

he was largely teetotal. Three pathologists carried out postmortem

examinations, all three failed to establish a cause of death. They

agreed that as fixiation or poisoning the most likely causes,

but their examinations were hampered.

The gaps that we had are the time that he remained in his flat and

the body decomposing. That caused some difficulties. Minor scratches

to the skin could have been obliterated. Other features can

sometimes be very, very subtle and decomposition will obliterate them.

That's the major hurdle we all had to jump.

Another factor which accelerated decomposition was the temperature

inside Gareth's top floor flat. Oddly, the heating was on in the

middle of summer. We have checked weather records for London and the

average day time temperature was nearly 21 degrees.

With no definitive cause of death, the police had a problem. They

began to explore other possibilities.

Crucial to explaining Gareth's death is how he'd ended up being

padlocked inside a bag. He was found naked in a foetal position,

electrics folds, hands on chest, his face was calm. Beneath his body

were the keys to the padlock. A police graphic animation shows

how the bag was done up, a padlock faced through the eyelet and

fastener, sealing the bag tightly shut.

The death detective leading the inquiry said she believed a third

party had been involved in Gareth's death or placing his body in the

bath. Detectives asked two experts to see

if it was possible for garreth to have got inside the bag on his own

and padlock it shut from inside the bag -- Gareth. The bag was lying in

the bath. I had to put my hands on the side of the bath to support my

weight, bearing in mind I had to go in head and shoulder first so I

couldn't just climb in and climb down, I had to put my feet on the

wall, my hands on the side to support me, lower myself into the

bath and then slide my head and shoulders in and then I really did

struggle, as you will see from videos released to the media. It's

very, very difficult to get in. It took me quite a while to get

comfortable, well at no stage was I comfortable, and then close the bag

as best I could in the bath. What about locking it? Not a chance.

Locking the bag from the inside in a confined area, you can't access

the lock from the outside. You can pull the material together, but

your arms, when you're inside the bag, your arms are on the chest and

there is no room to manoeuvre. You actually can't get a lock through.

There's no hole to get a lock through so it becomes near

impossible. So you proved it was possible to put yourself into the

bag and to zip it shut? That's correct. To have the lock fastened

from the outside? I couldn't do it. I'm not an escapologist, but I

think even Houdini would have a problem with this one. If the

likelihood of Gareth being able the padlock himself in the bag was

remote, someone else must have been involved.

I believe that he was assisted by a third party into that bath. I don't

believe he died in that bath, I believe he died elsewhere in the

flat. Again, I would go back to the forensic evidence. No prints, no

forensics around the bath. I don't think he would think about suicide.

Again, the sex game, the evidence we have seen doesn't really cover

anything. I think it potentially was murder.

The police revealed at the inquest that they had found tiny fragments

of DNA on the zip fasteners, but they've been unable to identify who

that belongs to. There was also DNA on the bag

handles and a green towel and two hairs found on Gareth's thumb, but

forensic experts have been unable to identify any of it.

Crispin Black is an intelligence analyst and a former adviser to the

Government. He's been following the inquest for us.

There seems to be a suspicious dirt of DNA. The obvious conclusion from

that is that the flat has been prepared in some way, cleaned in

some way. And that you suggest could have been done by the

services? I think there's a possibility that there's been some

kind of clean-up or cover-up by MI6. I mean, that's a clear possibility.

I mean one thing I'm pretty sure of, and I'm sure everybody else would

be sure about it when they think about it, is that the police are

unlikely to have been the first people round to that flat.

With little evidence that's helped the police, there were no

fingerprints belonging to anyone else in Gareth's flat, no signs of

a break-in or disturbance. The police began to delve into his

private life. As well as details of addresses and women's shoes found

in his flat, detectives said there had been an unconfirmed report of

Gareth at a gay bar in Vauxhall yards from his place of work at MI6.

They revealed he'd made limited access to bondage and escaped from

bondage websites on his phone. Gareth's family have been

distraught at the emphasis being placed on his private life. A close

friend told the inquest and our programme last year that he was not

a transvestite and would have been able to confide in her.

It's just out of character for Gareth to me to be honest with you.

That Gareth was into anything like that. Because I truly do feel that

he would have been quite open about it, to be honest with you, because

we spoke about a lot of personal things. I'm very, very open-minded

and I know he is as well. I wouldn't have frowned upon anything

like that and I think he would have felt that he'd have been able to

tell me and his sister as well. At the hearing came an unexpected

revelation from his former landlady. He said in a statement that she and

her husband had to use their spare key to enter his flat after hearing

his cries for help in the middle of the night.

She and her husband discovered Gareth on his bed in just his boxer

shorts. His hands were tied to the head board. He told them he was

just messing about. In a statement, Mrs Elliott said it was likely to

be sexual rather than escapology. A huge amount of detail has been

coming out at the inquest, but for every question that is answered, it

appears there are several more. One of the key questions for his family

is why it took so long for the alarm to be raised.

Between August 11th and 15th, Gareth was spotted on various CCTV

cameras shopping in South West London at stores including Harrods

and Harvey Nicholls. He'd just returned from America where he

attended a technical security conference in Las Vegas and

afterwards he holidayed in the States. Gareth had been due to

chair a meeting at MI6 on Monday August 16th. But he didn't show up.

That evening, he was due to meet a colleague from GCHQ who was

interested in taking over his flat, but there was no answer. Four days

later, Gareth was due at a meeting and again didn't attend. It was

uncharacteristic. He'd never taken sick leave or failed to turn up for

work. I find the idea that nobody knew or

raised the alarm about his seven- day absence from work unconvincing,

indeed unbelievable. Think what we are being asked to believe, that

somebody on attachment to the UK's foreign Intelligence Service living

in a flat a few hundred yards from its headquarters can just not turn

up to work for a week and nobody appears to be concerned or worried.

Gareth's line manager at MI6 gave evidence at the inquest from behind

a screen and was identified only as witness G.

He admitted Gareth's failure to turn up for work on Monday August

16th was unusual. By Friday, he checked the list of suggested

actions for such an eventuality which included calling hospitals.

But he did nothing. It wasn't until Monday 23rd August

that witness G spoke to Gareth's sister and the police were finally

Despite repeated failures to raise the alarm, witness G was never

disciplined. A senior manager at MI6 apologised

and admitted that the delay in finding Gareth's body would have

hampered the police investigation. The delay I think screws up the

forensic evidence. We've heard from a number of pathologists. They all

are pretty inconclusive or have slightly different opinions and

they, or at least one of them says it's quite difficult to test for

various substances after a body has been in a bag for so long in a

heated flat. I think normal people reading about this unquest or

attended it would come to the same conclusion as me. Somebody has

interfered with the evidence so we are not seeing the full picture.

The police haven't always had direct access to evidence either or

even witnesses. Another part of the Met called SO15,

whose officers have high level security clearance, were tasked

with seizing some of Gareth's IT equipment and other items. SO15 and

the regular detectives had been unable to check it all for clues.

Also, it was SO15 who der screwed Gareth's colleagues at GCHQ and MI6,

not the officer leading the investigation at the Met --

interviewed. One of the weird things is the person leading this

investigation, DCI, Jackie Sebire hasn't been able to talk to

everyone. I think she's taken things on trust, some of the

statements appear to have been given not entirely accurately, but

I think one investigating a murder, she should be given access to

everybody that knew him or everybody the police think should

be interviewed. Detective Superintendent Michael Broster of

SO15 told the inquest there was no evidence linking Gareth's death to

his job at MI6. On the last day of evidence at the inquest, Detective

Superintendent Broster admitted someone from MI6 could have been

involved in Gareth death. Let's examine what we know about Gareth's

work. He was a code breaker. He'd won awards for his work at GCHQ

which had been described as world- class. On secondment to MI6, he was

operationally active in the UK as part of a four-man team. He did

have clearance to access sensitive information but was considered a

low risk. He's brought from a country

attached to MI6 and just left alone. Now, that's A not good man

management and B, if I were a person, an enemy of this country

seeking access to SIS, I would be on the lookout for vulnerable young

men brought hear to accomplish very secret technical tasks and are just

left. A small number of times, Gareth had

accessed MI6's database without authorisation. The details were not

revealed, but an anonymous witness said Gareth theoretically could

have been vulnerable to hostile and maligned parties. There was no

evidence of that. What about Gareth's state of mind when he

died? This is the call to the Without the inquest, she

contradicted herself claiming she didn't know of any concerns about

Gareth's welfare -- at the inquest. And he did appear to be planning

for the future. He know he had been due to meet his sister Ceri two Kay

days after his body was found and had been planning a walking or

hiking trip to Switzerland. With so many inconsistencies in what we

know about Gareth, it's made the met police's job even harder.

They've investigated callers to Gareth's flat who turned out to be

insignificant. A partial DNA profile was found on

Gareth's hand. For 18 months, police hoped this could provide an

important breakthrough in their investigation, but the company

analysing the DNA, LGC Forensics, had made a mistake. It turned out

that the DNA belonged to a scientist involved in the case.

LGC declined to be interviewed, but we spoke to a forensics expert who

said the false hope given by that DNA could have impacted in the

investigation in the early stages. It can mean that instead of lacking

in one direction, you are looking in another, you think you have got

a particular lead which isn't real. That can cause problems. But in a

case like this where the police are particularly patient and the

laboratories involved are doing as much as they can to look at the

evidence as closely as they can, ultimately, there probably wasn't

much overall impact in this particular case. So what do we know

about the crime scene? Fragments of DNA have been found and it appears

at least two people have been in Gareth's flat, but we don't know

who and we don't know when and it appears almost impossible that

Gareth locked himself in the bag. It's possible that the other person

who was there, if there was another person there, was forensically

aware, in other words they were taking precautions to avoid leaving

any kind of trace evidence behind them. It's also possible that the

person wasn't necessarily forensically aware but then just

lucky. The police investigation has been hampered by theys and missed

opportunities. It's meant vital evidence has been lost or

unavailable to them. But there's still a chance of a breakthrough.

After eight days of sometimes painful evidence, today Gareth's

family arrived to hear the verdict of coroner Fiona Wilcox. One by one,

she went through various theories. During a two hour verdict, the

coroner said on the balance of probability, Gareth was unlawfully

killed but delivered a narrative verdict because of insufficient

evidence. But she also says she was satisfied

a third party locked and placed the bag containing Gareth into the bath.

In her summary, she said she believes this was criminally

mediated. I've always been satisfied that a third party may

have been involved in his death and the coroner's confirmed that in her

finding today. The inquest has 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. Our grief is

exacerbated by the failure of his employers of MI6 to take even the

most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare which any

reasonable employer would have taken. We are also extremely

disappointed over the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make

available relevant information. We should like to ask the

Metropolitan Police commissioner Hogan-Howe to look into and review

how this investigation will proceed in the light of the total

inadequacies of the SO15 investigation into MI6 highlighted

during this inquest. Gareth was and always will be a

special and adored son and brother. We miss him every single day and

cannot describe the depth of the sorrow his absence leaves in our

lives. We love you, Gareth, and we will

treasure your memory eternally. It's been an extraordinary inquest.

Gareth's family have had to listen to disturbing and intimate evidence

as every aspect of his life has been picked over. Body was found in

a padlocked bag in a London flat has been found he was once found

tied to his bed. Evidence that could be important only came to

light just yesterday. The leading detective, Jackie Sebire, said she

hadn't even seen memory sticking belonging to Mr Williams that MI6

found... The list of unanswered questions

goes on and on. Today, the coroner said there was no evidence gather

was killed by MI6 colleagues but it remains a legitimate line of

inquiry. She also said that the evidence of Gareth's boss at MI6

concerning the delay in reporting him missing stretched the bounds of

credibility. The detective leading the