Police find body in bag at MI6 man's London flat

[Magda Hassan]

MI6 death verdict: 'No unlawful killing' says coroner

The police investigation into Mr Williams' death lasted 21 months
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The coroner heading the inquest into the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams says she cannot consider an unlawful killing verdict.With her decision due later, Fiona Wilcox said a narrative verdict was most appropriate as an open verdict would not do justice to the case.The body of the 31-year-old code-breaker from Anglesey was found locked in a bag in his London flat in 2010.Westminster Coroner's Court heard experts could not agree on how he died.A narrative verdict has been an option for coroners in England and Wales since 2004 and is where the circumstances of a death are recorded without attributing the cause to a named individual.Evidence 'reliability'Three pathologists who conducted post-mortem examinations on Mr Williams have been unable to reach a firm conclusion on cause of death.But they say poisoning and asphyxiation are the foremost contenders.The coroner is expected to deliver her verdict within hours.BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw tweeted she said she would comment on the "reliability and robustness of evidence".It was disclosed at the inquest on Tuesday that police were only made aware this week that MI6 had withheld computer memory sticks and a North Face bag, similar to the one he was discovered in, found in his office.Det Ch Insp Jackie Sebire, who is leading the investigation, told the court that the secret services also searched his "electronic media" without informing police.Scotland Yard's Det Con Colin Hall, of the counter-terror SO15 branch, was questioned about his search of Mr Williams' MI6 office on 26 August 2010, saying he did not seize computer memory sticks because he was told they contained material "of a sensitive nature".'Dark arts'Ms Sebire has said Scotland Yard will review lines of inquiry in its investigation in the wake of the inquest.Pathologists have told the court Mr Williams would have suffocated within three minutes if he was alive when he got inside the red 81cm x 48cm North Face bag, at his flat in Pimlico, west London.Meanwhile, bag experts have said even Harry Houdini would have struggled to lock himself in the bag.Mr Williams' family has told the inquest they believe he may have been killed by an agent "specialising in the dark arts of the secret services".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17922388

[Magda Hassan]

I was thinking about this the other day. Was the body even meant to be found? Or was the body going to be removed in the bag he was found in and Gareth just 'disappear' to start his new life elsewhere? I remember his female childhood friend saying some thing about him getting a new identity (as part of his work presumably). The flat had been 'dry cleaned'. Maybe nothing was meant to be found but some thing went wrong and they had to leave the bag and never got a chance to return for it at a later stage?

[Albert Doyle]

Governments assume their intel services have a legal license to kill so therefore an open verdict of "no unlawful killing" gets them off the hook. However that doesn't mean they themselves aren't lawless murdering rogues.

[Lauren Johnson]

MI6 death verdict: 'No unlawful killing' says coroner

The coroner heading the inquest into the death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams says she cannot consider an unlawful killing verdict.With her decision due later, Fiona Wilcox said a narrative verdict was most appropriate as an open verdict would not do justice to the case.

Well, she would, wouldn't she?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Well, well, well.

If one accepts that the Coroner was heavily constrained by the System in terms of what she could say, and by rules of evidence in terms of what could be proven or not, her ruling is - to my mind - a strong condemnation of the MI6 coverup.

The Coroner ruled that he death was "criminally mediated", on the balance of probability, Williams was "unlawfully killed", and added "We are extremely disappointed at the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information."

Further, Coroner Wilcox dismissed the bondage/tranvestism/S&M autoasphyxiation angle.

Wilcox appeared to rule out that Williams died as a result of some kind of "auto-erotic activity", also denying there was any evidence to suggest claustrophilia the love of enclosed spaces was of any interest to him.

She also dismissed the idea an interest in bondage had any link to his death. If it had, she would have expected "much more internet activity" on the web. Williams had only visited sites on four days, she said. He was a "scrupulous risk assessor" and would have had a knife to escape.

Rejecting speculation that he was a "transvestite" spy, Wilcox said leaks that William was a "cross-dresser" could have been an attempt "by some third party to manipulate a section of the evidence".

Makeup found in his flat was more likely to reflect his interest in fashion, she argued. Wigs found there were "far more consistent with dress-up such as attendance at a manga conference", she added.

Just as astonishingly, the supposedly tame Scotland Yard plod, DCI Jackie Sebire, effectively committed career suicide, saying:

"We have heard seven days worth of evidence of the life and death of Gareth this week. I have always been satisfied that a third party may have been involved in his death and the coroner has confirmed that."

The investigation would refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry. William's body was found "in the most suspicious circumstances", Sabire said.

"It is highly likely that a third party was involved and I urge anyone who knows Gareth who had contact with him to search their consciences and come foward with any information about what happened that night, the 16th August 2010.

The coverup has not held.

Gareth Williams's death was 'criminally mediated', says coroner

Fiona Wilcox says there was not enough evidence for unlawful killing verdict, as MI6 officer's family urge Met police to review investigation

Caroline Davies, James Meikle and agencies

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 May 2012 14.58 BST


The death of Gareth Williams, the MI6 officer who was found naked in a padlocked holdall in the bath at his London flat, was "criminally mediated", a coroner has said.

On the balance of probability, Williams was "unlawfully killed", Fiona Wilcox concluded, although she had earlier said there was not enough evidence to deliver a formal unlawful killing verdict.

Wilcox's finding was delivered at the end of a narrative verdict that took her two hours to deliver and in which she criticised the behaviour of MI6 and SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism unit, whose officer operated as a conduit between the intelligence service and detectives investigating Williams's death.

The head of the intelligence service made an unreserved apology to Williams's family over the delay in reporting him missing and the subsequent anguish it caused.

Wilco, the Westminster coroner, delivered the finding after starting her verdict by saying that it was unlikely Williams's death would ever be satisfactorily explained.

Most of the fundamental questions of how he died remained unanswered, Wilcox said on the eighth day of the inquest.


After the verdict Williams's family, in a statement read out by their solicitor Robyn Williams, said their grief at Gareth's death had "been exacerbated by the failure of his employers to make even the most basic inquiries into his wherabouts and welfare".

The statement continued: "We are extremely disappointed at the reluctance and failure of MI6 to make available relevant information."

The family would be asking the Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, to review how the investigation into Williams's death should proceed given the "inadequacy" of SO15's investigation as highlighted at the inquest.

DCI Jackie Sebire, from the Met's homicide and serious crime command, said officers were now following the many new lines of inquiry which had emerged during the inquest. Refusing to take quesitons about the criticism levelled at the role of the counter terrorist officers assigned to liaise with MI6, Sebire said: "We have heard seven days worth of evidence of the life and death of Gareth this week. I have always been satisfied that a third party may have been involved in his death and the coroner has confirmed that."

The investigation would refocus and actively pursue all the evidence heard and all the new lines of inquiry. William's body was found "in the most suspicious circumstances", Sabire said.

"It is highly likely that a third party was involved and I urge anyone who knows Gareth who had contact with him to search their consciences and come foward with any information about what happened that night, the 16th August 2010.

"We would also ask anyone with any information to please come forward … to give Gareth's family some peace and allow them to grieve and move on."

During her verdict, Wilcox rejected "suicidal intent", interest in bondage or cross-dressing, or "auto-erotic activity" being related to Williams's death.

Williams, 31, a codes and ciphers expert, was about to return to GCHQ in Cheltenham after secondment to MI6 in the capital when his body was found in the flat in Pimlico in August 2010.

It emerged on Tuesday, towards the end of seven days of evidence from 39 witnesses, that memory sticks found among his possessions were examined by the Secret Intelligence Service but never handed over to detectives investigating his murder.

Wilcox said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services were involved in Williams's death as she criticised "shortfalls" in MI6 passing on evidence to Scotland Yard. But there was no evidence that he died at the hands of spies.

"It would appear that many agencies fell short" during the investigation, Wilcox said, identifying breakdowns in communication by her own office in ordering a second postmortem, a DNA mix-up by forensics and the late submission of evidence by MI6 to police.

But the coroner added that "taking all these shortfalls together, I am satisfied that the evidence is reliable and that we do not have to adjourn at this point".

Wilcox said the "highly unusual circumstances" of Williams's death had immediately raised the possibility of foul play, which had prompted "endless speculation".

Williams's colleagues were interviewed but no formal statements were taken, she noted.

"I find that this did affect the quality of the evidence that was heard before this court," she said. Wilcox had almost adjourned the inquest due to late evidence, the fault of the SO15 counter-terrorism officer who was the conduit between MI6 and the police. The officer should have passed on an inventory of items found at Williams's MI6 office, said Wilcox.

Evidence from the office was important because Williams "didn't socialise much" and was a reason DNA had been taken from some work colleagues.

Wilcox said she found it "highly unlikely" that Williams got inside the bag alone, saying a lack of hand and footprints in the bathroom was significant. "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."

A lot of time and resources had been spent during the investigation looking into a swab taken from Williams's left hand that appeared to indicate third-party involvement.

But the sample "unfortunately" was later found to belong to a forensic scientist working on the case, she said. "If Gareth had been carrying out some kind of peculiar experiment, he wouldn't care if he left any foot or fingerprints."

Wilcox appeared to rule out that Williams died as a result of some kind of "auto-erotic activity", also denying there was any evidence to suggest claustrophilia the love of enclosed spaces was of any interest to him.

She also dismissed the idea an interest in bondage had any link to his death. If it had, she would have expected "much more internet activity" on the web. Williams had only visited sites on four days, she said. He was a "scrupulous risk assessor" and would have had a knife to escape.

Rejecting speculation that he was a "transvestite" spy, Wilcox said leaks that William was a "cross-dresser" could have been an attempt "by some third party to manipulate a section of the evidence".

Makeup found in his flat was more likely to reflect his interest in fashion, she argued. Wigs found there were "far more consistent with dress-up such as attendance at a manga conference", she added.

Williams's interest in female footwear could have been of a sexual nature, but this was not unusual. "Gareth was naked in a bag when he was found, not cross-dressed, not in high-heeled shoes," she said.

Williams's body was not discovered until a week after he died. Wilcox said his line manager had done "nothing effective" to establish his whereabouts when he was missing. She said she could only speculate as to what effect not reporting him missing sooner had had on the investigation.

Despite '"lots of speculation", there was no evidence Williams's death was linked to his work, she said.

His death was of "unnatural cause", she said. It was possible, but unlikely, that Williams had died in the bag when it was outside the bathroom, but she believed he was alive when he entered the bag and accepted the pathologist's evidence that suffocation or poisoning was the probable cause of death.

She was satisfied "so I am sure" that a third party had moved the bag containing Williams into the bath. There were two possible explanations: that Williams entered the bag outside his bathroom, and the bag was carried in there by a third party, or that he was locked in the bag by a third party and that was lifted into the bath.

Wilcox had earlier ruled out a formal "unlawful killing" verdict because the evidence available was not of the criminal standard needed for such a verdict. She also said an open verdict would not do justice to the "positive findings" she could make.

John Sawers, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, expressed the "deepest condolences" of MI6 and GCHQ for the death.

In a statement delivered by MI6 lawyer Andrew O'Connor, Sawers said the service should have acted more swiftly when Mr Williams failed to turn up to work in August 2010.

He said: "On behalf of the whole organisation, Sawers regrets this deeply and apologises unreservedly."

The MI6 chief added: "lessons have been learned, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences".

[Danny Jarman]

So what comes next?

Hard to believe everyone is just going to move on...

[Peter Lemkin]

So what comes next?

Hard to believe everyone is just going to move on...

The 'State', especially the Secret Deep State [everywhere] reserves the 'right' to murder one [or at times a few hundred thousand] and lie about the reasons for doing so - even that it happened on their watch or by their express direction, and was not just an 'accident' [or done by false-flag agencies]. A list of such deaths of individuals would fill a book of a thousand pages, one entry per line.......sadly. These PR exercises in 'Inquiries / Investigations / Commissions / Etc.] are window dressing [and/or smoke and mirrors] in the Potemkin Village; and more often than not just an act on the part of those running them, as well as those falsely testifying in them [by omission or commission]. Of course, they usually avoid calling in those who would really know - or fail to ask those they do the real hard questions - on purpose [or more often on orders]. The Secrets stay Secret....the secret murders stay unsolved. The machinery of Deep Political machinations grinds on.......

Move along and go watch some junk TV. Sheeple! Be glad it wasn't you they 'eliminated'. :wirlitzer:

[Lauren Johnson]

So what comes next?

Hard to believe everyone is just going to move on...

Move along and go watch some junk TV. Sheeple! Be glad it wasn't you they 'eliminated'. :wirlitzer:

rr

'Peter', Hah, I am taking your advice. Watching the Matrix Reloaded and a baseball game. It's works great.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Anybody wondering why an MI6 spy with Gareth Williams' skillset would end up murdered in the bath of his safehouse, with his corpse entombed in a sports holdall for day after sorry day, should consider the case of Sibel Edmonds.

Then they may chooose to reflect that Williams probably operated at a higher level of national security clearance than Edmonds, and certainly, as a mathematical prodigy, was a more gifted signals analyst.

Finally, one could ask, hypothetically of course, whether if Williams had uncovered crimes of the magnitude identified by Edmonds quite who the most likely murderers are?

[Peter Lemkin]

Anybody wondering why an MI6 spy with Gareth Williams' skillset would end up murdered in the bath of his safehouse, with his corpse entombed in a sports holdall for day after sorry day, should consider the case of Sibel Edmonds.

Then they may chooose to reflect that Williams probably operated at a higher level of national security clearance than Edmonds, and certainly, as a mathematical prodigy, was a more gifted signals analyst.

Finally, one could ask, hypothetically of course, whether if Williams had uncovered crimes of the magnitude identified by Edmonds quite who the most likely murderers are?

Jan, I'd think there are two likely possibilities of equal likelihood, at this stage of so little real information and so much disinformation. 1] As you rightly say, he might have been aware of some damning information and about to blow the whistle [or 'they' were afraid he might at sometime blow the whistle, for some reason]. 2] He was working on some Project, and while not fully aware of the 'sensitivity' of this material to those who ordered his murder should it became known to others or the Public [or the Project simply continued], he was eliminated in order to stop the Program and/or do 'delete' what he knew from within it - in data or in techniques. I guess in typing this I thought of a third.....to send a message of deadly warning to those he was working with and his seniors - stop that line of inquiry, or else!! One wonders how his co-workers have reacted?....for similar could well happen to any of them, as well. It remains to be seen if the agents of death were internal [UK], affiliated [US] or other [many possibilities here]. Whatever he was 'on to' [wittingly or not] must have been VERY sensitive to someone or some government [or intelligence agency of]......certainly Williams did nothing 'wrong' or illegal - or that warranted his death. He was only working as instructed, most likely....and either within this work came across the delicate info, or was curious at something within his 'view' after 'cracking'....that was his undoing. It reminds me of Olsen, Kelly, Oswald, Nagell, DeMohrensheld, M.P. Meyers - and SO many [thousands] others who 'knew too much' to be 'allowed' to live. Deep Political wet jobs are all too common, and the height of evil. They must be exposed and stopped...as must those who direct them.