Gareth Williams murder: what we have been allowed to know so far (photos)
WAS Gareth Williams murdered? The 31-year-old MI6 spook from Anglesey, North Wales found dead at his Pimlico flat, his body locked inside a bag in his bath. That was August 2010. Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire says “two minor components of another contributor’s DNA” were found on the zip toggle and padlock.
Gareth William died either from oxygen depletion or hypercapnia (too much carbon dioxide in the blood).
Gareth Williams was found dead inside an 140-litre capacity North Face sports bag. The bad had been locked with a Yale padlock. The locks’s keys were inside the bag – beneath Mr Williams’s body.
PC Gallagher found Mr Williams’s body. He detected a “particular smell” when he lifted the bag. There was news of his body being in a mystery liquid.
The inquest into his death is underway at Westminster Coroner’s Court. So far we have learnt:
Williams’ former landlady Jennifer Elliot rented the code breaker a part of her home when he worked for GCHQ in Cheltenham. She heard him cry for help. When a woman trusted to house spooks went into his room – using the spare key – she found him in his pants:
“We were in bed and we heard Gareth shouting for help. It was about 1.30am and during winter. We both got up, got the spare key and opened the door to the annex. I called ’are you ok?’ Gareth replied ’can you help me?’ We went upstairs and found him lying in his bed with both hands tied with material attached at the headboard.”
Adding:
“He was not aroused and I could not see any sperm near him. He was very embarrassed. He said ’I just wanted to see if I could get myself free’. My husband said ’what the bloody hell are you doing?’ and he said ’I just wanted to see if I could get free’. He told my husband there was a knife on the side and my husband cut him free. We said ’Gareth, we can’t have you doing this’. He agreed and said it wouldn’t happen again.”
Adding:
“We obviously discussed it and thought it more likely to be sexual than escapology.”
Is Mr Williams a victim of an interesting private life? The media, police and MI6 have colluded to paint Mr Williams out as a gay miscreant. A Russian element has been dangled.
Police found £20,000-worth of women’s clothing and shoes at his London flat. The Sun has already labelled him a“secret transvestite“. Maybe that’s why he committed suicide? The smears on his name keep coming. The Mail says he was “stuffed” into a bag.
Elizabeth Guthrie, a friend anser a question about William’s dressing up: “Nothing of a sexual bent but we were going to a fancy dress ball together. He was going as a ninja, not as a queen.” The women’s clothes “certainly would not have been for his… I have a personal view that he was straight.”
She also revealed that Mr Williams had sometimes used another name, although his mystery second identity was not revealed as the coroner cut short the line of questioning, and that he had used a number of different phones to call her.
Dover Street Market shop worker Carol Kirton: “He would come into the store, browse the store and I would make a suggested purchase to him…He was different from other male customers.”
Detective Chief Inspector Jacqui Sebire: “My thought or my opinion since I went into the scene is that a third party had been involved in the death or in putting the body in the bag. So my primary focus was to identify anyone who had been in the bathroom.”
Of those clothes he aid: “It was an extensive high-value collection. Certainly I know one pair of shoes cost £1,000.”
Mr Williams’s sister, Ceri Subbe, says her brother was a “scrupulous risk assessor…I cannot emphasise enough his conscientiousness.” His motto was “better to be safe than sorry”. Williams was so punctual that his nickname was “Swiss watch”. He was dead for seven days before his co-workers called the police. The Swiss Watch had missed work for a week before his sister called the police.
It is thought Mr Williams died on Monday, August 16.
She adds: “He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash-car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office…The job was not quite what he expected. He encountered more red tape than he was comfortable with.”
More facts they want us to know to follow…
Photos of faces: Undated Metropolitan Police handout photo of efits of a couple who said they were visiting the British code breaker Gareth Williams’s Alderney Street home in late June or July. Mystery death spy Williams visited a series of bondage websites in the months before his death, police revealed today.
April 28th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
I’m not an expert on these things…but this expert claims that even Houdini would have had trouble locking himself inside the bag…
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2012/04/28/harry-houdini-could-not-have-locked-himself-inside-bag-in-which-dead-spy-was-found-inquest-hears-86908-23840494/
April 28th, 2012 at 12:58 am
Very simple – he did this himself, without any assistance whatsoever. Most of the population may not be able to lock this bag from the outside, but he did. He was clearly extremely clever, and certainly the type to spend his spare time devising problem-solving scenarios such as this. I believe beyond any doubt whatsoever that he planned this in minute detail, making sure that he did not leave any obvious clues suggesting that he had done this alone. The reason for him doing this was because he had had enough of it all, and the only way out of MI6, he believed, was to make it look like his own people, who he clearly did not enjoy the company of, “bumped him off”. No “Secret Service” or mafia played a role in this; you just would not do it this way – ever. There would be every reason never to do it this way, and would only grab huge attention and embarrasment at best. Why naked? Why not? Putting yourself in the bag clothed would leave fibres on the bag, and the surrounding areas, and would clearly show that you had done it yourself. I have no doubt that the cords were place through the zip ‘eyelets’ first, then the padlock placed into the first ‘eyelet’ – clasp slightly off centre – then, as only he knew how, pinched the lock shut from the inside. Once he is contained in the bag, he simply goes to sleep. It is not lack of oxygen that then kills him within the following 30-50 minutes; it is the carbon-dioxide. The body gradually ‘shuts down’ and becomes diseased, the pulse rate eventually increasing to over 100. All the evidence points to this conclusion, and little or no evidence points to any involvement by a third-party. No need for the so-called experts, intent on proving a third-party being present. It is silly to continually go down this road; a little like trying to prove that water is dry.
April 26th, 2012 at 8:11 am
don’t be silly – if MI6 had wanted to get rid of him they could quite easily have done it without creating a situation which in itself has aroused so much publicity and questions about his death.
how many other people have you read about who have been offed in a large bag in their own bathroom?
there is quite a lot more to be added to this, whether you like it or not.
April 25th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
As far as I am concerned I believe he was a problematic person. Probably a kind of psychopath, or in other words mentally disordered man. His behavior indicate on such conclusion. Here is a testimony of his neighbors:
“We were in bed and we heard Gareth shouting for help. It was about 1.30am and during winter. We both got up, got the spare key and opened the door to the annex. I called ’are you ok?’ Gareth replied ’can you help me?’ We went upstairs and found him lying in his bed with both hands tied with material attached at the headboard.”“He was not aroused and I could not see any sperm near him. He was very embarrassed. He said ’I just wanted to see if I could get myself free’. My husband said ’what the bloody hell are you doing?’ and he said ’I just wanted to see if I could get free’. He told my husband there was a knife on the side and my husband cut him free. We said ’Gareth, we can’t have you doing this’. He agreed and said it wouldn’t happen again.”
MI6 and GCHQ are too serious institutions to kill their members without any particular reason. There can be only one exception: if he betrayed MI6 to any other foreign secret service by giving them a top secret documents, in such case, if he did a lot of damage to the service they can decide to execute him. These cases are, indeed, very rare. The traitors are often eliminated during the war time period when the civil laws are not used, but the military ones.
In his case there is nothing more to be add. No more no less.
April 25th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Certainly not an open and shut case