Four spies given anonymity at ‘body in the bag’ inquest as coroner rules exposing their identities would ‘harm’ national security and international relations

April 24th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Gareth Williams was extremely ‘security conscious’ and would not have let strangers inside his flat
He may have been considering leaving the security services to start up his own business
Detectives say criminal charges are still a possibility, despite no suspects
Four intelligence
agents give evidence behind anonymity screens to avoid ‘real risk of
harm’ to national security and international relations

By
Chris Greenwood

PUBLISHED:

08:42 EST, 23 April 2012

|

UPDATED:

20:25 EST, 23 April 2012

A spy whose body was discovered in a padlocked bag was desperate to leave his intelligence post and complained about ‘friction’ at MI6 headquarters, his family said yesterday.

They revealed 31-year-old Gareth Williams was a ‘scrupulous risk assessor’ and a meticulous genius who colleagues compared to a Swiss clock.

But he had become disenchanted with a heavy drinking ‘office culture’, the London ‘rat race’ and work politics at the spy agency’s central Thames-side HQ.

Ceri Subbe

Enlarge

Family: Gareth Williams’ sister Ceri Subbe, left, said the spy, right, disliked the office culture at the MI6 headquarters

At home: Inside the Pimlico flat where Mr Williams was found dead locked inside a North Face holdall in the bath

He applied to end his secondment early and return to the GCHQ Government listening station in Cheltenham, where he worked as a highly prized code-breaker.

But just one week before he was due to leave, his naked and decomposing body was found in a large sports holdall in the bath of his home, sparking a huge police investigation.

Yesterday, his grieving family attended the first day of a long-awaited inquest into his mysterious death.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox pledged to hold a ‘full and fearless’ inquiry as she heard:

Mr Williams wanted to escape the ‘rat race’ of the capital and was frustrated that MI6 had been dragging its feet over the move.
The spy was extremely conscientious and his family said he would never let anyone into his flat apart from them.
MI6 was accused of failing to raise the alarm when he missed a key meeting one week before his body was found.
A sergeant described the moment he cut open the red North Face holdall and found the body of Mr Williams curled up inside.
A constable who discovered the bag and raised the alarm noticed underwear neatly folded on a nearby bed and a woman’s wig hanging on a chair. The death of Mr Williams in August 2010 triggered a painstaking investigation, worldwide media frenzy and a raft of conspiracy theories.

Revelations about his personal life and claims that no third-party fingerprints or DNA were found in his home fuelled speculation around the circumstances of his death.

His parents, Ian and Ellen Williams, listened as his sister Ceri Subbe told the inquest how he never spoke about his top-secret intelligence work.

Choking with emotion, she outlined the astonishing academic achievements that led him to his highly specialist job and passions for sport, fashion and the arts.

Mystery: Mr Williams was found dead locked
inside a holdall in the bath of his flat (above). his family want to
know why the alarm was not raised when he failed to turn up to work

Unsolved: Coroner Fiona Wilcox has said that
whether Mr Williams was alive inside the North Face bag like this one
and locked it himself ‘was at the very heart of this inquiry’

But Mrs Subbe said he disliked the office culture at the landmark MI6 headquarters on the south bank of the Thames.

She said: ‘He missed the countryside and longed to ride his bicycle in the open air without smog and the constant fear of being run over by a bendy bus.

‘He disliked the 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.’ Mrs Subbe said she last spoke to her brother on August 13, when he said he was looking forward to going to see a transvestite comedian.

Brilliant: Mr Williams, a mathematics prodigy and codes expert for GCHQ, had been on secondment with MI6 since March 2010

She later found out he missed a meeting at MI6 that he was due to chair, but no one investigated why.

On August 23 PC John Gallagher was asked to conduct a ‘welfare check’ on Mr Williams’s flat when he failed to keep in touch and they could not raise him.

The officer described how the property was clean, tidy and unremarkable until he came across the holdall in the en-suite bathroom. PC Gallagher said: ‘I noticed that the side nearest the door had a round bulge.

‘I noticed there was a padlock with the two zips joined together. At this point I am realising it is something serious.’

He called Sergeant Paul Colgan, who used a knife to cut a three-inch hole in the bag, confirming a body was inside and alerting the murder squad.

Sgt Colgan said the heavy-duty bag concealed the smell of the decomposing body but once the hole was made the ‘smell became more than apparent’.

When Mr Williams’s sensitive job was discovered, detectives from the force’s Counter Terrorism Command were informed.

The inquest, in Westminster, heard details of the spy’s life, including how he went to university aged just 16, joining the University of Bangor’s computer science department.

It was also told how the successful cyclist and fell runner followed the arts and fashion and had a £20,000 collection of women’s designer clothing in his wardrobe. Mrs Subbe said her brother was ‘the most scrupulous risk-assessor’ she had ever known. She said he would meticulously check his equipment before rock climbing, cycling and fell running.

She added that her brother never told her he was being followed or felt threatened, saying: ‘I cannot think as to why anybody would want to harm him.’

The inquest, which is expected to last eight days, continues.

Being tracked? Mr Williams is caught on CCTV in Holland Park on August 14, 2010, just over a week before his naked and decomposing body was found locked in a bag in his Pimlico flat

Suspicions: Mr Williams’ body is taken out of his flat. Relatives believe a third party was either present when Gareth Williams died or broke into his home afterwards to destroy evidence

Enlarge

Interests: Mr Williams was also a successful cyclist and fell runner with a passion for the arts, cinema, books and fashion, with a £20,000 clothing collection in his wardrobe

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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Was the body left there as a warning to others?

– Jack, Reading, 23/4/2012 19:39

I have never understood why the security services make their locations so public. Surely it would make sense to work from undisclosed locations or at home and then they can’t be compromised? Making the buildings so public means that an undesirable operative only has to hang around to get an idea of where someone works and lives. It must have been very convenient that he lived just around the corner from MI6, but convenient for who though?

– Patrick, London, 23/4/2012 19:16

Were watching you .

– False flags, 7/7 yes you, 23/4/2012 18:56

It seems the Secret Service want everything kept secret so that we don’t know about their “culture” of “flash cars and heavy drinking”. Nothing at all to do with state security.

– harryhart, cheltenham, 23/4/2012 18:10

It is quite likely that he would have given his relatives the story about being unhappy in HQ and leaving to set up his own business if there was a requirement that he was to move undercover.

– Michael , The Wirral, 23/4/2012 17:59

It was reported today that ‘PC Gallagher noted that he didn’t remember seeing any toiletries in the bathroom, saying ‘It stuck in my head that the place was pretty sparse.” The above picture of the bathroom surely doesn’t concur with the PC’s recollection?

– rees, oxford, 23/4/2012 17:56

Why was his body so decomposed that there was no evidence?
Surely it would take months for this to happen?

– Mrs Mole, A Hole, 23/4/2012 17:39

Flash cars in MI6? Someone’s been watching Spooks too much.

– Dan, Harrogate, 23/4/2012 17:38

disappointed the police have not made more headway in their investigations, 21 months later.

– zip reeper, london, 23/4/2012 17:34

Yet we still put our noses in the air when we talk about the Chinese. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

– Colin Camper, Blackpool, United Krapdom, 23/4/2012 17:30

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