LONDON – Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service denied yesterday that the death of one of its agents whose naked body was found in a padlocked bag had anything to do with his work or that it had covered the episode up.
The decomposing body of Gareth Williams (31) was found in August 2010 inside a red sports bag in his bathtub at his central London flat, a week after he had failed to show up to work.
A lawyer for his family has said it was their belief that “a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services” was involved in removing evidence, stoking media speculation he was murdered by foreign spies.
But in testimony given from behind a screen to protect her identity at his inquest, an MI6 employee known only as “F” said there was no evidence to suggest the agency was involved in a cover-up of Williams’s death or that his death was work-related. “There was no reason to think his death was in any way connected to his work,” the witness said.
Nor, she added, was there any evidence that Williams’s identity as an MI6 officer had been discovered by any foreign agencies.
Williams, a maths prodigy on a three-year secondment from the UK government communications headquarters, did technical work for MI6. His role was to “think up and design technology that could be used by others” in his four-person team, said “F”. He had successfully completed a training course for conducting operations in Britain, but still was involved in relatively low-risk activities.
Williams’s body was discovered inside his Pimlico flat on August 23rd two years ago. He had been scheduled to attend a work meeting on August 16th but did not show up, and there were several other meetings that week that he had been expected to attend but did not. If normal agency procedures had been carried out, “F” said, action would have been taken within two to four hours after he had failed to show up for work. “It took far too long,” she said, adding: “We are very sorry for that.”
Williams’s death has puzzled investigators, who have struggled to understand how he ended up in the bag, which contained keys that would have unlocked its padlock. There were no signs of a struggle.
Former parachute regiment reservist Peter Faulding said yesterday he made 300 unsuccessful attempts to lock himself inside an identical bag, as demonstrated in a video shown to the jury. He testified that he believed Williams was dead or unconscious when placed in the bag. “I couldn’t say it’s impossible, but I think even Houdini would have struggled with this one.” – (Reuters, PA)