SALON

Thursday, Apr 26, 2012 9:15 PM UTC

UK probe of slain spy said hampered by delay

By

Topics: From the Wires,

UK probe of slain spy said hampered by delayFILE - CCTV image issued by the London Metropolitan Police made available Thursday April 26, 2012, showing Gareth Williams at Holland Park Tube station in London on August 14 2010. In CCTV images of Gareth Williams's final days, he cuts a relaxed figure as he strolls around shops in central London. British intelligence official Gareth Williams, 31, who worked for Britain's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ but was attached to the country's MI6 overseas spy agency was found dead, naked and decomposing in curious circumstances in August 2010 at his central London apartment. The spy's manager at MI6 acknowledged he didn't raise the alarm for a week, and a second intelligence official, identified only as SIS F, said at the inquest hearing Thursday April 26, 2012, that she recognized the delay had an "impact on the police investigation", at which point some of Williams' relatives walked out of court in tears. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Police, ho, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY(Credit: AP)

LONDON (AP) — A delay in reporting as missing a British spy whose naked and decomposing body was later found locked inside a sports bag frustrated police inquiries into his mysterious death, witnesses told an inquest hearing Thursday.

Gareth Williams, 31, worked for Britain’s secret eavesdropping service GCHQ but was attached to the country’s MI6 overseas spy agency when his remains were found in August 2010 inside the bag and in a bathtub at his central London apartment.

The inquest hearing was previously told the spy’s manager at MI6, formally known as the Secret Intelligence Service, didn’t raise the alarm for a week after Williams first failed to appear for work, complicating the task for investigators.

Members of Williams’ family walked out of the hearing in tears Thursday as a second colleague— an intelligence officer identified only as SIS F — acknowledged that the delay “had some impact on the police investigation.”

“We are profoundly sorry about what happened,” she told the hearing, speaking from behind a screen to preserve her anonymity. “It shouldn’t have happened and we recognize that the delay in finding Gareth’s body has made it even harder for the family to come to terms with his dreadful death and we are truly sorry for that.”

“I also appreciate the delay had some impact on the police investigation,” the intelligence officer said.

Forensic expert Denise Stanworth said the delay had meant that toxicology tests conducted on the spy’s body couldn’t be totally reliable in determining whether Williams had been poisoned before his death.

“In terms of many of the drugs, reliable, but in terms of the more volatile substances, not that reliable,” Stanworth told the hearing.

Anthony O’Toole, lawyer for the Williams family, told the hearing that relatives believed MI6 colleagues had shown a “total disregard for Gareth’s whereabouts and safety,” after failing to alert senior managers and relatives about his disappearance for a week.

He said that relatives also believe police likely lost vital chances to solve the case. So far, detectives have made no arrests and are still not certain exactly how Williams died.

“Because of the decomposition of the body, any forensic evidence that could have been derived from it has disappeared, so the police investigation has in essence been almost defeated,” O’Toole said.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox’s inquest hearing must attempt to determine when and how Williams died, and if anyone else could have been involved.

The spy’s colleague SIS F told the hearing that an internal review had concluded that Williams’ death was not connected to his work, which had included operational assignments with MI6.

MI6 had uncovered “no evidence of any specific threat to Gareth and we concluded that there was no reason to think his death was anything to do with his work,” the woman told the hearing.

She also rejected suggestions that the spy’s lifestyle could have made him vulnerable.

Police found thousands of pounds (dollars) worth of luxury women’s clothing and shoes in his apartment and discovered that he had visited bondage and sadomasochism websites, including some related to claustrophilia — a desire for confinement in enclosed spaces.

Other witnesses have told the hearing that Williams was not a cross-dresser, but often purchased expensive clothes to give as gifts to female friends.

Williams’ colleague said MI6 had not found any cause for alarm in the spy’s background when he was vetted for his position. “There’s no set template as to what (an employee’s) lifestyle should be. Individuals have lifestyles and sexual choices which are perfectly legitimate,” she told the hearing.

More David Stringer.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations