The bizarre case of Gareth Wyn Williams - The Spy in the North Face bag
Revised September 2024
Gareth Wyn Williams, 32, was a Welsh mathematician, a keen cyclist, an art lover, an elite code-breaker and an intelligence officer with the U.K.’s secret services.
On Monday, August 23, 2010, Police found Gareth’s decomposing naked remains in a red North Face bag, padlocked from the outside, in the bath of the main bedroom's en-suite bathroom, in his top floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, in London. A bizarre investigation followed, with many theories put forward concerning what had happened to Gareth.
During an inquest into the death in 2012, the coroner concluded that Williams’ death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated". The coroner was "satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully". A subsequent re-investigation by the Police disputed this finding.
What happened to Gareth? - what is a suicide, misadventure, or something more sinister, such as counter-espionage by foreign agents?
Gareth Wyn Williams case North Face bag
What are GCHQ and MI6?
Gareth was a GCHQ employee seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) as a crypto-analyst or code breaker, similar to the NSA in the United States.
Williams started with SIS in London in the spring of 2009 after taking several training courses. He recently qualified for operational deployment and worked with U.S. National Security Agency and FBI agents.
Few details were made public about his work, except that he designed "practical applications for emerging technologies" and was deemed "low risk". Although he had passed the course to become "fully deployable" six months before his death, he was only operational in the UK and not overseas. An SIS employee said an internal review had confirmed, "There was no evidence of any specific threat to Gareth, and we concluded there was no reason to think his death had anything to do with his work."
MI6 85 Albert Embankment in Vauxhall, a south western part of central London
A few months before his death, he asked to return to GCHQ because he disliked the "rat race, flash car competitions and post-work drinking culture" at SIS and, as a keen cyclist and walker, wanted to return to the countryside.
GCHQ is the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters, based in "The Doughnut" in the suburbs of Cheltenham in the West of England. It is an intelligence and security organization responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information to the British government and armed forces.
GCHQ was originally established after the First World War as the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) and was known under that name until 1946. It was located at Bletchley Park during the Second World War and was responsible for breaking the German Enigma codes. There are two primary components of the GCHQ: the Composite Signals Organisation (CSO), which is responsible for gathering information, and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is accountable for securing the UK's communications.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence (HUMINT) in support of the UK's national security. MI6, Military Intelligence, Section 6, was Formed in 1909 as a section of the Secret Service Bureau specializing in foreign intelligence and officially adopted its current name around 1920.
SIS is involved in counterterrorism and counterproliferation, providing intelligence to support cybersecurity and supporting stability overseas to disrupt terrorism and other criminal activities.
Gareth’s most recent assignment was a "hackers" conference in Las Vegas, which was known to have been attended by criminal hackers, returning on August 11, 2010.
The background of Gareth Williams
Originally from Anglesey, Wales, Williams, who spoke Welsh as a first language, began studying mathematics part-time at Bangor University while still at Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern and graduated with a first-class degree at age 17. After gaining a post-doctorate degree (PhD) at the University of Manchester, he dropped out from a subsequent post-graduate course at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He had a mild stutter, which got worse when he was nervous.
He worked with GCHQ in Cheltenham in 2001 and rented a room in Prestbury, Gloucestershire, for nearly a decade. Reportedly an intensely private man and a keen cyclist, Williams was due to return to Cheltenham at the beginning of September 2010 after his annual leave.
There were some rumors that Gareth, 31, was gay after bondage equipment was allegedly found in his apartment along with phone numbers for gay escorts. The police denied this, but they did disclose in December 2010 that Gareth had visited some bondage websites, which were not pornographic but would give readers advice on how to get in and out of confined spaces. In the later official inquest, they said these visits were infrequent, isolated, and only a tiny part of his online activity. Police also said they had found tickets for several drag shows. Then, there were reported irregularities in his finances, which were also denied.
The family members, including his confidante and childhood sweetheart, Sian Lloyd-Jones, said he had been given a new identity by MI6 and rejected the various claims against Gareth. They also denied he was homosexual, as none of the family had heard any mention of this. According to Sian, he had too much interest in women and wanted a girlfriend, a wife, and a family. They denied he was interested in confined spaces or women’s clothes fetishes.
The flat in Pimlico, London
The letting agent of the flat in central London that Gareth rented said it had been leased by the U.K. government secretary of state since 2003. However, MI6 said it had not arranged the let, and GCHQ said it was a private rental through an approved letting agency. Williams was due to move back to Cheltenham the week after his death, and another GCHQ employee was trying to contact him to view the flat in the week he was missing.
The Police Visit to Gareth’s Flat
Police visited Williams's home on Monday, August 23, 2010, at 4.40 pm as a "welfare check" after colleagues noticed he had been out of contact for several days. At around 4.40 pm, the police gained entry into his top-floor flat four on 36 Alderney Street, Pimlico, London.
They found a red North Face bag, padlocked from the outside, in the en-suite bathroom of the main bedroom.
PC John Gallagher, who was attending the scene, attempted to lift the bag but became concerned when a red /brown liquid seeped from it, and he left it in the bath. A small incision was then made into the bag, and a naked, decomposing body was found inside. The body was in a fetal position with arms folded. A Yale lock had been used to fasten the eyelets and toggle of the bag.
Computer simulation of scene Gareth Williams
A search of the flat revealed $20,500 (£15,000) of designer clothes and shoes, including labels such as Stella McCartney and Christian Louboutin, all stored unopened in their bags and boxes alongside several women’s wigs. One of these orange wigs was hung on a table.
Family members said designer clothes were merely a sign of his generosity as he bought expensive gifts for them. Also, all the clothing was in a size 6 or 8, which he wouldn’t even fit an arm or a leg into, and the shoes they found in his apartment were not in his size but his sister’s.
The Wig found in Gareth Williams’ flat
As for the women’s wigs, they dismissed this, stating that an American friend was going to a fancy-dress party, and one of his hobbies was Japanese superhero cartoons, and they were going to go as two of the characters. They were pink and yellow, and those were the only wigs found.
Subsequently, the police released an E-FIT photo of two people they sought with a Mediterranean look, who were seen entering the communal entrance of Gareth’s home in June or July 2010. They were later dismissed as potential suspects.
Initial Investigations by the authorities into Gareth Wyn Williams’ death
The Metropolitan Police investigation was run by Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the senior investigating officer, and her boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who was in charge of the homicide and serious crime command.
Williams' date of death was estimated to have been in the early hours of August 16, 2010, one week before he was found.
Vincent Williams from the London Metropolitan Police “Met” informed the Westminster Coroner's Court that experts agreed that Gareth Williams couldn't have locked himself into the North Face bag.
Soon after the investigation started, the heads of the SIS and the Met met to discuss how the police would handle the investigation in light of the top-secret nature of Williams' work and who would lead the investigation. The U.S. State Department asked that no details of Williams' work should emerge at the inquest. The Foreign Secretary of the UK government, William Hague, signed a public-interest immunity certificate authorizing the withholding from the inquest of details of Gareth's work and U.S. joint operations.
The Post-mortem and Coroner’s inquest by Fiona Wilcox
At the official inquest into the death in March 2012, Coroner Fiona Wilcox said that there were no apparent visible injuries on Gareth’s body and no signs that he had been involved in a struggle. His body was also free of alcohol and common recreational drugs. The Met considered his death "suspicious and unexplained" at the time but later changed their mind. The FBI also investigated the case.
A police spokesperson stated that: "If he was alive, he got into it voluntarily or, if not, he was unconscious and placed in the bag."
The family said they believed that a secret service agency was involved in his death. Fiona Wilcox, the Coroner, said that she would "follow the evidence" wherever it led.
Evidence at the inquest showed that Williams would have found it virtually impossible to lock himself in the bag. Two experts could not lock themselves in a similar bag despite making 400 attempts, although one stated there was a slight chance Williams had managed it. Subsequent videos that suggest that the feat is possible have appeared online. But given Gareth’s height and weight, it would be very difficult, but not impossible.
Renowned Pathologist Richard Shepherd said it was more likely that Williams was alive when he got into the bag due to the difficulty of arranging a corpse in the position Williams's body was found in. Another pathologist, Ian Calder, stated that Williams would have been overcome by hypercapnia, elevated carbon dioxide levels, after only two or three minutes in the bag.
It was also noted at the inquest held in March 2012 that he never visited any website devoted to claustrophilia, a sexual interest in being confined in small spaces.
The heating in Williams's apartment was found to be turned on to a high level. It has been suggested an elevated temperature inside the apartment would have sped up the decomposition of Williams' body.
The lawyer for the family, Anthony O'Toole, at the inquest said that a second person was either present when Williams died or someone broke in afterwards and stole items. There was no forensic evidence to support this view. No sign of forced entry could be found, but it was also noted that the door and locks had been removed by the time police experts had become involved.
Gareth’s family alleged that crucial DNA was interfered with and that fingerprints left at the scene were wiped off as part of a cover-up. Inconclusive fragments of DNA components from at least two other contributors were found on the bag: fingerprints, palm prints, footprints, or traces of Williams's DNA were found on the rim of the bath, the bag zip, or the bag padlock. A key to the padlock was inside the bag, underneath his right buttock.
DNA found on Williams' hand turned out to be contamination from one of the forensic scientists. LGC, the forensic company, apologized for the error that inflicted such pain on the family, which was caused by the incorrect data entry of a numerical code.
Evidence given by Williams' former landlady in Cheltenham showed that one night, he had awoken her and her husband, screaming for help. He had managed to tie himself to his bed and required assistance in releasing himself. The testimony was that Williams had claimed at the time that he had done it to see if he could free himself and promised not to try this again. Nothing further had been said about the incident after the event.
Journalist Duncan Campbell reported that the inquest evidence indicated Williams was one of a team of intelligence officers sent to penetrate US and UK hacking networks. He had attended the 2010 Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON conferences.
Two senior British police sources have said some of Williams's work was focused on Russia, and one confirmed reports that he had been helping the NSA trace international money-laundering routes that organized crime groups, including Moscow-based mafia cells, use.
Gareth Williams Inquest verdict
The Coroner, Fiona Wilcox, concluded that Williams's death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated". The coroner was "satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully". She also said that "most of the fundamental questions about how Gareth died remain unanswered".
There was insufficient evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing. The coroner concluded that another party placed the bag containing Gareth Williams into the bath and, on the balance of probabilities, locked the bag. No fingerprints were found around the bath. The coroner was critical of SIS for failing to report Williams missing for seven days, which caused extra anguish and suffering for his family and led to the loss of forensic evidence.
The coroner rejected suicide, interest in bondage or cross-dressing, or "auto-erotic activity" being involved in Williams' death. She said his visits to bondage websites only occurred intermittently and were not of a frequency to indicate an active interest. The coroner condemned leaks about cross-dressing as a possible attempt at media manipulation.
The coroner was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), which failed to tell the senior investigating officer before the inquest began about the existence of nine memory sticks and other property in Williams's SIS office. SO15 also failed to take formal statements when interviewing SIS officers. The coroner said the possible involvement of SIS staff in the death was a legitimate line of inquiry for the police.
The Met investigation and accusations of a cover-up
The finding by the coroner prompted a reinvestigation by the Metropolitan Police, which lasted a further 12 months. Officers said they had been allowed unprecedented access to serving MI6 staff following strong criticism at the inquest.
After the Coroner’s hearing, the Metropolitan Police re-investigation concluded that Williams's death was "probably an accident” and that an evidence review had found "it was more probable" no other person was present when he died in his London flat.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt announced that despite a re-examination of all evidence and the investigation of new leads, no definitive answers had been obtained as to the cause of Williams's death and the "most probable scenario" was that he had died alone in his flat in Pimlico, central London, as the result of accidentally locking himself inside the bag.
The Williams family responded to say they stood by the coroner's findings, and in a statement, they said: "We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died and the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief. We consider that based on the facts at present known, the coroner's verdict accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth's death."
Martin Hewitt said he was satisfied it was "theoretically possible" Williams could have padlocked the bag from the inside. However, "many questions remain unanswered" as to the circumstances of his death. But he said there was no evidence that the MI6 officer had intended to take his own life or that his death was connected to his work. And he insisted it was "beyond credibility" that he had been misled. "I do not believe I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death.”
The police said there were about 10 to 15 traces of DNA in the flat from which it had not been possible to gain complete DNA profiles, but all other DNA profiles and fingerprints had been eliminated.
DAC Hewitt also said there was no evidence that the flat had been forensically cleaned, adding it was a "fallacy" that it had been deep-cleaned so that only specific DNA was left in the premises.
He acknowledged that the coroner, having studied "all the evidence available at that stage", had made "the logical inference that it was more likely someone else was involved in Gareth's death. However, she also recognized that there had been endless speculation but little real evidence, and it was her view [that] 'it is unlikely that his death will ever be satisfactorily explained. Now, at the end of our investigation, based on the evidence, or where we have been unable to find positive evidence, we believe that it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died. But the reality is that for both hypotheses, there exist evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding."
Later developments
In September and October 2015, Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB agent who defected from Russia and was living in Britain, stated during interviews that "sources in Russia" have claimed that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as the SVR, was responsible for Williams' murder. According to Karpichkov, the SVR tried and failed to blackmail Williams into becoming a double agent.
In response to the SVR's attempts, Williams claimed he knew "the identity of a Russian spy inside the GCHQ." Karpichkov claimed that Williams's threat meant that "the SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him to protect their agent inside GCHQ." Regarding the cause of death, Karpichkov claimed that the SVR killed Williams "by an untraceable poison introduced in his ear."
In 2015, a story emerged that Gareth had illegally hacked secret information on former President Bill Clinton as a personal favor to a friend. Williams snagged a guest list to a party the former president planned to attend and handed the secret information to a friend who was also invited to the event. The breach of Williams’ security clearance provoked the ire of MI6.
Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell interview February 2021 (Sunday Times)
Former Detective Chief, Superintendent Hamish Campbell
In February 2021, the former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief, Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who retired from the Met and was now working as the assistant commissioner for the Independent Commission of Investigations in Jamaica, spoke to the Times newspaper. Campbell was in charge of many notorious cases in London, including the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando in Fulham in 1999 and Operation Yewtree which investigated the aftermath of the Jimmy Saville pedophile allegations.
He said a semen stain on the bathroom floor suggested Williams had been engaged in sexual activity shortly before his death. Campbell believed that this made the idea of an assassination by a foreign state highly unlikely. “I felt like it was improbable his body fluid could be present in a violent, non-consenting scenario,” Campbell said. “Considering Gareth’s tidiness and cleanliness, we surmised the semen was from the day of his entry into the bag. This would have been consensual activity. But was he alone or not? It would be difficult to imagine him having intimacy with a Russian hitman or a female spy.”
He also said there were no signs of a struggle, no forced entry and no bruises or marks on Gareth’s body. Inside the bag, near the head, were some tiny scratches. “I think that was unlikely to have been done with his fingernails,” Campbell said. “I believe the keys inside the bag made those marks.”
The inquiry team found fragments of DNA belonging to two unidentified people on the padlock and handle of the bag. Those people were never identified. And a green towel in the flat carried an unknown person’s DNA. That person was also never traced.
Based on the evidence in the flat, Campbell believes Williams entered the bag of his own free will. “It is a bizarre thing to do voluntarily, but I don’t stand by the idea of forcing him into the bag,” he said. “If he was forced to do it, there was not a single mark on his body to suggest any violence or forced activity. So, how do you remove his clothes and force him into a bag? Then force him to squeeze in until it is zipped up? Do you do it at gunpoint? Well, if that is the case, then why not just shoot him? “What the evidence leaves you with is that Gareth consented to get inside the bag, either on his own or with other parties not yet identified.”
One obvious question was whether Williams’ death was linked to his work. “We looked at some aspects of his work to try to discover if it had anything to do with him being killed,” Campbell said. “Was his work dangerous? Did he argue with anybody at work? Was he having a relationship with somebody at work who was jealous? We didn’t find anything.”
On the subject of the designer clothes found at the flat. “We never found any evidence that he had a girlfriend or any sort of partner,” Campbell said. “He lived alone, and there were no signs that he was in a relationship.” Campbell believed the boxed items were linked to his fashion design courses, but the motive was never established with any degree of certainty.
“The belief that they were bought for him to give as gifts never held much credence. Why not give them? He wasn’t a hoarder of belongings, nor was there evidence or suggestion he was storing them on behalf of another. The reasoned view is that they were his items. He bought them. He retained them. He wore or was to wear them.”
Campbell believes the absence of fingerprints on the bath or bathroom tiles proves nothing. “Why would you expect to find fingerprints?” he said. “Where is your knowledge base for that? Everyone has been in the shower — how often do you touch the bathroom wall? And if there is running water, would there be fingerprints on the walls?”.
Campbell rules out the idea of a Russian assassination, saying the death was different from the hits on the Russian defectors Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. In those cases, the motive was clear: revenge for the betrayal of the Kremlin and a warning to others. “What would have been achieved by killing a junior analyst?” Campbell asked. “He was a phone analyst, an expert in terms of mobile phones and the transference of data. What would the Russians or any other state have achieved by killing him?”
Campbell believes the answer to his death lies in his private life. He mentions the landlady who found Williams tied naked to the bed and evidence of visits to bondage and fetish websites, as well as images of drag queens. Some searches related to models in various forms of a “hogtie”, a bondage position. Campbell said a video on one of Williams’s phones — found in his office — showed him dancing, naked except for black leather boots. “I think he shot the video himself,” Campbell said. The phone found in his flat had been restored to factory settings in the hours before he died.
Detectives found that he went to fetish clubs, visiting a Jonny Woo drag act in east London a few days before he died. In Campbell’s view, this was a hidden part of Williams’ character that may explain why he got into a bag. “This all formed part of who he was,” Campbell said.
He said that if others had been involved, they might have left in a hurry. “It wouldn’t be the first time in homicide and sex games that the death has caused a panic. Then there’s a cover-up to avoid responsibility or shame or embarrassment.”
Campbell believes that forensic advances could allow scientists to delve deeper into the partial DNA fragments found on the bag. The police national database may offer new clues as thousands of forensic profiles are added yearly. “You can never say never concerning forensic reviews,” he added.
He said swabs taken of the DNA on the padlock and zipper still existed, while the towel found with an unidentified person’s DNA could also be worth retesting.
“Forensics do move on,” he said. “I have experience of reviews where forensics alone will bring a case forward. Not a lot else will, to be honest. It may be that an independent forensic company could be asked to have another look at it within a proper framework. That would be a sensible and reasonable thing to do.”
Aftermath
Williams was buried at Ynys Wen Cemetery in Valley, Anglesey, on September 26, 2010, following a private funeral service at Bethel Chapel in Holyhead attended by his family, friends, former intelligence service colleagues, and the head of SIS, Sir John Sawers.
What happened to Gareth Williams?
Misadventure
Getting into the North Face bag has been shown to be possible but very difficult. But fastening the bag with the Yale padlock without third-party assistance would seem almost impossible. It remains feasible that Gareth managed to do this and was overcome by carbon dioxide very quickly. The coroner considered this scenario unlikely, although Police investigations after the hearing contradicted this conclusion.
The bag being left in the bath and the heating being left on high both support a situation where decomposition was expected and accounted for. Any bodily fluids leaking from the bag would have run down the bath drain. If Gareth had been attempting some game in the bag, for whatever reason, why do it in the bath?
Suicide
It seemed unlikely as there were no signs of mental health issues, and Gareth had been due to meet his sister two days after his death and had already booked a hiking holiday in Switzerland.
Is the death caused by foul play, criminal activity, or by a secret services operation?
There were no signs of a struggle and no injuries to the body. There were no signs of a break-in at the flat in Pimlico, but if the mortice lock on the front door was off, someone could open the other lock by reaching through the letterbox, the inquest heard. The Police removed the locks.
No data on Gareth’s laptops or phones revealed anything suspicious, but an iPhone at his flat had been reset to factory settings just before his death. It was impossible to tell if it was done manually or remotely. Police said the service provider had "no data history", which they took to mean no calls or website browsing had taken place.
The degree of decomposition made it impossible to rule out poisoning as the heating had been turned on in the flat despite the height of the summer in August—a puzzling point.
There was little or no DNA in the flat, which again is strange. The Police deny that the apartment was forensically cleaned by persons unknown. Even Gareth’s fingerprints were nowhere to be found. He inexplicably would need to wipe any finger or palm prints from every surface in the bathroom before getting in the bag. Even if he were trying to get into the bag by himself, he would have needed to touch the side/bottom of the bath or the tiles at some point during the attempt. But nothing was found.
Gareth would somehow have to have locked the bag outside from the inside and wiped off all of his fingerprints from the lock afterwards.
Williams's belongings at MI6 were in a shared cabinet with a combination lock used by others and only examined three days after his death. GCHQ equipment was inspected shortly after. Detective Constable Simon Warren, who investigated Williams' laptops, memory sticks, CDs and DVDs, said, "Any data, even at the lowest levels, can be changed or deleted”. But he said there was no evidence that the files had been amended since his death.
Why did it take MI6 so long to report him missing? He had missed meetings on August 16 and 20, 2010. No one raised the alarm after missing him for more than seven days. Gareth’s failure to turn up for work was considered unusual, but his manager failed to take action after his Sister had been in touch. For some reason, his manager failed to raise the alarm, which impacted the forensic evidence, especially in the heated flat.
Forensic officers also believed that the crime scene had been tampered with. A source told the Daily Mirror that forensic tiles to preserve the scene had been moved on the first evening. They believed someone may have broken into the flat through the skylight to bypass the police guard.
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341571/MI6-spy-Gareth-Williams-secret-double-identity-gay-friend-insists.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Intelligence_Service
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24927078#:~:text=MI6%20spy%20Gareth%20Williams%20death%20'probably%20an%20accident'%2C%20police%20say,-13%20November%202013&text=The%20death%20of%20MI6%20spy,unlawfully%20killed%20in%20August%202010.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/may/02/gareth-williams-key-unanswered-questions
https://darkideas.net/the-death-of-gareth-williams/
https://nypost.com/2015/08/31/british-agent-hacked-bill-clintons-agenda-before-his-mysterious-death/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gareth-williams-new-evidence-revealed-in-the-case-of-the-spys-body-in-the-bag-cf9q9kgvc
Further viewing
