All language subtitles for the.body.in.the.bag.2022.1080p.web.h264-cbfm

NARRATOR: In 2010,
the death of an MI6 spy,

found locked in a bag in his bath,
shocked Britain, and the world.

He was found unclothed

in a zipped and padlocked
red sports holdall.

The authorities ruled it
a tragic accident...

This was probably
a sex game that went wrong.

..but some have serious doubts.

Everything about this case
absolutely stinks of a cover-up.

Could he have got in the bag?

And if he couldn't get in the bag
on his own,

there must be someone else.

What were the events leading up
to his tragic death?

What Gareth may have stumbled across

is the identity
of a Russian mole in GCHQ.

He had to be eliminated.

This is the story

of one of Britain's
most shocking mysteries,

but now, 14 years after it happened,

has a new police investigation
finally solved the case?

We think there's new technology here
that might give us more evidence.

Or has the truth been buried?

I believe the purpose
of this re-examination

was to shut the case down.

The mystery isn't solved.

If the police think it is,

they're deluding themselves
or trying to delude the public.

I just feel bloody angry
the intelligence agencies

can always sweep
everything like this, every scandal,

under the blanket
of national security.

It was murder by people
who knew exactly how to do it

without leaving a trace.

2010...

a busy year
of memorable worldwide events.

At home,
Prince William gets engaged.

He's a true romantic.

The Conservative Party unites
with the Liberal Democrats

to form a coalition government.

Apple released
the first generation of the iPad,

heralding a new dawn in technology.

REPORTER: Three Lions
torn apart by the Germans.

At the World Cup,
Germany send England home...

Frank Lampard's
disallowed goal added...

..but in Russia, a darker,
deadly atmosphere pervades.

I have no doubt that
this was an attempt to kill.

Journalists, businessmen,
human rights activists

are found shot,
strangled, poisoned, murdered.

REPORTER: Quite a few
of Putin's enemies have perished

by swallowing things
they shouldn't have.

The killings weren't limited
to Moscow.

REPORTER: The death of a jogger

in this exclusive
Surrey neighbourhood

is officially unexplained.

The Secret Intelligence Service
was awakening

to a new era of Cold War espionage.

In 2006, the murder
of Litvinenko in London

confirmed there were no borders or
barriers to the Kremlin's dark arts.

I cannot think
of another capital globally

that really represents
the centre of espionage

more than London itself.

And that was an interesting
experience being an MI6 officer,

because I would deploy
as much tradecraft,

simply going across London

as I would do in any other city
in the world.

The world of espionage had entered
its most dangerous phase

since the Cold War,

and London was the battle ground.

This was the deadly environment
that Gareth was promoted to in 2010.

Just months later, he was dead.

But who was the spy in the bag?

Gareth Williams was
a highly talented mathematician.

I think probably fair
to call him a genius.

Gareth Williams was regarded
as a highly proficient

and a very effective member

of the security organisation
for which he worked.

He was based normally at GCHQ
in Cheltenham

but was on short-term transfer
to MI6.

MI6 is the elite institution
of the British Intelligence Service,

and it's always looking to recruit
the best minds in the country.

MI6 is much more
about individualists

who go and work abroad undercover

and recruit agents
to gather information.

So the culture shock from someone
going from being a boffin at GCHQ

to being someone working
in a shark pit, effectively,

which is MI6,
must have been hideous.

So, how did this brilliant
31-year-old MI6 operative

meet such a chilling end?

RINGING TONE

One day in August 2010,

the police received a call

from the Government Communications
Headquarters,

the hub of the
UK intelligence service,

better known as GCHQ.

RINGING TONE

It was a phone call that would lead

to one of Britain's biggest unsolved
mysteries.

CALL OPERATOR:
Emergency - which service?

I wanted to report one
of our members of staff,

who lives and works in London,
as missing.

Detective Sergeant Paul Colgen
was first to respond.

There was certainly nothing
within the message to suggest

that this was anything more

than a knock on the door
to see who was there,

if they're OK, and then report back.

It was in a quiet residential road.
An old Victorian building.

This revealing footage
gave an insight

into Gareth's lifestyle
and the contents of his flat.

Going into the flat,
it was immaculate.

There wasn't a thing out of place.

I remember there were laptops,
certainly computers in there.

A couple of mobile phones
I do remember being on the table.

There was a number
of North Face bags piled up,

and I remember there was
a couple of wigs on the side.

The bedroom, again, was tidy.

There was certainly nothing
to suggest there'd been a struggle,

or any form of crime
had taken place at that point.

I'm walking into the bathroom,

nothing to suggest
anything had happened.

The only strange thing
was the bag in the bath.

It was secured with a padlock

through two zippers
meeting in the middle.

When I picked it up, it was heavy,
but not inordinately heavy,

in that I could lift it myself
without help from anybody else.

But because of the odour
that was coming from it

and the fluid
that was leaking from it,

I decided that
it had to be cut open.

I decided to cut
down the side of it,

near the zipper,
but not on the padlock itself,

in order to preserve
as much forensics as possible.

On cutting through the bag,

I-I was met
by an overpowering stench...

..of... of decomposing flesh.

That's something you never forget.

The first thing I saw was a nose.

But then I opened the bag
a little bit further,

and then it was a... a face
of a body

who'd clearly been dead
for some time...

frothing at the mouth and nose.

That was the point I decided
that this was a crime scene,

and we would leave the premises,
secure them,

and then call in the murder teams
to take over.

There's been a huge amount
of police activity

and people in forensic outfits.

All a bit grim, really.

Good gracious me,

how a man can be obviously murdered
in his flat there is awful,

that doesn't normally happen.

Now being treated
as a suspicious death,

forensics teams were called
to the flat

to start looking
for any potential evidence.

I think, obviously,
that you always feel very saddened

by the scene in front of you,
you can't help that.

I think you wouldn't be human
if you didn't.

But the great thing that I've found

is that you become so overwhelmed
almost immediately

with the need to start doing
something really meaningful,

and it's really important that you
get going as quickly as possible.

You don't have much time
to dwell on the emotional,

the obvious emotional aspects
of the... of what's in front of you.

The investigation would be overseen

by Detective Chief Superintendent
Hamish Campbell.

My initial thoughts
were like many others,

it was certainly bizarre and rare.

And in ordinary circumstances,

the discovery of a naked person
inside a locked bag,

in their own premises,

almost invariably would result in
immediate identification of murder.

When you're looking at homicide,

you have to have
some theories to it,

and in this case, Gareth's death
had only three options, primarily.

Either his death was a single event
by himself,

and no-one else involved.

The second scenario
was that his death

was a result of another person,
or persons involved

in him being placed in that bag.

And the third possibility is, again,

that other person or persons
were involved,

and it was murder.

And that Gareth was therefore
deliberately killed

and placed in the bag.

The forensics teams
had to follow a strict process

to ensure any clues that could solve
the mystery weren't missed.

The principles that are followed

are control, preserve,
record, recover.

So you get control
of the crime scene,

you preserve the evidence,

make sure it's not interfered with
in any way.

And then try and establish
who is inside the bag,

what condition the body is in,

and gradually start working towards

what is the evidence
that's available that might explain

how this body got in the bag
and how they died.

If you look at this crime scene,

even as a specialist
who attends the scene,

it's very likely
that you will never have encountered

anything like this before.

If you then link that
to Gareth's background

and all the issues
that that might bring,

someone who's employed by GCHQ
and currently working with MI6,

it brings an even more extraordinary
dimension to it.

Whilst forensic evidence
was being collected,

the content of Gareth's flat had
already been leaked to the press,

and the mystery was deepening.

£20,000 worth of women's clothes
were found.

Along with wigs, mobile phones -

one restored to factory settings,

one with a search history
that included bondage sites.

The mixture of spying and sex
quickly reduced Gareth's lifestyle

to a perverse, headline-grabbing
version of the truth.

The public was fascinated
by the case,

and television news bulletins
were all too happy

to broadcast the salacious details
of his death.

He'd visited bondage websites,

gone to gay bars
and bought tickets to drag shows.

Police have revealed new details

about the intensely private life
of MI6 spy Gareth Williams,

who was found dead
in his London flat in August.

Of course, he had a flat,
he had tens of thousands of pounds

of women's clothing in this flat.

He was interested
in women's fashion.

He'd been portrayed
as a cross-dresser,

which there was no evidence
that he was.

And... And so what?

You know, that was Gareth,
and he should have been allowed...

He should be allowed that space
to be who he was,

not be portrayed
as some kind of geek,

cross-dresser, kind of demi-spy.

That simply doesn't represent him
as an individual.

This grisly discovery quickly moved

from a standard welfare check

to an international,
headline-grabbing story.

A story that involved a dead spy,
locked naked in a duffel bag,

whose name was already being smeared
in the press.

Rumours started to circulate
that shadowy forces were involved.

Maybe he was the first casualty

of what I'd call the New Cold War
with Russia.

He didn't deserve to die
in the course of his duty.

He certainly didn't deserve
to be rubbished

and to be smeared
in a way that subsequently happened.

It was murder.

And it was murder by people
who knew exactly how to do it

without leaving a trace.

NARRATOR: August, 2010,

police had been called to an address
in Pimlico, West London.

It's a straightforward
welfare check on a 31-year-old male.

But this was no ordinary man.

This was a brilliant code breaker,

part of the elite spy network

responsible for preventing
atrocities, espionage and terrorism.

Gareth Williams' body
was found naked, decomposing,

and in a bag
padlocked from the outside.

With very little evidence to go on,

the case was getting more complex
by the second.

To have any hope of unravelling
this extraordinary mystery,

investigators needed to build
a profile of Gareth.

The first clue came
from his childhood in rural Wales.

He loved a problem,
he loved solving it.

Especially if it was a sort of...

anything to do with computing
or anything in the digital world.

To give an example,
I was asked to write a program

which would deal with staff absences
in the school,

but I was stuck on one thing,
and I couldn't get it to work.

And I said, "Gareth,
have a look at that for me."

And he got hold of it,
and he had a look,

and he went through it and said,
in Welsh, he said,

"Mr Thomas, this is inelegant."

And so he had a look at it,

and he brought a little routine
that dealt with it supremely.

That was the kind of thing he loved.

He wasn't a social child,
if you understand what I mean.

I'm not aware that he had
any friends, as such.

He didn't have any friends

in the sense that you had
a best friend,

or that he had somebody
he went out with.

He was just totally on his own,
and the computer was his friend.

It's that simple.

When he was separated from the
computer and was asked to go out,

quite often, I've seen him sort of
just walking up and down

outside the computer room waiting
to be let in, like a lost sheep.

He was definitely happier

when he was sitting
in front of a computer,

there's no doubt about it.

Although not medically trained

and going on his own interactions
with Gareth,

Nigel believes he may have been
on the autistic spectrum.

What I know of autism,

and I think that Gareth was slightly
on the autistic spectrum,

is that it is difficult
to interact with other people.

It's difficult to understand
the emotions,

it's difficult to know
what to do in a certain situation.

I know that it's difficult
for people with autism

to have relationships

because they have to renew
the relationship

every time they meet that person.

It's a very, very difficult thing
to say.

Gareth passed his GCSEs aged 10
and his first degree by 17.

I've never come across anybody
who had that ability at all.

He was away above anything
that I've ever seen.

We had people
who went to Oxford and Cambridge,

but this was something
totally different.

He was way above anything
I could imagine, to be quite honest.

By the time Gareth had graduated
from university

and started his second degree
at Cambridge,

his talents had been noticed
by the security services,

and a job was offered at GCHQ.

The beating heart of GCHQ
are its mathematicians.

They are the codebreakers,
the direct descendants

of the people who shortened
the Second World War

by a number of years

by breaking German codes
in Bletchley Park.

His work involved
developing software,

analysing patterns of communication

and cracking terrorist activities.

He was surrounded
by like-minded people,

fitted in very well,
and excelled at his work.

You need extremely brave people.

You need people who can drink
two bottles of wine at lunch

and walk home.

But you also need people
with completely different skillsets.

And as the world digitises itself,

those people who really understand
what it all means

and how to make it work,
they are the jewels in the crown,

physically located
at the centre of The Doughnut.

By 2010,
Gareth had been seconded to MI6,

the elite section of
the Secret Intelligence Service

and a very different
working environment.

The mathematicians and coders
had been replaced by elite spies

who risked their lives
on a daily basis.

MI6 would always,
fairly or unfairly,

categorise people
who worked in GCHQ

as typically very introverted,

certainly not very sociable,
not comfortable in large groups.

And certainly not outgoing
personality types.

By contrast, in MI6,

the organisation
is looking very much

for gregarious-type individuals,

people who can hold their own
in social situations

and indeed can bend with the wind

according to the situation
they were in.

By all accounts, Gareth's ability
to interpret code was extraordinary.

But, if, as some have suggested,
he may have been neurodivergent,

this new world of espionage
he now found himself in

could have been
extremely challenging.

A neurodivergent person
is a person that,

what we would traditionally call
"on the spectrum".

Possibly autistic.

That would have impacted him
on his everyday life.

His sense of the world,
the people around him,

his work, his challenges,

would have been very different
to yours or mine.

Really, to become a spy,

you literally need to be able
to read the room.

You need to be able
to change tact very quickly.

And for somebody
that is neurodivergent

and is used to working
with computers, numbers, patterns,

that's a very different skillset

and perhaps would have been
a lot more challenging

than Gareth may have anticipated
himself.

Just weeks after starting at MI6,

Gareth requested a transfer
back to GCHQ in Cheltenham.

At the same time, something
dangerous was happening in Britain.

Money was pouring in from Russia,

with a super-rich elite community
arriving,

keen to hide their wealth

and escape the tyranny
of the Kremlin.

A tyranny that simply moved
to London with them.

At the time, in 2010,

we had a new coalition government,
of which I was a part.

David Cameron and George Osborne,

who were the main protagonists
in that government,

were keen to improve relations
with Russia.

George Osborne was keen to attract
Russian money into London,

which he saw as advantageous
to the city.

To attract wealthy foreign investors
to the country,

the Government had launched
the so-called Golden Visa Scheme.

Applicants had to provide a minimum
investment of £2 million

in exchange for the right
to live in Britain.

We saw an increase in Russian money
coming into London

belonging to Russian oligarchs.

What followed the money

were individuals and organisations
of fairly dubious character.

And as a consequence of that,
a blind eye, in my view,

was turned to a range
of assassinations which took place,

largely of Russian nationals
in London,

on the basis
that it was inconvenient

to draw attention to that

and to find the Russian State
guilty of assassinations.

It's also worth bearing in mind,
in 2006,

Vladimir Putin enabled a new law
to be adopted in Russia,

which gave licence, authority,

for assassinations
to take place abroad,

if they were assassinations

of people who were harmful
to the Russian State.

Could Gareth's death be linked
to Russia?

Over a ten-year period, 14 people
with connections to Russia,

many of them former spies,

died in suspicious circumstances
on British soil.

You've got Alexander Perepilichny,

who blew the whistle
on massive Kremlin fraud.

He dropped dead
while he was out jogging.

Mr Perepilichny was not just
another man out jogging,

he was a whistle-blower

who was instrumental
in trying to expose

a Russian scandal that stretches
around the world.

You've got Matthew Puncher,

who helped pin Litvinenko's
poisoning on Putin.

He was stabbed to death
with two knives.

Litvinenko himself, who defected
from the Russian Security Services,

who was poisoned with radioactive
polonium in his tea.

Boris Berezovsky, who financed
international opposition to Putin,

he was found hanging
from a shower rail in his home.

REPORTER:
Officially, Thames Valley Police

are treating the death
as unexplained,

but there is no shortage of
conspiracy theories surrounding it.

A close family friend told Sky News

he was not a man who would take
his own life.

You've got Alex Chapman,
revealed sex secrets

of his Russian spy wife, Anna,

found dead
from a massive drugs overdose.

You've got Scot Young,

who interfered in Russian finance,
not to Putin's liking,

who allegedly committed suicide
by throwing himself out of a window

and found himself impaled
on railings.

REPORTER:
Did he fall or was he pushed?

He's one of half-a-dozen
apparently healthy British men,

associates of rich Russian exiles,
to die here.

The list is really quite long,

and what it demonstrates,
I think, is over the years,

the police in this country

have been quite happy
to conclude suicide

in the most unlikely circumstances.

The tactic of Russia of late,

certainly within the last
ten-plus years,

has very deliberately been to take

a far more brutish approach
to espionage.

It's, in many cases,
not espionage as we know it,

it is crass, direct action.

Assassinations or attacks
or sabotage or whatever.

And that is a deliberate tactic,
driven from the very top by Putin,

to send messages
to the Russian populous.

And that message
being loud and clear that,

"Look, if you do similar,
this is what will happen to you,"

so it's all about Putin controlling

what he perceives
to be his Russian empire.

THEY SING
RUSSIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

My experience of operating in MI6

was a new world,
a far more complex world,

far more dangerous.

As a spy, being in London,

it felt as hostile as anywhere else
in the world,

because of the activities
that were taking place there.

The bottom line
is that we dropped our guard

against Putin's Russia.

We dropped our guard,

and that is a cause
of huge national shame,

and it should be, rightly so.

Please don't forget,
where does Putin come from?

You know, he comes from the KGB.

And it was blindingly obvious that
somebody like Putin as president

would be big, big trouble

in intelligence and security terms
for this country.

Was Gareth Williams discovering
some uncomfortable truths

behind Russia's influence
in Britain?

Maybe that is what Gareth Williams
was charged to find out.

What were they really trying to do
in the United Kingdom?

What were they really after?

What did it really tell us

about what was going on
in the Kremlin?

And maybe, you know,
he was the first casualty

of what I'd call
the New Cold War with Russia.

Putin puts a high value
on counterintelligence

and a low value on those
that get in his way.

How likely is it that Gareth
would become a target

for assassination?

Assassinations conducted either
by a hostile intelligence agency

or even by terror cells,

they do take a lot of planning,
a lot of forethought.

This is speculation,

but if Gareth
had stumbled across something

that potentially compromised

what we would categorise as
a hostile intelligence organisation,

such as Russia's SVR, or FSB, GRU,

it is conceivable that
he would have been assassinated

purely to shut him up.

That is possible.

But it would have had to have been

an extraordinary potential breach

for Russia to have done something
like that, would be my assessment.

Whatever secrets
he may have uncovered,

just months later,
Gareth would be dead,

locked in a duffel bag.

This was murder.

And literally, murder most foul.

NARRATOR: MI6 operative
Gareth Williams' body,

discovered naked
in a holdall in 2010.

The obvious cause of death
had to be murder,

but the police were struggling

to find any solid evidence
to close the case.

As a result, an inquest was opened

to explore all the circumstances

leading up to the discovery
of his body

and work out how he had died.

The first question the inquest asked

was could Gareth actually
have been able to get in the bag

and lock it himself?

Peter Faulding was
one of two experts tasked to explore

every potential way
of getting into the bag,

and what the forensic fall-out
might be.

Gareth was slightly taller than me,
and it's just, it...

You've got to get your shoulders,
so you've got to stand in the bath,

you've got to lift yourself over,

and you have to pull the bag
right the way round.

And I practised this
time and time again,

where your head
has got to go first into the bag

before you do it.

It's very, very difficult.

And there's lots of manoeuvring
just to get into this bag.

It's very hot already.

But if you look at my feet now,
my feet are all over the bath.

It was a very hot environment
that day,

the heating was turned up,
and he would have had,

his body would have been perspiring.

But there was no trace at all,
anywhere, of his,

in this bath or around the bath.

When I visited the flat,
the information I was given,

there was various traces left
around the flat.

There was none around the bath,
there was none on the padlock,

none on the zipper,
none on the shower screen

relating to Gareth Williams himself.

It was very clear that Gareth
did not do this himself.

It would be
an absolute impossibility,

unless you were wearing
forensic gloves and a forensic suit.

Gareth Williams was naked, and
he would have left traces of sweat

and all sorts of marks everywhere
within that bathroom.

Gareth Williams
could have got into the bag,

he could have zipped it closed,

but you cannot do it
without actually leaving a trace.

And that is what this is about,
it's DNA and fingerprints evidence.

You've got to place your hands
on the bath,

you've got to touch the lock,
the zip,

and there was none of that
of Gareth's

found anywhere near the area.

The other experts agreed with me.

They had a yoga expert
bending himself into the bag,

and I believe their conclusion
was the same as mine.

How could that possibly happen?

Did this point unequivocally
to foul play?

For some, the lack of proof
did not necessarily equal murder.

The absence of fingerprints
in itself isn't proof of anything.

It's just the absence
of fingerprints.

And I always wonder when,
what... what...

..what process is occurring
where you think

that there has to be fingerprints?

You can go to any crime scene
where people live,

and where one of those persons
in the house has been murdered,

and you won't necessarily find
their fingerprints.

And we know they live there.

I've had much experience
of that as well.

So, it, in itself,
is not going to make a case

one way or another as to how
to determine this crime scene.

There are situations, particularly
with DNA and fingerprints,

where you simply DON'T find them
where you expect them.

It's very difficult to predict.

Let's take DNA.

DNA is perhaps more easy...
more easy to explain it.

You might think,
if you pick something up,

that you will always find
your DNA on it.

You won't always find
your DNA on it.

You might think,
if you pick something up,

you will always find a fingerprint.

You will not always
find a fingerprint.

So my take on it is that every
contact does NOT leave a trace.

It... You... And to go down
that way of thinking

is a distraction in a case

where there is other important
information available.

The inquest was shown videos
of the inside of Gareth's flat.

Such was the public's interest
in the story,

these clips were published online
by a reputable newspaper.

The inquest now focused

on why Gareth might have put himself
in the holdall.

Claustrophilia is the love
of enclosed spaces.

Sometimes, it has
a sexual element to it,

whereby people that find themselves
in confined spaces

get sexually aroused.

Sometimes, in fact,
they need to be very constrained

in terms of their space

to feel that they can reach
sexual release.

Every year,
we get a number of cases

where people have accidentally
killed themselves

while engaging in some kind
of auto-erotic activity.

And we know that many times,

they didn't really mean
to harm themselves.

But this seemed
a sort of slightly strange method,

because of the details of it,
really.

You know, why bother to get
into the bag in the bath?

There are some really odd aspects
about this.

At the inquest,
Gareth's sister insisted

that he was meticulous
about assessing risk.

There was no way
he would have put himself

in danger of suffocation
without a back-up plan.

If this was something to do
with erotic auto-asphyxiation,

it seems very unlikely to me
that he would have put himself

in such a precarious situation

that he didn't have
an escape route from the inside.

Because of his professional
training, because of his skillset,

Gareth Williams understood
about risk.

And if this had been
a mad, auto-erotic adventure,

he would have taken a penknife
or something like that with him

as he got into the bag.

None of that was there.

Gareth's flat
was meticulously clean.

However, forensics found his semen
on the bathroom floor,

likely to have been left there
shortly before his death.

Did that mean that any sex act

had actually concluded
before getting in the bag?

If it's a solo sexual game,
if it is erotic asphyxiation,

the release,
and therefore the semen,

would be found inside the bag.

Most certainly not outside the bag.

It seemed there were
multiple arguments

against the solo sex act theory,

but they were far from conclusive.

The coroner also said he wouldn't
have got in the bag of his own

because he was risk adverse.

I don't accept that either
because I think risk

is often associated with
sexual excitement.

When we talk about
auto-erotic deaths,

these are extremely unusual things.

Generally, you need to be aware
that the range of things

that can excite people sexually

is enormous, it's kaleidoscopic.

Auto-erotic events
are not necessarily things

that lead to ejaculation,

they are just things that give
an intense feeling

of sexual excitement.

But how did his alleged
sexual fantasies fit in

with his high-pressure role

at the most secretive workplace
in Britain?

His whole life
was about not being able to share

with his close group of family
and friends what he really did.

Control, control, control.

It may have been, then,
in his personal life,

what he really craved
was having the ability

to be completely out of control,

in a way to balance his inner world
with his outer world.

His external life
with his inner truth.

So something about being
in confined spaces

that made him feel
that he could relax into it,

because you've got nowhere else
to go. You're safe.

The inquest had heard that it
would have been possible

for Gareth to get in the bag
on his own,

although there were
conflicting arguments

about fingerprints
and DNA evidence.

It was also possible that he had
a sexual or other motivation

for getting in the bag.

But those close to Gareth

said he would always have had
a safety back-up plan

where risk was involved,

and this behaviour
was entirely out of character.

But then a witness came forward
with some startling new evidence.

REPORTER: In a statement read
out at today's inquest,

his landlady described one night
back in 2007,

when she and her husband heard a cry
for help at 1:30 in the morning.

Jennifer and Brian Elliot
found him dressed just in shorts,

lying on his back, with both hands
tied to his bedposts.

NARRATOR: MI6 spy Gareth Williams
was found dead in a bag,

locked from the outside.

Mysteriously, there were
no fingerprints on the scene,

baffling investigators.

The inquest into his death had
become focused on two main areas.

Was it somehow linked to his job
with the Secret Service?

Or was it a sex act gone wrong?

The sex game theory would suggest
Gareth had a fetish

for erotic asphyxiation,

an idea which was roundly dismissed
by close friends and family.

But then a witness came forward
with an extraordinary story.

REPORTER: He was, by all accounts,

a polite and friendly tenant,
occupying the annexe of this house.

In a statement read out
at today's inquest,

his landlady described one night
back in 2007,

when she and her husband
heard a cry for help

at 1:30 in the morning.

Jennifer and Brian Elliot
found him dressed just in shorts,

lying on his back, with both hands
tied to his bedposts.

Suddenly, the erotic fetish theory
had gained pace.

But was this witness testimony
enough to conclude

that Gareth had died accidentally

after entering the bag
to fulfil his sexual desires?

The assumption
that being found tied up

and having to call for help
to his landlady

escalating into him being found
inside a bag, locked up,

is perhaps parallel
to the assumption

that if you take weed,
you'll end up on heroin.

I don't think it necessarily follows

that everybody that's into bondage

will escalate their fetish
into something much more extreme.

So, again, you know, I'm doubtful

that the connection
is absolutely clear-cut.

In terms of him being found
in that situation

of having to call for help...

one thing is true -

he knew that he needed
to call out for help, and he did.

So he had an escape route,
embarrassing as it may have been.

Then another clue emerged
about Gareth's sexual interests.

He had previously used
one of his phones

to search for bondage websites.

Was this further proof that this was
indeed a sex game gone wrong?

The evidence that we used
to form the view

that this was an auto-erotic death
was weak.

There wasn't a great deal
of evidence.

The evidence that he was tied to the
bed in Cheltenham was quite weak.

But when you combine that with
the fact that there's no evidence

that anyone else was in the flat

and the belief,
albeit an extraordinary thing to do,

that it could be that he could have
got in this bag on his own,

then it does start
to make sense in a...

as a kind of circumstantial
explanation of events.

The police could find no evidence
of a sexual partner in the flat

in the hours leading up
to his death.

Nor was there any hard evidence
of his sexuality.

But one curious detail
came to light

when searching for clues -

a wardrobe full
of women's clothing.

They were all bought by him, they
were a considerable sum of money,

thousands of pounds spent
on women's clothing.

But we've never established
why he bought it.

Some of them were still wrapped,

I remember, all wrapped
in their tissue and clearly unused.

The suggestion that he may have been
buying them for friends -

well, maybe,
but they weren't given away

if he had bought them for friends,
they were still in his flat,

you know,
a considerable amount of them.

So, one's unsure.

He had gone on a fashion course,

they may have been purchased
as part of that course,

erm, I don't know.

But is it... is it relevant
to his death?

Probably not.

Because he,
as the coroner identified,

well, we all identified, he wasn't
dressed in any women's clothing

at the time of his death.

It later transpired
that Gareth had attended

an evening class in dress design
and was fascinated by fashion.

A friend explained that the wigs
were for a fancy dress party

they were supposed
to be attending together.

The sex act theory
seemed to be losing momentum.

And other clues started pointing

to a much more harrowing explanation
of events.

Gareth's death took place
on a warm summer evening in August.

So why was the heating turned up
to the highest setting?

The high temperature in his flat

resulted in the fast decomposition
of the body,

compromising the forensics.

The heating was on,

it plainly contributed
to the decomposition of the body.

Some people have speculated
that was put on deliberately.

And when a body decomposes,
the soft tissues go first,

and injuries can be more difficult
or even impossible to identify.

This was one of the problems
with being definitive

about the cause of death.

They can say that he died of,
essentially of suffocation,

but they can't say, for example,

whether he had been punched
or attacked or anything like that,

because you couldn't see
any signs of this on the skin.

I wasn't sure what to make of that.

It does seem a bit odd, but it...

There's no way I can find,

I can make any sense of that
in a forensic review.

You're making the assumption,
of course,

that somehow, this delay
was deliberate, purposeful,

and in intention
to ensure total decomposition,

the heating's up.

By whom?

That starts to presuppose
that someone else

in the workplace is involved,

and there's simply no evidence
for that whatsoever.

But there was another detail
in the handling of the case,

this time by MI6,
that caused concern.

It took a week for Gareth to be
reported missing by the agency.

How was that possible
for a working spy?

The coroner, Fiona Wilcox,

picked up on the
quite surprising delay

before MI6 actually discovered
Gareth's body in his flat.

A delay of over a week.

MI6 officers were summoned
to the inquest

to explain how
this could have happened.

REPORTER: Among three
intelligence officers

who gave evidence anonymously,

was Witness G, Gareth Williams'
line manager at MI6.

He was asked to explain
why it took a week

to report the spy's absence

after he had failed to turn up
for work and for meetings.

With hindsight, he accepted,

he should have raised
the alarm much sooner.

They found no link
between his work and his death,

and offered nothing that could take
the inquiry forward.

It just wasn't adding up that MI6,

who deal with national security
at the highest level,

would not notice
Gareth's absence for so long.

He'd been due to attend
three meetings that week,

but no concerns had been raised,

and none of the usual protocols
for absent staff were followed.

It took a phone call from his sister
to raise any concern.

The no-show for a week
is...an odd one.

Just simply not turning up,

alarm bells should have been ringing

to the extent that,
day one of him not turning up,

calls should have been made.

There is a series of protocols

that are followed through
in that instance,

so it's very surprising
nothing happened for a full week,

unless it was a complete lapse.

Adding further intrigue,

there was a significant time lag
between the phone call to GCHQ

and the subsequent call
to the police.

We know that Gareth's sister,
Ceri,

contacted the Security Services
on the 23rd of August

at 11:30 in the morning,

to express concern
that he'd gone missing, apparently.

But the police were not told about
this matter until five hours later,

at 4:30.

And what about the phone call
itself?

Why wouldn't MI6 attend the address,

a five-minute walk
from their office?

Why call 999?

RINGING TONE

CALL OPERATOR:
Emergency - which service?

I wanted to report
one of our members of staff,

who lives and works in London,
as missing.

This does sound very odd, though.

GCHQ obviously has a hotline
to the...

You do not need to call 999,

so I do not understand
what that phone call was.

And if it was an official call
from GCHQ to the police,

there's better ways of dealing
with it than 999.

I'm surprised by that level
of detail, to be honest.

As criticism of MI6 mounted,
a further issue was introduced -

nine memory sticks belonging
to Gareth were found at his office.

They could have provided
important information

but were not handed over
to the police,

nor their content revealed.

Their existence only emerged
during the last day of the hearing.

Taking any form
of electrical equipment

in and out of the likes
of MI6 headquarters,

that is extremely difficult.

You can't just take memory sticks
into MI6 or MI5 or GCHQ!

You can't take mobile phones.
Anything electronic.

And the most sophisticated sensors
that exist

are operative in these places
to pick up anything.

It was a sacking offence.

If Gareth Williams had taken
those memory sticks into MI6

and they had been discovered,

he would have been dismissed
immediately.

So the fact that memory sticks
were in his locker in MI6,

suggest to me that he was authorised
to have them there.

This raises questions

about what level of work Gareth
was involved in.

Were these memory sticks sanctioned,

or had he smuggled them in
for his own personal reasons?

Although, if they were deemed
suspicious, either by MI6 or GCHQ,

then that's obviously puts doubt
in the fact

that they could have been
for work purposes.

If, therefore, they belonged
to Gareth on a personal level,

then that would beg
various questions -

why on Earth would he have
been stupid enough

to bring them
into one of the most secure,

top-secret buildings on the planet?

If he was doing it
for covert espionage reasons,

in other words,
he was looking to nick secrets,

that would have been very high-risk,
but it is possible.

If that was the case,
he would have intended

to have obviously removed them
at the first opportunity.

But again, if I'd have been Gareth

doing something as untoward as that,

I'd have taken them in,
and then upon leaving work,

I'd have taken them out.

I would not have left them in situ.

But what kind of secrets
or compromising information

could have been stored
on these memory sticks?

It could have been stuff

which was not related in any way
to what he was doing,

and not related
to his death in any way,

and which was sensitive material
which MI6 didn't want to get out.

It could have been that.
It could have been GCHQ files.

It may have been, in that sense,
innocent.

However, if that's the case,

why didn't they declare
what was there

at least in terms of generalities?

They could have said to the police,

"We've got nine memory sticks,
they contain sensitive information,

"but here are the broad topics
which are covered."

The disclosure of the memory sticks
so late in the hearing

left the impression that MI6
were less than eager to help.

Indeed, the coroner said,

"It remained a legitimate line
of inquiry

"that the Secret Services
were involved in Gareth's death."

The interesting question is
why MI6 appeared to be so willing

to impede the police investigation

to prevent the real facts
about this matter from coming out.

And you have to conclude
that there were security reasons

why that should be the case.

Gareth's sexual behaviour
became the story.

Not the highly secretive work
he was involved in.

This way of deflecting
public interest away from the truth

is familiar territory
for the Secret Service.

So, it's definitely conceivable
that Gareth Williams

was effectively sacrificed,
in reputational terms,

because it was deemed to be
necessary for the national interest

to be carried out.

That's unfortunate, but, I mean,
there is a history

of that sort of thing occurring
in our country.

Stephen Milligan,
the former Conservative MP

who was investigating arms to Iraq,

who was found dead
in a sexually compromising position,

wearing suspenders and stockings,
and with an orange in his mouth.

And, of course, that was the story
which then became the news,

rather than
what he was investigating,

as an MP, about dodgy arms deals.

There's also questions
of how the press found that out.

They weren't there in his kitchen,
were they?

They were told by the police
about this

in order to generate that story.

Then there's Jonathan Moyle,

the defence journalist
based in Santiago,

who was found stuffed
into a hotel cupboard

in a way that implied
some sort of sexual deviancy.

But the reality is
that Jonathan Moyle had discovered

the sale of 50 helicopters,
at a very sensitive time,

to Saddam Hussein.

Subsequently,
the Chilean authorities

concluded he'd been murdered,

and that was endorsed
by a British coroner.

I imagine that the family
will have been distraught.

And then when he is smeared,

totally inappropriately
and disgracefully,

probably by his own employers,

then that becomes a matter
of deep regret and disgust.

I suspect that what MI6
did not want to say was,

"This was an operational death."

That Gareth Williams
was doing something

that put him in harm's way,
he agreed to do it

and, unfortunately,
paid for it with his life.

But the balance was between
our national security

and giving her the full story.

And the decision was taken that
national security should win out,

and it has always been
like that in this country.

But if the British Secret Service

was somehow involved in
or covered up Gareth's murder,

the ultimate question remains -

why did they do it?

I think what Gareth
may have stumbled across

is the identity
of a Russian mole in GCHQ,

and that would have caused them
to conclude he had to be eliminated.

NARRATOR: Gareth Williams was found
dead, locked inside a bag, aged 31.

His work as an MI6 spy

meant the case had become
headline news all over the world.

But was it murder or self-inflicted?

The coroner suspected foul play,
but with insufficient evidence,

could only give a narrative verdict.

I've always been satisfied
that a third party

may have been involved
in his death,

and the coroner has confirmed that
in her finding today.

The news headlines were quick
to run salacious stories

about Gareth's private life.

Thousands of column inches
were devoted

to his interest in bondage
and women's clothing.

But could it have been that
these very secrets were discovered

by Russian security forces
and used as leverage for blackmail?

Fifty years ago,
when I was a student,

if you were a homosexual,

you could not work
for a secret British agency,

because you laid yourself open
to blackmail.

Well, there's a very simple answer
to that, which is to tell people,

for the people to accept
that that's fine,

that's how you want
to live your life,

as long as it doesn't get in
the way of your professional duties,

that's fine.

And if you tell them, at a stroke,
you remove the blackmail threat.

And I don't think getting kicks

by tying yourself up in bed

would put you in a position
where you were being blackmailed.

For MI6 officers,

we are briefed about the potential
of hostile agencies,

particularly the more sophisticated
hostile agencies,

such as one belonging
to the Russians,

approaching us as officers

and putting something compromising
in front of us.

The rule of thumb with that,
the organisation, MI6's attitude,

it was if that happens,

if you're approached,
look them in the eye and say,

"Publish and be damned."

And then come back
and be honest with us, MI6.

That is the approach taken -
be defiant.

Do not allow a hostile agency

to get its hooks into you
through blackmail.

So, I would anticipate that
Gareth Williams

would have in fact been quite open
with MI6 about his preferences.

However, the Russians may not have
known that and, of course,

the Russians do specialise
in kompromat,

when they secure information about
someone's personal activities

and try to use that as blackmail.

That's a technique
going back decades

which the Russians are very keen on.

Despite a thorough
police investigation

and an inquest that had examined
all the events

leading up to the discovery
of his body in forensic detail,

his death remained a mystery.

Speculation continued that Russian
forces were somehow involved,

but no definitive link
had been found.

Then,
something extraordinary happened,

a former Major in the KGB
came forward

with some startling information.

Boris Karpichkov was someone
who was in touch with me,

who I think was also fearful for
his own position in this country,

given the number
of suspicious deaths of Russians

which had been occurring.

And he believes he knows
what happened from his contact,

which he still maintains,

within the Russian state
and the Russian Security Services.

Karpichkov explained
that Gareth had been identified

as a person of interest
to the Russian Secret Service.

They were aware
of his sexual interests

and were trying to blackmail him
into working for them.

I think what Gareth
may have stumbled across

is the identity
of a Russian mole in GCHQ.

And I believe he would have told
his MI6 handlers about that matter.

And they would have been
fully in the picture.

That being the case, the Russians
would have concluded, perhaps,

that Gareth Williams
had to be disposed of

in order to protect their source
within GCHQ Cheltenham.

That would give a reason
for his disposal.

But not everyone agreed
with this new intel.

That article appears in the
newspaper, almost unattributable.

There's no further source to it,
and it's printed,

and then that becomes
an alleged truth.

And I don't understand that at all.

The whole story is fantastic,
but it doesn't come with evidence.

It doesn't come
with witness statements.

It doesn't come
with any subsequent inquiry

from the police
or the security services.

It's a story which is published
just this side of anonymous,

faceless, certainly.

And what does one do with that?
Where does that come from?

If someone knows
that much information,

how come it's not then subject
to full scrutiny

and a resolution?

Ultimately, Karpichkov's claims
could never be proved,

and the case went cold.

Then, in 2024, Gareth Williams
was once again front-page news.

It seems the police
wanted to re-examine matters

for any new DNA evidence.

The suggestion was that if new DNA
were discovered,

it could open new avenues.

There were two new bits that could
have been reinvestigated

with new forensic technology.

One was a hair that was found in
what had previously been described

as a forensically cleaned
crime scene,

and there was a green towel as well.

The Met decided to have
a real look at this case.

Here is a case that's unsolved.

We think there is new technology
that might give us more evidence.

It may be a homicide, it may be
an accident, it may be a suicide.

Is there something we've missed?

Fourteen years after Gareth's body
had been discovered locked in a bag,

was a fresh forensic review
about to reveal all?

Or was it an attempt
to hide the truth?

We have to ask why
the examination took place.

Was it really to find out
whether there was new DNA

to prove something else,

or was it to reinforce
their erroneous conclusion

that he was alone
and committed suicide?

It's a classic cover-up.

I know how
the intelligence agencies roll.

I know how the media
can be controlled

by soft and hard power,
particularly in the UK.

The mystery isn't solved.

If the police think it is,
they're deluding themselves

or trying to delude the public.

NARRATOR: MI6 operative
Gareth Williams had been found dead,

locked inside a sports bag
in the bathroom of his London flat.

An inquest in 2012
couldn't offer his grieving family

any definitive answers.

But in 2024, reports emerged
that the police had ordered

a fresh forensic review
of the case.

So, the stated aim
was for the police

to use new forensic techniques
to investigate the one rogue hair

that hadn't been cleaned up in the
professional cleaning of the flat.

And also, potentially find
new forensic details

from a towel that was found there.

I was invited to review this case
by the Metropolitan Police in 2012.

We made a range
of recommendations,

and to keep it simple,

we categorised the recommendations

in relation
to the forensic evidence.

So one of the categories was
"This isn't very clear".

Another category was
"Look out for new technology here".

So what we were saying to Met is,

"Don't take your eye
off the ball here.

"Every time some kind
of new technology comes along,

"pull the case back out,
have another look at it,

"see if it can give you
more information or evidence."

Fourteen years after Gareth died,

investigators were now able
to take advantage

of huge advances in DNA science.

The Met will
almost have certainly been using

something which is called DNA17.

It's a very detailed and refined

analytical way of DNA profiling.

This was not technology
that was available at the time,

and it gives very reliable results.

In early 2024, the Met released
the results of its review.

The police re-examination
apparently found no new DNA

on the holdall or the padlock
or the bag, generally.

And also found,
for the first time, apparently,

DNA on a green towel
which belonged to Gareth.

My interpretation of these results,

the particular mention
of the green towel and the hair

is that they've found
no other information.

So what the Met seem to be saying,
basically,

is that their view hasn't changed.

That there was no third party
involved in this

and that Gareth
got into the bag himself

and it appears to be
an autoerotic event.

The police now feel
it's even more likely

that Gareth was alone when he died.

But some of those close to the case
have serious doubts.

First of all, it's hardly surprising
that DNA was found

from Gareth on his towel,
so that proves nothing.

And for the police to conclude
that this meant he was alone

is an absurd conclusion to reach.

The conclusion the police
ought to have reached

is because no DNA
was present anywhere,

somebody must have been
in there to clean it.

The latest review was tasked
only with finding

new forensic opportunities
in the case.

But not everyone believes the Met's
brief was wide-ranging enough.

The suggestion that this limited,
highly limited,

re-examination by the police

solves the mystery is absurd.

Why was the heating on full
in the middle of summer in his flat?

Why was the bathroom light off
where his body was found

and the door closed?

Why is it that his credit cards
were used,

and who used them in the week
following his death

and before his body was discovered?

Why is it that locks
were removed from his flat

before the police arrived?

In terms of Gareth Williams' absence
for a week

before it was noticed
he was not coming into MI6,

I think that's appalling.

I remember working in MI5.

You didn't come in for one day,
they would get panicked and say,

"What's happened?" You know,
"Has something awful happened?"

We know that security services
were unhelpful

in terms of Jackie Sebire's
investigation,

and she only found out
at the coroner's inquest

that there had been
nine memory sticks

which she had not been told about
which Gareth had

and which had subsequently
been wiped.

I just, one, feel sorry for him,

and, two, feel sorry for his family,

and, three, feel bloody angry

about the fact that
the intelligence agencies

can always sweep everything
like this, every scandal,

under the blanket
of national security.

Was someone else involved
in his death? I would suggest yes.

And the fact that it was the
murder squad, the homicide squad,

that was sent in to investigate
where they didn't have clearance

to do a proper, full investigation

and to freely interrogate
Gareth Williams' colleagues at MI6,

that, to me, does smack slightly
of a potential cover-up.

It's my view that the coroner
got this absolutely right

in concluding that it was probably
an unlawful killing.

An escapologist tried 300 times
or thereabouts

to lock himself into this bag,

to zip it up, to lock the padlock,
to put the key under his body.

And I don't think he even tried to
do it in the difficult circumstances

that Gareth was alleged
to have done.

But he concluded he couldn't do it.

The fact of the matter is that
there was no DNA on the bag,

on the padlock, on the zip
or anything else to give...

The flat gave the impression
of having been cleaned.

I suspect that
what was responsible for his death

was the work that he was doing
for MI6.

I also suspect that work

almost certainly involved developing

some kind of
a technical relationship,

personal technical relationship,

with a hostile intelligence service.

And increasingly, since 2014,
I believe, come to believe,

that hostile intelligence agency
was Russian in origin.

And I think that his death
was arranged

and executed by agents,

officers of the Russian Government.

We know that the Russians
were busy causing deaths in London

over a period of time.

We also know the authorities were
keen to turn a blind eye to that

for political reasons at the time.

And that was indeed their view

until the events in Salisbury
some years later.

One of the difficulties
that I had in this case

was trying to see through the fog
of conspiracy theories,

some of which
were completely outlandish.

The best evidence we have suggests

that Gareth did get into that bag
on his own,

and the best explanation
is that it was autoerotic event.

So, for me, nothing has changed.

That was the view I reached in 2012,

there has been
no additional information

that has come my way since then,

and I reach the same conclusion
in 2024.

Gareth Williams,
as far as I can tell,

was a loyal subject
for this country.

He didn't deserve to die
in the way he died,

and he certainly didn't deserve
to be rubbished afterwards

by the implication that this was
some sort of sexual activity.

It's important to remember
that the secretive world of MI6

means we don't know what Gareth
was or was not involved in,

or what level he was operating at.

However, the head of MI6,
Sir John Sawers, certainly did.

He made a point
of attending Gareth's funeral,

praising his enormous talent

and his valuable contribution
to our national security.

Maybe Sir John Sawers turning up
at the funeral is, in a sense,

giving him a posthumous medal.

The balance of evidence suggests
that Gareth Williams

should be remembered as a hero

who was killed
in the course of operations

and by enemy action.

In such a public death,

Gareth's life was thrown
under the microscope,

and his true character lost
in theories and supposition.

It's good to remember who he was

and what he meant
to those who loved him.

At the inquest,

his sister said some beautiful words
about Gareth.

She said,
"In terms of a big brother figure,

"Gareth was perfect.

"It is impossible to do justice

"to Gareth's impressive character
without meeting him."

The understanding is his family
really knew him,

and by the sounds of things,
really accepted him for who he was,

exactly as he was.

That's very precious.

Should we all be so lucky to be
fully accepted by our families.