THE PRIVATE life of an MI6 officer who was murdered at his London home close to the British intelligence service headquarters is being investigated by Scotland Yard detectives.
The body of Gareth Williams was stuffed in a holdall and dumped in his bath.
Mr Williams (31) is believed to have been killed two weeks ago. His body was badly decomposed when his top-floor, two-bedroom apartment in Pimlico, central London, was searched by police after colleagues raised the alarm.
Last night a postmortem found he had not been stabbed, as had been reported earlier, but that the cause of death was yet to be established.
When police entered his apartment they found Mr Williams’s body, a mobile phone and several sim cards laid out in a ritual manner.
He was on secondment at MI6 HQ from the British government’s eavesdropping and communications security centre (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in western England. He is believed to have been advising MI6 on secret communication techniques.
Many technical staff at Cheltenham spend time advising MI6 and MI5 (British counter intelligence).
Intelligence sources said that GCHQ “boffins” were subjected to particular pressure in their private life because of the nature of their specialist knowledge and skills and the secrecy surrounding them. Mr Williams would have been subject to “developed vetting” before being employed at GCHQ.
Officers from Scotland Yard’s homicide and serious crime command are leading the inquiry which sources said pointed to the fact that Mr Williams’s intelligence work was not believed to be linked to his death.
“National security” seemed to be the least likely of any issues connected with the death, said a government official.
Police went to the apartment “following reports that the occupant had not been seen for some time”, they said.
His body was removed from the apartment on Tuesday evening. Forensics experts were still searching the premises late yesterday afternoon.
Detectives are examining Mr Williams’s lifestyle and recent movements as part of the investigation and will question his colleagues in London and Cheltenham.
His family live in Holyhead, Anglesey, north Wales. Yesterday a police officer was seen leaving the home after formally telling Williams’s father Ian, mother Ellen and sister Ceri the news.
Williams’s uncle, William Hughes, told BBC News: “It was terrible when I got the phone call yesterday morning, just didn’t know what to believe really.”
Asked about Mr Williams’s career, his uncle called his nephew “very, very talented in his work. We don’t know what he was doing – never spoke about it”.
Yesterday, police cordons remained around 36 Alderney Street, a mid-terraced property in a wide street of five-storey Victorian townhouses in Pimlico.
A community support officer stood outside, while another restricted access to residents, signing them in and out. The wealthy area, a few blocks, is home to bankers and politicians.
The property where Mr Williams lived is divided into four apartments and is registered to a private company, New Rodina, with an offshore address in the British Virgin Islands. Public documents revealed several current and former residents of the block have links to London and Cheltenham.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office refused to give any details about Mr Williams. “It is long-standing government policy not to confirm or deny the identity of any individual working for the intelligence agencies. This is a police matter.” – (Guardian service)