'Spy in bag' mystery breakthrough over man found in padlocked North Face holdall

04 February 2024 , 14:24

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Gareth Williams at Holland Park Tube station on August 14, 2010 (Image: PA)

A forensic review into the death of “body in the bag” MI6 spy Gareth Williams found he was likely alone when he died.

The 31-year-old’s naked body was found in a North Face bag in August 2010 with enduring theories including he was the victim of a Russian hitman, a hostile foreign intelligence agency or had been involved in a sex game that went wrong.

Scotland Yard officers ordered new laboratory tests to be carried out on key items found at the scene of his death in the government-owned flat in Pimlico, central London, half a mile from MI6’s headquarters.

Modern forensic techniques allowed detectives to identify the DNA found on a green towel in a kitchen cupboard in the flat, described by investigators as a “significant find”. It belonged to Williams rather than a third party.

His body was found in a North Face bag in August 2010 (PA)

Gareth Williams' flat on Alderney Street, London (PA)

A number of other items found in the two-bedroom flat where he lived alone were also considered for retesting, including the holdall, its zip toggle and the padlock and its key. No footprints or fingerprints other than Williams’s were found in and around the bath in which the bag was found. The padlock’s key was found in the bag.

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In 2012 a yoga specialist tried to lock himself inside a holdall as police attempted to solve the mystery (PA)

The bathroom inside the flat (Daily Mirror)

Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, of the Metropolitan Police’s specialist crime command, which has been reassessing the evidence for the past two years, said: “In February 2021, a forensic assessment was undertaken, which was also peer-reviewed by a forensic manager in respect of all exhibits seized during this investigation. This resulted in a resubmission of exhibits to the forensic laboratory and additional examinations being sought.”

He said the findings of the review were returned to the Met in November 2023 and “no new DNA” had been found. It means Williams was likely alone when he died, Met sources told The Sunday Times.

The Williams family has been informed of the review’s outcome. A Met source told The Sunday Times that, at the time of his death, Williams was working as technical support for a highly sensitive MI6 field operation, which involved gathering intelligence from the London embassies of hostile nations.

Matthew Young