Spy found dead in holdall complained of MI6 ‘friction’

An MI6 spy found dead in a padlocked sports bag had been unhappy living in London and complained about “friction” at the intelligence agency, an inquest has heard.

Gareth Williams, 31, hated the post-work drinking culture and “flash car competitions” at the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), his sister said.

He was due to move back to the West Country a week after his naked body was discovered padlocked inside a holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico on Aug 23, 2010.

Family members fear “some agency specialising in the dark arts” leaves them with no way of knowing how and why he died.

The inquest began with evidence Scotland Yard murder detectives were not able to speak to his MI6 colleagues directly. Instead specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police’s SO15 counter-terrorism command had to carry out the interviews and produce anonymous statements.

Detective chief superintendent Hamish Campbell said police were not shown any internal inquiry by SIS into what happened to the brilliant codebreaker.

But he stressed that MI6 co-operated fully with Scotland Yard, adding that he was not aware of MI5, MI6 or SO15 carrying out their own investigations into Williams’s death.

His sister, Ceri Subbe, told the inquest her brother was excited when he began what was supposed to be a three-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the Government listening station based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

But he missed the countryside and became disillusioned with the atmosphere at MI6’s Vauxhall Cross headquarters in London.

“He disliked office culture, post-work drinks, flash car competitions and the rat race. He even spoke of friction in the office,” Subbe said.

Williams, of Anglesey, north Wales, failed to turn up for a meeting at MI6 on Aug 16, 2010, the inquest heard.

The discovery of the spy’s body curled up in a large holdall at his top floor flat in Alderney St sparked a painstaking investigation, worldwide media frenzy and several outlandish conspiracy theories.

Subbe told the inquest she did not believe Williams would let a potential killer in his upmarket London flat, adding: “I cannot emphasise enough his conscientiousness”.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox has indicated she may want to see a practical demonstration of how Williams might have got into the bag and locked it himself.

The inquest continues.