Death of Gareth Williams

Gareth Williams
Born
Gareth Wyn Williams

(1978-09-26)26 September 1978
Died16 August 2010(2010-08-16) (aged 31)
Pimlico, London, England
Cause of deathAssassination/Unlawfully killed (ruled)
Accident (suspected)
Other namesSpy in a bag
OccupationSecret Intelligence Service employee
Known forUnusual death

Gareth Wyn Williams (26 September 1978 – c. 16 August 2010) was a Welsh mathematician and Junior Analyst for GCHQ on secondment to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) who was found dead in suspicious circumstances in Pimlico, London, on 23 August 2010, at a flat used to house Security Service's staff.[1][2] The inquest found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated."[3] A subsequent Metropolitan Police re-investigation[3] concluded that Williams's death was "probably an accident".[4]

Two senior British police sources have said some of Williams's work concerned Russia – and one confirmed reports that he had been helping the US National Security Agency trace international money-laundering routes that are used by organised crime groups including Moscow-based mafia cells.[5]

  1. ^ Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter "Was MI6 spy-in-a-bag Gareth Williams killed by 'secret service dark arts'?" Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Telegraph, 30 March 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference guardian-20120502 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "MI6 spy Gareth Williams death 'probably an accident', police say" Archived 14 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 13 November 2013.
  5. ^ Warren, Tom; Leopold, Jason; Campbell, Alex; Holmes, Richard; Bradley, Jane; Blake, Heidi (20 June 2017). The Secrets Of The Spy In The Bag. BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.