News stories suppressed about strange death of Welsh codebreaker

Martin Shipton

An investigative website has revealed how a shadowy committee linked to the Ministry of Defence suppressed stories relating to the highly bizarre death of a Welsh codebreaker working for Britain’s intelligence services.

Originally from Valley, Anglesey, Williams, a first language Welsh speaker, began studying mathematics part-time at Bangor University, while still attending his secondary school, Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern, and graduated with a first-class degree at age 17.

After gaining a PhD at the University of Manchester, he dropped out from a subsequent post-graduate course at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and took up employment with GCHQ in Cheltenham in 2001, renting a room for nearly a decade in Prestbury, Gloucestershire. Reportedly an intensely private man and a keen cyclist, Williams was due to return to Cheltenham in September 2010, after spending a year in London, following his annual leave.

Police visited Williams’s home during the afternoon of August 23, as a “welfare check” after colleagues noted he had been out of contact for several days. His naked, decomposing remains were found in the bath of the main bedroom’s en-suite bathroom, inside a red sports bag that was padlocked from the outside, with the keys inside the bag

His family alleged that crucial DNA was interfered with and that fingerprints left at the scene were removed as part of a cover-up.Inconclusive fragments of DNA components from at least two other individuals were found on the bag. A forensic examination of Williams’s flat concluded that there was no sign of forced entry or of DNA that pointed to a third party present at the time of his death.

Scotland Yard’s inquiry also found no evidence of Williams’s fingerprints on the padlock of the bag or the rim of the bath, which the coroner said supported her assertion of “third-party involvement” in the death. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said it was theoretically possible for Williams to lower himself into the bag without touching the rim of the bath. A key to the padlock was inside the bag, underneath his body.

The inquest found that his death was “unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.” A subsequent Metropolitan Police re-investigation] concluded that Williams’s death was “probably an accident”.

Two senior British police sources subsequently 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.

In September and October 2015, Boris Karpichkov, a former KGB agent who defected from Russia and who now lives in Britain, stated during interviews that “sources in Russia” had claimed that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as the SVR, was responsible for Williams’s murder. According to Karpichkov, the SVR tried and failed to blackmail Williams into becoming a double agent.

Russian spy

In response to the SVR’s attempts, Williams claimed that he knew “the identity of a Russian spy inside the GCHQ”. Karpichkov claimed that Williams’s threat meant that “the SVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him to protect their agent inside GCHQ”. Regarding the cause of death, Karpichkov claimed that the SVR killed Williams “by an untraceable poison introduced in his ear”.

Now the investigative website The Grayzone has discovered that a high number of so-called D-notices were issued to UK newspapers and broadcasters telling them not to run stories about Williams.

Material released to The Grayzone show how the secretive Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee censors the output of British journalists, while categorising independent media as “extremist” for publishing “embarrassing” stories. The body imposes what are known as D-Notices, gag-orders systematically suppressing information available to the public.

A huge number of requests – 50 in total – were filed in relation to the involvement of British intelligence in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program and related “cooperation” with Muammar Gaddafi’s External Security Organization, as well as the inquest into the death of Gareth Williams.

Locked bag

The Grayzone said: “[Williams] had been dead for 10 days by the time his body was discovered in a locked bag in his bathroom.

“Inexplicably, neither GCHQ nor MI6 had alerted authorities to the codebreaker’s prolonged absence from work. It was only when his sister informed GCHQ he was missing that the agencies alerted police – following an unexplained five-hour delay. Investigating detectives were subsequently prohibited from interviewing Williams’ spy agency colleagues, or reviewing relevant documents.

“The British press quickly moved on from the case, despite the coroner stating that MI6 involvement in Williams’ death was a “legitimate line of inquiry,” which had not been satisfactorily explored by authorities.

In the years since, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories claiming Russia was somehow responsible for his murder have widely proliferated, while the deeply suspect conduct of Williams’ British intelligence employers has been forgotten by UK media – a trend which could potentially be attributed to DSMA interventions.”