Police claim to have solved London ‘spy in the bag’ mystery

No new evidence was found, police say

A review into the death of a British spy, whose naked, decomposing body was found padlocked in a bag in his bathtub, has finished, London police said on Monday.

The announcement brings an end to one of the city’s greatest mysteries of recent years.

Gareth Williams, 31, was working for Britain’s external intelligence service MI6 when he was found dead at his home (Getty/PA)

Gareth Williams, 31, was working for Britain’s external intelligence service MI6 when he was found dead at his home in August 2010, and the nature of his job and his death provoked a wide range of what police later called “weird and wonderful” conspiracy theories.

Although a coroner concluded in 2012 that Williams was probably killed unlawfully by another person, a police investigation found he had probably died accidentally on his own, rejecting suspicions that the unusual death had involved foreign spies.

The holdall in which Gareth Williams was found curled in a foetal position (PA)

A further forensic review was commissioned in 2021 and its findings, delivered last November, had not thrown further light on the case, Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, the senior investigating officer.

“No new DNA evidence was found and no further lines of enquiry were identified,” John said in a statement.

Williams, worked as a code breaker at the Government Communications Headquarters in western England but was on a three-year secondment to MI6, which deals with foreign espionage matters at the time of his death.

The remains of the maths prodigy were found curled up inside a zipped and padlocked red hold-all at the London flat - an intelligence service “safe house” - close to MI6’s headquarters.

Gareth Williams (Supplied)

His body was badly decomposed after remaining in the bag in the August heat for a full week until he was discovered. Tests found no traces of alcohol, drugs or poison in his body.

Police disclosed at the time of Williams’ death that he owned £15,000 worth of women’s designer clothing, a wig and make up. It had been suggested that Williams dressed as a woman outside of work, though a forensics expert has since said they believe the spy likely worked undercover as a woman.