Police defend MI6 spy death findings

Police insist they have not had the wool pulled over their eyes by intelligence services after concluding there was no foul play in the death of codebreaker Gareth Williams.

Following a two-year investigation by the Metropolitan Police, officers concluded it was "most probable" the MI6 worker was alone at the time of his death.

Their conclusions starkly contradict those of Dr Fiona Wilcox, who ruled at an inquest last year that the spy was "probably unlawfully killed".

Mr Williams, 31, was found dead in the locked bag in the bath at his flat in Pimlico, central London, on August 23, 2010.

None of his DNA was found on the padlock on the bag and there were no palmprints on the rim of the bath. The heating had been left on in the flat, despite it being summer, and MI6 failed to raise the alarm about his disappearance for more than a week.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "I do not believe that I have had the wool pulled over my eyes. I believe that what we are dealing with is a tragic unexplained death.

"The Metropolitan Police's position is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died."

However he admitted: "No evidence has been identified to establish the full circumstances of Gareth's death beyond all reasonable doubt."

Mr Williams's family still believe that he was unlawfully killed, and released a statement to say that they were "naturally disappointed" about the lack of conclusions in the case.

In May last year at the end of the inquest, Dr Wilcox found that Mr Williams was probably killed and it "remained a legitimate line of inquiry" that the secret services may have been involved in the death.

She said she was sure a third party locked the code-breaker inside the red holdall in which his naked body was found in his bathtub, and that "the cause of his death was unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated".

Pathologists said he would have suffocated within three minutes if he was alive when he got inside the 32-inch by 19-inch holdall.

Mr Williams worked for GCHQ but was on secondment to MI6 when he died. Police interviewed a total of 27 members of staff from the two agencies as part of their investigation.

His family expressed anger that MI6 took so long to check what had happened to him.

They said: "We still, however, remain very disappointed over the failure of his employers at MI6 to take even the most basic inquiries concerning Gareth's welfare when he failed to attend for work on August 16 2010.

"We believe that if proper steps had been taken in the same manner as any reasonable employer would have undertaken, further information relating to the cause of his death might have become apparent and not have been lost due to the length of time before Gareth's body was found.

"This lack of concern for Gareth's wellbeing remains an overriding feature of our thoughts following the death of a dear son and brother."

Watch Lucy's report on the verdict: