Latest news with #GarethWilliams
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Spy in the Bag mystery: Expert claims he was asked to 'cover up' MI6 spook's death and reveals SIX glaring red flags that show he was murdered
It is exactly 15 years since MI6 spy Gareth Williams tragically died at the age of just 31. On August 16 2010, in one of the most mysterious and bewildering deaths ever on British soil, police said he impossibly folded himself inside a red North Face holdall in his bath. His Pimlico bathroom was spotless and officers found no evidence of Gareth's fingerprints on the padlock of the bag or even the rim of the bath that the bag was found in. Detectives found no signs of struggle and no bruises or marks on his body. The heating was on full blast - despite being the height of summer - the bathroom door was shut, the shower screen closed and the lights were switched off. The Welsh prodigy, considered a puzzle-solving genius, had been scooped up by GCHQ having completed his GCSEs in primary school, A-levels at 13 and his maths degree at 17. But the solution to the puzzle surrounding his own death, remains unsolved. MI6 had failed to notice that one of its analysts was missing from work and his spymasters only investigated his absence on August 23 after a call from his panicked sister. Gareth was then found serenely inside the bag, his hands neatly folded on his chest in an almost religious pose. The zip had been padlocked on the outside but the key to the lock was lying beneath his right buttock. Just eight days earlier he was seen happy and healthy on CCTV, buying cakes from Harrods and steaks from Waitrose. 24 hours later he was dead in his home Alderney Street in Pimlico - half a mile from MI6's headquarters on Vauxhall Bridge. Twice police have closed criminal investigations into his death, even though his inquest concluded he had been 'killed unlawfully', probably before he was put neatly in his bag. Detectives instead claimed they believe he was alone when he died and it was probably a tragic accident related to sex. Cash, unworn women's designer clothing and a wig were found in the flat along with his, and a mystery man's semen. Gareth's parents have long asked for privacy as they continue to grieve their beloved son. The case has been branded a whitewash and Peter Faulding, a world-leading confined space rescue and forensic search specialist, who tried 300 times to get in the same sized bag and concluded: 'Even Harry Houdini himself wouldn't have managed it'. Peter recreated the scenario as he helped the Met investigate the so-called Spy in the Bag case in 2010 but while detectives closed the criminal case, he is convinced that Gareth was murdered and there was a 'cover-up' by police and the secret services. What are the theories around the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams? He zipped himself in the bag and accidentally locked it and suffocated. The Russian mafia assassinated him in a bid to stop him investigating money-laundering networks. He was killed by MI6 or American agents after stumbling on sensitive data, or because he threatened to make secret intelligence public. Mr Williams was killed by a lover during a bizarre sex game. It has been claimed he had close links with London's drag and bondage scenes. The spy locked himself in the bag and no one else was involved. He was poisoned. Agents killed Mr Williams then got into his flat through a skylight to destroy evidence. Mr Faulding has today claimed to the Daily Mail, for the first time, that he was asked by police to change his statement - but he refused. 'Gareth Williams should have been commended for his work with the security services not tarnished as a cross dresser. They just wanted to bury this case and leave Gareth's name being tarred', Mr Faulding told the Mail on the 15th anniversary of his death. 'My belief is that the bag was placed in the bath with Gareth dead already. No one in their right mind believes he was on his own. It is a physical impossibility. 'I had paramedics on standby and a knife on a string hanging around my neck to cut myself out. I could zip myself in but could not do up the padlock. Another yoga expert tried'. After trying hundreds of times to climb in, zip up the bag and lock it from the inside without leaving fingerprints on any surfaces, Mr Faulding concluded with certainty that Gareth could not get into the North Face bag alone. He was then invited to meet with senior investigating officers from the Metropolitan Police at the Wyboston Lakes National Crime and Operations Faculty. He said that a senior investigating officer told him in a meeting: 'You have probably seen that a 15-year-old girl has successfully climbed into a bag and zipped herself in. I would like you to rewrite your statement to acknowledge it can be done. 'I stood up and said "I am not playing your games", walked back to my helicopter parked on their fields and flew home'. He said: 'I have never spoken about this. But after the Nicola Bulley case, I realised things get covered up'. Mr Faulding is convinced that the lack of 'trace evidence' - such as DNA and finger prints as well as footprints - means Gareth was murdered. 'He was naked. The lights were out, the door closed, the heating was on full, the shower screen closed. Just back from a bike ride, he would have had to walk into the bathroom in the dark and closed the shower screen', Mr Faulding said. 'That alone would leave his marks all over the floor, light switch, footprints and fingerprints on the glass shower screen. 'Then he would have to climb into the bag close the zipper and the padlock from the inside, leaving more marks on it'. Mr Faulding, who was the same height and build as Gareth, tried to get himself in the same kind of bag hundreds of times. A leading yoga expert also did it - but also failed. He later gave evidence at the inquest and is absolutely clear that it is not credible to believe Gareth did it alone. The coroner found she was 'satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully'. Mr Faulding said: 'The coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox asked me what I thought happened. I said with respect I am not here as a detective. She said: "You have a very impressive CV and I would like your honest opinion. 'I told her that I believe Gareth was murdered. I turned towards his family in court. They looked at me and mouthed "thank you" with gratitude and validation'. A forensic review by Scotland Yard found that 'no new DNA' was found, therefore it was more likely that Williams was alone when he died The Welsh maths prodigy after completing his GCSEs at 10, A-Levels at 13 and then getting a first-class degree from Bangor University at just 17. He was discovered by Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) while doing a PhD in Mathematics at the University of Manchester, and brought on board as a codebreaker. He worked at the headquarters there in Gloucestershire, before his secondment to MI6 in London to work as technical support on a highly sensitive operation. Williams was last seen alive buying cakes in Harrods and peppered grilled steaks in Waitrose. That same evening he had also planned to meet a colleague. The next day he had been expected to chair a MI6 meeting having just returned from a hacking conference in Las Vegas. Despite this, MI6 only investigated his absence more than a week later, on August 23, after a call from his sister. At the time theories surrounding his death ran wild, from sex games gone wrong to a targeted assassination by a hostile state. Peter Faulding ruled out MI6 involvement, telling the Mail today: 'If the service got rid of Gareth it wouldn't be in a bag in the bath for the world to see'. Coroner Fiona Wilcox concluded in 2012 that the plethora of unanswered questions, a lack of a struggle and the Houdini-standards contortionism needed to get inside the bag and lock it alone, without leaving any prints, all pointed to a 'third-party involvement', calling Gareth's death 'criminally mediated' and 'unlawful'. But in 2013, after a three-year investigation by Scotland Yard, its detectives concluded the opposite and said there was no evidence of anyone else in the flat and that Gareth probably died alone as a result of somehow accidentally locking himself inside the bag. The case was reopened in 2021 to allow for a new forensic investigation using more modern technology on items of 'significant' interest such as a towel. But despite a bewildering lack of answers about what happened in the so-called 'Spy in the Bag' case, the Met again closed its investigation last year after it found 'no evidence' that disproves their main theory that he was alone. There were no new findings of DNA, nor that a third party was present at the time of Williams' death, Scotland Yard said. Bewildering questions on how and why it happened, many armchair detectives have theorised that the 31-year-old, an expert on mobile phones, may have been murdered by a foreign state or even Russian Mafia because of his work investigating money-laundering networks. He was not believed to be in a relationship at the time of his death, however during the investigation six boxes of unworn women's designer clothing worth £20,000 and a orange wig were found in the apartment. Mr Williams's family have long suggested foul play, with two police sources claiming some of Williams' work was focused on Russia - and one confirming reports he had helped the US's National Security Agency trace international money-laundering routes used by organised crime groups including Moscow-based mafia cells. But police confirmed that there is no criminal inquiry, no suspects and no new evidence. MI6 colleagues said he was a 'quiet bloke' who 'got on with his work'. 'When he had a drink with work colleagues, he had an orange juice and left.' Retired Met Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell said in 2021 that he believes Mr Williams was involved in sexual activity before his death. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Campbell said the death was different from the hits on Russian defectors Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. 'What would have been achieved by killing a junior analyst?' Campbell asked. 'He was a phone analyst, an expert in terms of mobile phones and the transference of data. What would the Russians or any other state have achieved by killing him?'
Scotsman
17-07-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
SWURF secures follow on investment and boosts board with industry heavyweights to fuel UK and European expansion
Remote work platform transforming hospitality venues into thriving community workspaces gears up for rapid growth. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Edinburgh based startup SWURF has landed a six-figure investment and appointed three heavyweight industry leaders to its board, signalling a bold new phase of growth across the UK and Europe. This latest investment round includes follow-on funding from existing backer Gareth Williams, co-founder of Skyscanner, reinforcing his continued belief in the platform's mission and potential. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Joining as Chair of the Board is Alison Grieve, the award-winning founder of G-Hold and a recognised expert in product innovation and international scaling. Also stepping up is Scott Leckie, SWURF's former Fractional CTO, who now takes a permanent board seat to steer the company's tech evolution. In addition, Daniel Rodgers, founder of Scottish success story QikServe and a leader in tech innovation and strategic development, joins the board as Non-Executive Director. SWURF Board The fresh funding, backed by the Techscaler programme, Scottish Enterprise, and private investors, will supercharge SWURF's rollout. The company is also laying the groundwork for a £1 million raise later this year to support further global expansion. Nikki Gibson, CEO and Co-Founder of SWURF, said: 'With Alison guiding our international rollout, Scott shaping our tech strategy, and Daniel bringing a proven track record in tech innovation, strategic development, and digital transformation, SWURF is positioned to grow with purpose and precision. Their leadership is a game-changer as we take SWURF to new markets and new heights.' Launched during the pandemic, SWURF connects remote and hybrid professionals with underused hospitality spaces, from cafés and hotels to co-working hubs, turning them into vibrant, off-peak workspaces. Unlike traditional venue apps, SWURF builds community, offering exclusive perks and a growing calendar of co-working events. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Data collected from SWURF indicates that the platform has generated an impressive £1.8 million in revenue for host partners, while building a user base of over 11,000 and activating more than 300 venues across the UK. Alison Grieve, Chair of the Board at SWURF, said: 'In an economic environment where both hospitality and commercial property sectors are seeking new models of resilience, SWURF is targeting a fast-evolving segment of the flexible work economy. This next phase of funding will help us transform more everyday venues into productive, community-driven workspaces, powered by technology and a hospitality-first mindset.' Daniel Rodgers, Non-Executive Director at SWURF, added: 'SWURF solves a real pain point for me. When travelling, it's often difficult to find welcoming spaces to work. I am also passionate about supporting hospitality to find new markets and opportunities. Swurfers typically spend £15–£30 per visit. By extending traditional service windows, hospitality operators can tap into this community and create incremental revenue that supports profitability and reduces waste.' With over 35 million digital nomads globally, and rising demand for flexible, community-led workspaces, SWURF is perfectly positioned to lead the charge in the future of work, while helping hospitality venues thrive. To learn more about SWURF, visit or contact [email protected].
Scotsman
17-07-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
SWURF secures follow on investment and boosts board with industry heavyweights to fuel UK and European expansion
Remote work platform transforming hospitality venues into thriving community workspaces gears up for rapid growth. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Edinburgh based startup SWURF has landed a six-figure investment and appointed three heavyweight industry leaders to its board, signalling a bold new phase of growth across the UK and Europe. This latest investment round includes follow-on funding from existing backer Gareth Williams, co-founder of Skyscanner, reinforcing his continued belief in the platform's mission and potential. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Joining as Chair of the Board is Alison Grieve, the award-winning founder of G-Hold and a recognised expert in product innovation and international scaling. Also stepping up is Scott Leckie, SWURF's former Fractional CTO, who now takes a permanent board seat to steer the company's tech evolution. In addition, Daniel Rodgers, founder of Scottish success story QikServe and a leader in tech innovation and strategic development, joins the board as Non-Executive Director. SWURF Board The fresh funding, backed by the Techscaler programme, Scottish Enterprise, and private investors, will supercharge SWURF's rollout. The company is also laying the groundwork for a £1 million raise later this year to support further global expansion. Nikki Gibson, CEO and Co-Founder of SWURF, said: 'With Alison guiding our international rollout, Scott shaping our tech strategy, and Daniel bringing a proven track record in tech innovation, strategic development, and digital transformation, SWURF is positioned to grow with purpose and precision. Their leadership is a game-changer as we take SWURF to new markets and new heights.' Launched during the pandemic, SWURF connects remote and hybrid professionals with underused hospitality spaces, from cafés and hotels to co-working hubs, turning them into vibrant, off-peak workspaces. Unlike traditional venue apps, SWURF builds community, offering exclusive perks and a growing calendar of co-working events. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Data collected from SWURF indicates that the platform has generated an impressive £1.8 million in revenue for host partners, while building a user base of over 11,000 and activating more than 300 venues across the UK. Alison Grieve, Chair of the Board at SWURF, said: 'In an economic environment where both hospitality and commercial property sectors are seeking new models of resilience, SWURF is targeting a fast-evolving segment of the flexible work economy. This next phase of funding will help us transform more everyday venues into productive, community-driven workspaces, powered by technology and a hospitality-first mindset.' Daniel Rodgers, Non-Executive Director at SWURF, added: 'SWURF solves a real pain point for me. When travelling, it's often difficult to find welcoming spaces to work. I am also passionate about supporting hospitality to find new markets and opportunities. Swurfers typically spend £15–£30 per visit. By extending traditional service windows, hospitality operators can tap into this community and create incremental revenue that supports profitability and reduces waste.' With over 35 million digital nomads globally, and rising demand for flexible, community-led workspaces, SWURF is perfectly positioned to lead the charge in the future of work, while helping hospitality venues thrive.
Rhyl Journal
16-07-2025
- General
- Rhyl Journal
Bodelwyddan school given award for promoting Welsh language
Ysgol Y Faenol has achieved the Cymraeg Campus Silver Award. Earlier this week, the school proudly received a certificate from Gareth Williams, of the Denbighshire Advisory Team, on behalf of Lynne Neagle MS, Welsh Government's cabinet secretary for education. The school's Welsh co-ordinator, Lisa Kay, said: 'It has been a significant journey since achieving bronze in 2019. 'And this success would not have been possible without the dedication of our fantastic Criw Cymraeg and the continued support from the whole school community. A pupil at Ysgol Y Faenol with the school's Cymraeg Campus Silver Award (Image: Submitted) 'Diolch to everyone who has contributed to this achievement as we continue our journey to promote the Welsh language. 'We are excited to begin working towards the gold award.' One of the school's pupils added: 'We are so proud to use more Welsh every day in school. It feels great to help everyone enjoy the language.'
Telegraph
15-07-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Why it's really the British we have to thank for the atom bomb
Manhattan, Mayson, Maud. One of these is synonymous with the race to build an atomic bomb during the first half of the 1940s. But we ought to have heard of all three, argues Gareth Williams in his book The Impossible Bomb – a pacy and potent mix of wartime politics and high technology. Williams sets out to recover the role of British scientists in building the bomb, but there's no triumphalism here. Pinned to a noticeboard in his study, Williams tells us, is a black lapel badge bearing the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Now an emeritus professor at the University of Bristol, Williams grew up in the post-war years fearing that he might see a 'mushroom cloud boiling up into the sky above the rooftops'. Williams was motivated to write this book after discovering some declassified government papers pertaining to a secretive 'Maud Committee'. He later heard a scientist who'd worked on the British hydrogen bomb make a striking claim: that without Britain's help, the United States wouldn't have been able to create a working atomic bomb until after the Second World War ended. This isn't, it must be said, a new idea. As Williams accepts, it was put forward by a war correspondent named Ronald Clark back in 1961. But myth-making in America about the birth of the nuclear age has long sidelined British figures, and still does. American Prometheus (2005), the Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin biography on which the Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer (2023) was based, all but reduces the British contribution to a man hosting a dinner party at Los Alamos. After some helpful preliminaries on the history of atomic physics, The Impossible Bomb begins in the 1930s, as trepidation among scientists is growing. The destructive potential of splitting the atom is dawning on them, just as Europe appears once again to be moving towards war. The Hungarian-born physicist Leo Szilard begs colleagues to stop publishing their ideas on nuclear fission, and asks the editor of Physical Review to record the date of manuscript submissions on the subject – thereby preserving claims to originality – then lock them away in a drawer. When these efforts meet with mixed results, Szilard helps to compose a letter to US president Franklin D Roosevelt in 1939 – co-signed by Albert Einstein – urging that America try to beat Nazi Germany to the bomb. This moment is often treated as the origin of the Manhattan Project. But Williams argues that most scientists in the United States were, at this point, unconvinced that an atomic weapon was feasible in the near-term. They were more interested in developing radar, and were confident that if America were drawn into the war, their conventional forces would see them through. In the early years of the conflict, the most promising work on a bomb was happening in Britain. Enter Maud, a committee formed in Britain in the spring of 1940. (Though its name was written in capitals as MAUD, and thus was usually taken to be an acronym, the letters didn't stand for anything.) It came about in response to a document created by two expatriate German physicists working at the University of Birmingham: Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls. The Frisch-Peierls memorandum sketched out the theory behind a 'super-bomb', to be created using uranium-235. By the summer, Williams tells us, Maud involved four universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Liverpool, Birmingham) and boasted five Nobel laureates, including James Chadwick and John Cockcroft. In its final report, in 1941, the committee concluded that a super-bomb could be made in two years: great excitement followed, and an organisation was formed to work on the project, with the usefully abstract name of the 'Tube Alloys Directorate'. Williams excels at interweaving the technical challenges of the subsequent months with the vicissitudes of politics. We find Churchill and Roosevelt wary of one another, at first, on the question of atomic co-operation. 'Mayson' was Roosevelt's proposal for Anglo-American partnership; but for a time, at least, Churchill wanted a British bomb, independent of the Americans. It wasn't to be. American help turned out to be indispensable in building a 'super-bomb'. In the end, British scientists had to set aside their own work on Tube Alloys and travel to the USA – to Los Alamos, Berkeley and Oak Ridge – to help on what became the Manhattan Project. Chadwick was among around 84 British scientists making the journey, and neither of the bombs detonated over Japan in August 1945, concludes Williams, would have been possible without them. Through Frisch and Peierls, we experience the profound anxiety of Jewish refugees living in Britain during these years; they were only too aware of how they would likely fare if the Nazis won the race to build a bomb. Across the water in Germany, great minds such as Werner Heisenberg were hard at work trying to make that happen. We encounter British and American spies working around the clock to ascertain the state of the Nazi effort, and to thwart it wherever they could. The Americans considered abducting Heisenberg during one of his research trips to Switzerland. Williams's labours in the archive have been considerable, but the result is a significant contribution to our understanding of 'the most significant international collaboration of the 20th century'. It's eminently readable, too: to follow the development of nuclear weapons requires the explanation of plenty of science, but Williams succeeds, deploying vivid analogies and simple sketches. A spherical aluminium container for a globe of uranium oxide, constantly turning in order to keep heavy water circulating, is an especially memorable one. Williams compares it to 'an oversized glitterball that someone had forgotten to switch off after the last dance'. ★★★★★
