Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ex-top cop: DNA could solve Spy in the Bag mystery
Call to re-test mystery samples
A FORMER police chief believes fresh DNA studies could solve the bizarre riddle of the “spy in the bag”.
The decomposing body of MI6 analyst Gareth Williams was found crammed into a locked North Face holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, Central London, in August 2010.
The case baffled police and lines of inquiry included an assassination and the 31-yearold’s interest in bondage.
In 2013, the Met concluded the death was “probably an accident” and closed the case – but his family suspect he was murdered and a coroner said he was probably unlawfully killed.
Now, former Det Chief Supt Hamish Campbell, who led the probe before retiring, says forensic advances could finally identify partial DNA of two people found on the bag’s padlock and handle.
And he told of how he believes Gareth’s death was also likely linked to his private life.
Mr Campbell said: “There may be new forensic possibilities around some of the evidence we found in the flat.
“It might be a sensible option to take another look as part of a forensic review.”
While there were rumours at the time that Gareth had been assassinated because of his work as a GCHQ codebreaker, Mr Campbell thinks he got into the holdall voluntarily.
He admits he does not know if he was alone at the time. But in addition to the samples found on the bag, a towel in the flat also had mystery DNA on it.
Swabs of all three traces still exist and are worth re-testing, Mr Campbell said, as the police
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national database has thousands of new profiles added every year and could now offer fresh clues. He said: “You can never say never in relation to forensic reviews.
“Forensics do move on. I have experience of reviews where forensics alone will bring a case forward. Not a lot else will.
“It may be that an independent forensic company could be asked to have another look at it within a proper framework. That would be a sensible and reasonable thing to do.”
A semen stain found on the bathroom floor suggested Gareth had been engaged in sexual activity in the hours before his death. And Mr Campbell believes this makes the idea of an assassination very unlikely, saying: “I felt it was improbable his body fluid could be present in a violent, nonconsenting scenario.
“Considering Gareth’s tidiness and cleanliness, we surmised that the semen was from the day of his entry into the bag. This would have been consensual activity.
“But was he alone or not [when he got in the bag]? It would be difficult to imagine him having intimacy with a Russian hitman or a female spy.”
Mr Campbell still believes Gareth entered the bag of his own free will, adding: “It is a bizarre thing to do voluntarily but I don’t stand by the idea of forcing him into the bag.
“There was not a single mark on his body to suggest any violence or forced activity.”