Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, whose body was found in a padlocked sports bag, was probably an accident, police have said


MI6 spy Gareth Williams death 'probably an accident', police say

Gareth WilliamsGareth Williams's body was found in his flat in Pimlico in 2010

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The death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, whose body was found in a padlocked sports bag, was probably an accident, police have said.
Last year, a coroner said it was likely Mr Williams, 31, from Anglesey, had been unlawfully killed in August 2010.
But the Metropolitan Police said an evidence review had found "it was more probable" no other person was present when he died in his London flat.
Mr Williams's family said they stood by the coroner's findings.
In a statement, they said: "We are naturally disappointed that it is still not possible to state with certainty how Gareth died and the fact that the circumstances of his death are still unknown adds to our grief.
"We consider that on the basis of the facts at present known, the coroner's verdict accurately reflects the circumstances of Gareth's death."
'Unlawfully killed'
Mr Williams's body was found naked at his flat in Pimlico on 23 August 2010 after colleagues raised concerns for his welfare.
He had been on a secondment with MI6 from his job as a communications officer at the GCHQ "listening post" in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

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The reality is that for both hypotheses, there exist evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding”
DAC Martin HewitMetropolitan Police
Police discovered his body inside a zipped-up red sports holdall, in the empty bath of his bathroom.
It had taken a week for MI6 to investigate the code-breaker's disappearance, and a post-mortem examination carried out by a Home Office pathologist failed to determine the cause of death.
During a seven-day inquest in May 2012, the question of whether Mr Williams could have padlocked himself into a bag in a bath was central.
Coroner Fiona Wilcox concluded that "most of the fundamental questions in relation to how Gareth died remain unanswered".
But she said he was, "on the balance of probabilities", unlawfully killed.
At a briefing on Wednesday, the Met Police announced the conclusion of its three-year investigation into the incident.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said he was satisfied it was "theoretically possible" Mr Williams could have padlocked the bag from the inside, although "many questions remain unanswered" as to the circumstances of his death.
But he said there was no evidence that the MI6 officer had intended to take his own life or that his death was connected to his work.
'Naturally disappointed'
There were about 10 to 15 traces of DNA in the flat from which it had not been possible to gain full DNA profiles, but all other DNA profiles and fingerprints had been eliminated, said DAC Hewitt.
He also said there was no evidence that Mr Williams' flat had been forensically cleaned, adding it was a "fallacy" that it had been deep-cleaned in such a way that only certain DNA was left in the premises.
DAC Hewitt acknowledged that the coroner, having studied "all the evidence available at that stage" had made "the logical inference that it was more likely someone else was involved in Gareth's death".
"However, she also recognised that there has been endless speculation but little real evidence and it was her view [that] 'it is unlikely that his death will ever be satisfactorily explained'," he said.
"Now at the end of our investigation, based on the evidence, or where we have been unable to find positive evidence, we believe that it is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present when Gareth died.
"But the reality is that for both hypotheses, there exist evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding."

Death of British spy found padlocked in bag was accidental: British police

LONDON Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:28am EST
(Reuters) - A British spy, whose naked, decomposing body was found padlocked in a bag in his bathtub, probably died accidentally on his own, police said on Wednesday, rejecting conspiracy theories that his bizarre death was the work of foreign agents.
In May last year, a coroner concluded that Gareth Williams, who was working for Britain's external intelligence service MI6 when he was found dead at his home in August 2010, was probably killed unlawfully by another person.
His spy background and the fact that expensive, unworn women's clothes were found at his flat provoked a wide range of "weird and wonderful" theories, London Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said, but further investigations now suggested it was more likely he had not been murdered.
"Most probably, it was an accident," Hewitt told reporters. "I'm convinced that Gareth's death was in no way linked to his work."
Williams, 31, worked as a code breaker at the Government Communications Headquarters but was on a three-year secondment to MI6, which deals with foreign espionage matters.
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.
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.
Detectives found no palm prints on the side of the bath nor any traces of his DNA on the padlock.
Instead, they found make-up, a long-haired wig and unworn women's clothes and shoes worth around 20,000 pounds ($31,900). They also found images of transvestites, a picture of Williams wearing only boots, and evidence of visits to sexual bondage websites on his computer.
THEORIES AND SPECULATION
"This is a case where there's been enormous theorizing and speculating...and weird and wonderful stories," Hewitt said.
Hewitt admitted the original police investigation had been flawed and after the inquest they pursued new lines of inquiry.
But detectives found no evidence anyone had been in the flat when he died. Hewitt rejected suggestions the flat could have undergone a "forensic clean" to remove traces of any killers.
He ruled out any suggestion that Williams interest in women's clothing or his work as a spy had played a part, and said they did not believe he had meant to take his own life.
Despite the fact that there had always been doubt that someone could have locked themselves in a bag - a number of experts tried and failed - Hewitt said they now believed this was what Williams had done.
"It's theoretically possible for someone to do that. It is a more probable conclusion that there was no other person present," said Hewitt, who agreed Williams's interest in escapology might have been a factor.
He could not categorically rule out anyone else being involved and said any new evidence would be followed up.
In a statement, Williams's family said they still believed the coroner's conclusions more accurately reflected what had happened, and repeated their anger that MI6 had failed to report Williams missing for days after he did not show up at work.
Hewitt denied suggestions Britain's spies had simply staged an elaborate cover-up.
"I do not believe I have had the wool pulled over my eyes."
($1 = 0.6279 British pounds)
(editing by Stephen Addison)

The triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces. It was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie's auction house said

Three Studies of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon
Bacon painted Three Studies of Lucian Freud at London's Royal College of Art in 1969

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A painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it fetched $142m (£89m, 106m euros) in New York.
The triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), is considered one of Bacon's greatest masterpieces.
It was sold after six minutes of fierce bidding, Christie's auction house said.
The price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year.
13/11/13 06:01 from Top Stories - Google News
BBC News Bacon painting fetches record price BBC News A painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction after it fetched $142m (£89m, 106m euros) in New Yo...




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8:20 AM 11/13/2013

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China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Cuba win seats on UN Human Rights ... - Washington Post (Nov 12, 2013 14:55) 

Geneva-based UN Watch, a frequent critic of U.N. rights practices, denounced what it considered the worst new members.
“China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens, and they consistently vote the wrong way on U.N. initiatives to protect the human rights of others,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. “For the U.N. to elect Saudi Arabia as a world judge on human rights would be like a town making a pyromaniac into chief of the fire department.
“Regrettably, so far neither the U.S. nor the EU have said a word about hypocritical candidacies that will undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

U.S. Franciscan Father Michael Perry, minister-general of the Order of Friars Minor, embraces Pope Francis during his visit to the hermitage and cell of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 4




VATICAN LETTER Oct-31-2013 (820 words) Backgrounder. With photos. xxxi

Keeping the habit: Franciscans look to counter culture's impact


U.S. Franciscan Father Michael Perry, minister-general of the Order of Friars Minor, embraces Pope Francis during his visit to the hermitage and cell of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 4. Hundreds of Franciscans gathered in Rome to discuss the impact the "culture of the provisional" is having on commitment to religious life. (CNS/Paul Haring)
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis frequently denounces two aspects of modern culture: the way it encourages people to throw away whatever or whoever they no longer find useful and the belief that nothing lasts forever, not even love.

Hundreds of members of the Franciscan family -- friars from different branches as well as different congregations of religious women -- gathered in Rome Oct. 29 to discuss the impact the "culture of the provisional" is having on religious life.

In brown robes or black veils or bright batik African scarves, the sisters and friars spent a day discussing a key challenge for modern religious life: "fidelity and perseverance."

The problem is decades old, but all the speakers quoted Pope Francis' succinct descriptions of the cultural atmosphere that makes it difficult today for young people to make lifelong commitments and encourages those who have made vows to head for the door when trouble arises.

Meeting with families -- grandparents, engaged couples, parents and children -- in late October, Pope Francis said the "culture of the provisional cuts life up into pieces." Meeting with novices in July, he said he'd once heard a seminarian say he would go forward to ordination and "try out" the priesthood for 10 years, and then he'd see.

That's not the way it's supposed to work, the pope said. A vocation is a call by God, who loves continuously and endlessly. God's love is reflected in the sacrifice of Christ, who died to save human beings "not provisionally, but for eternity," he said, and making vows is a person's response to that everlasting love.

The October conference was part of an ongoing, long-term project of the Franciscan friars to study why so many religious are leaving and what orders can and should be doing to help members live their permanent vows permanently.

Father Michael Perry, minister-general of the Franciscans, said speaking openly of the "reality and fragility" of religious life is necessary if orders are going to calmly and objectively find responses to "a reality that often is embarrassing for us."

Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo, former superior of the Franciscans and secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told the gathering that religious "can't obsess over" the number of members who leave each year, "but we also can't bury our heads in the sand."

Between 2008 and 2012, he said, the congregation for religious issued 11,805 dispensations, releasing men and women from their religious vows. Other religious received dispensations from the congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Bishops and for Clergy, which brings to about 3,000 the average number of perpetually professed religious leaving every year.

The figures, he said, work out to be about 2.5 dispensations annually for every 1,000 consecrated men and women with perpetual vows. The Vatican's Statistical Yearbook said that at the end of 2011, there were 903,363 religious priests, brothers and sisters in the world, but that figure includes those with temporary vows.

"We shouldn't be alarmed, but we must not fall asleep," either, the archbishop said. As Pope Paul VI once said, "Fidelity is not the virtue of our age."

Archbishop Rodriguez said the way many people watch television today -- "channel surfing" -- is the way they go through life, "not taking on long-term commitments, passing from one experience to another without let any of them impact their lives."

While recognizing that the dispensation applications submitted to his office may not fully reflect the reason a person is leaving religious life, the archbishop said the leading explanations fall into the categories of: "absence of a spiritual life," leading to a crisis of faith; "loss of a sense of belonging to a community" or even to the church; and "affective problems," including falling in love and struggles with chastity.

The response of religious orders, he said, must begin with being very clear and even blunt with potential members, letting them know what religious life entails and not offering them what he described as "discounts."

At the same time, the archbishop said, religious communities can't be so eager for new members that they'd accept just anyone, and they can't simply "clutch" those they have, but must challenge and offer support to those in crisis.

Sister Concetta Resta Zaccaria, superior of the Franciscan Immaculatine Sisters, said it's very difficult to convince young people today that love is forever and, therefore, so are marriage and consecrated life. "Young people see their parents love each other only for a time" and then get divorced, so "how can they think it's forever?"

In religious life as in family life, she said, "it's all about love. You give up everything for it."

Striving for holiness in a religious community "means struggling, loving others even if they are annoying," Sister Concetta said. "It's not easy. Maybe today you can do it and not tomorrow, but you keep trying."


END

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