Bag with spy 'had mystery DNA' (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Bag with spy 'had mystery DNA'

2:33pm Tuesday 24th April 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

Specks of mystery DNA were discovered on the bag encasing the curled-up body of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, an inquest has heard.

Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire said "two minor components of another contributor's DNA" were found on the zip toggle and padlock. The evidence came to light as she appeared to rule out that Mr Williams did not get in the bag himself.

The evidence came to light as she appeared to rule out that Mr Williams got in the bag himself. She said her officers had looked at "all aspects" of possibilities, as footage of the red holdall bulging with his body shape was played for the first time.

Ms Sebire told Westminster Coroner's Court: "My thought or my opinion since I went into the scene is that a third party had been involved in the death or by putting the body in the bag. So my primary focus was looking at the bathroom."

Video of the immaculately kept flat at the centre of his death riddle showed a cutting from the Observer newspaper headlined "top five regrets of the dying". The video took the inquest on a walking tour of his Pimlico home, showing a woman's red wig, lipstick and make-up, in the condition that it was found.

Footage then showed close-up images of the white bathroom suite where Mr Williams's body was found. The film zoomed in on the red North Face bag, showing bulges from his limbs inside and a brass padlock locking two zips together from the outside.

Mr Williams was found in the foetal position in the bag, there were no signs of struggle and his body position appeared "calm", Ms Sebire said. She added she would have expected to find fingerprints left by Mr Williams on the bathroom tiles.

"Certainly there were no prints of anybody's in the lower-tiled wall," she said. "He was in the foetal position. His legs were folded up towards his chest, his arms were bent slightly inwards."

Ms Sebire, who described how the top-floor flat was hot and stuffy, said her inquiry had explored all possibilities over 21 months. She said she allowed a counter-terrorism officer from SO15 - the only command at Scotland Yard with regular contact with MI6 - into the flat. But she said she was solely responsible for investigations into the death.

The last computer evidence of him being alive was Mr Williams looking at a cycling time trial website on August 16, the officer added. Mr Williams's sister, Ceri Subbe, sat in the hearing without her parents as images showed the scene which greeted detectives as they arrived at his flat on August 23 2010.