Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe says new evidence will be examined and warns MI6 officers to co-operate with police
Scotland Yard's commissioner has said he has ordered a review of the investigation into the death of MI6 code breaker Gareth Williams. Bernard Hogan-Howe has pointed out that the spy agency is not above the law and is expected to co-operate fully with inquiries by homicide detectives.
An inquest found that Williams, whose body was found in a padlocked holdall in a central London flat, might have been killed. It also heard that homicide detectives were not told of evidence held by MI6, including memory sticks, until the inquest.
Hogan-Howe said MI6 employees would be expected to cooperate with homicide detectives. Asked if the agency had been consulted about the new approach, he replied. "They don't have to sign up to it – it's called the law."
Detectives from the Met's homicide command would interview MI6 employees directly, without the need to go through counter-terrorism officers, he added. The commissioner said this might have led to "miscommunication" and described as "unacceptable" the delay by counter terrorism officers in telllng detectives on the Williams inquiry about memory sticks and a holdall found at MI6's offices.
Hogan-Howe said the new material that had emerged would be examined.
A "vital" line of inquiry would be the relationship Williams had with whoever was in his flat when he died, he added. "We have to establish that if there was someone present, as clearly the coroner concluded and our investigation shows, in that flat when Gareth Williams died, we have to establish how he contacted that person and what relationship they had, before they met on that day.
"That's going to be a vital line of inquiry and we clearly have not established that."
Hogan-Howe said it was possible MI6 employees would be asked to undergo fresh DNA tests and that Williams's work and the nature of his death had led to "intrigue" surrounding the case.
"Of course it may well be that Gareth Williams's death has nothing to do with employment," Hogan-Howe said. "All we need to do is to make sure that all areas of his life were fully explored."
The commissioner said a new private company would re-examine the forensics in the investigation, adding that this fact implied no criticism of the firm that originally carried out the work.
The cause of death of Williams, 31, who was found in the holdall in the bath at his flat in Pimlico, was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated", said the coroner, Fiona Wilcox, after an inquest last week.
There was concern in the Met after it emerged at the inquest that officers in its counter-terrorism branch, SO15, whose role was to interview MI6 witnesses, were also strongly criticised. SO15 failed to inform DCI Jackie Sebire, senior investigating officer, of the existence of nine memory sticks and a black holdall found at Williams's MI6 office until two days before the inquest ended.
No formal statements were taken by S015 officers who interviewed Williams's colleagues, which the coroner said "did affect the quality of evidence heard in this court".
Wilcox said it remained a legitimate line of inquiry that someone from MI6 might have been involved.
Detectives believe that scientific tests on a hand towel found in his flat might yield DNA evidence. Originally in the bathroom, it was moved to the kitchen, possibly by the "third party".
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/08/gareth-williams-met-orders-forensic-review
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