MI6 dirty secrets.. why do sex games appear to feature in so
many spy deaths?
Disposing of an enemy and making it look like a perverted
fantasy gone wrong is in the training manuals of every spy agency from MI6 to
Mossad
UK - LONDON - SITTING at the Gareth Williams inquest this
week, listening to the more lurid details of the case, it occurred to me the
death of spooks in bizarre circumstances involving sex games or women’s
clothing is hardly an unusual event.
Disposing of an enemy and making it look like a perverted
fantasy gone wrong is in the training manuals of every spy agency from MI6 to
Mossad.
Codebreaker Gareth, from Anglesey, North Wales, was found
dead in a locked bag, in a flat full of women’s clothing and wigs, and with his
internet browsing history conveniently featuring bondage sites, sparking a
flurry of allegations which shocked and horrified his parents.
But the fact the 31-year-old’s death scene was organised in
such a way as to suggest a sex game gone wrong should make us more suspicious
not less.
The sex game cover is a very useful mechanism in a murder.
Not only does it provide a disguise for the actual means and method of death,
it also trashes the reputation of the victim and blunts the energy of any
subsequent investigation.
And it appears to explain the astonishing number of spies,
and other people who step into their murky world, who turn up dead in
circumstances similar to Gareth.
Take GCHQ personnel for instance, those that work at the
vast electronic doughnut in Cheltenham that is responsible for intercepting and
decoding secret electronic traffic of interest to Her Majesty’s Government. And
Gareth’s ultimate employer.
In 1983, 25-year-old Stephen Drinkwater, who worked as a
clerk at GCHQ, was found dead at his home with a plastic bag over his head.
In 1997 another worker, Nicholas Husband, 46, was found dead
at home dressed in a bra and panties - with a plastic bag over his head.
Two years later, Kevin Allen, 31, a language expert at GCHQ,
was found dead in his bed at home with a plastic bag over his head and a dust
mask over his mouth.
One wonders what the Gloucestershire Constabulary make of it
all.
To be fair, the kind of higher mathematical ability that
many GCHQ codebreakers have is rare and it sometimes comes with some personal
eccentricities attached.
Alan Turing, the Cambridge Don and founder of modern
computer science who became the greatest of the wartime Bletchley Park
codebreakers was a distinctly odd fish - a loner with sexual hang-ups who
seemed to spend most of his waking hours dreaming of obscure mathematical
theorems.
The point was amusingly made in 60s film The Italian Job in
which Charlie Croker, played by Michael Caine, recruits computer genius
Professor Simon Peach - Benny Hill - to pull off a daring bullion robbery.
But the whole scheme nearly comes unstuck as Prof Peach is
unable to control his powerful urges towards large women.
MI6, who recruit a more worldly-wise type than the boffins
of GCHQ, have not been immune.
In 1994 an ex-MI6 man turned journalist, James Rusbridger,
65, was found hanged at his house in Cornwall - in a green chemical protection
suit including rubber gloves, gas mask, and black plastic mackintosh. Bondage
pictures completed the tableau.
And of course, according to the pathologist, it turned out
he probably did it himself as part of a sex game.
The same year Stephen Milligan, the Tory MP for Eastleigh,
was found dead with electrical flex tied in round his neck, a black bin liner
over his head and wearing stockings and suspenders.
The 45-year-old was also tied to a chair and had a satsuma stuffed
into his mouth. His boss at the time, then junior defence minister Jonathan
Aitken, has since denied suggestions Milligan had links to MI6. Even if you are not a spook you need to be careful.
In 1990, the ex-RAF helicopter pilot and editor of Defence
Helicopter World, Jonathan Moyle, 28, was found hanged in the wardrobe of his
hotel in Chile with a pillow case over his head. At the time his demise was widely thought to be an
auto-erotic accident. He was in fact almost certainly murdered after uncovering
links between Chilean arms dealers and Saddam Hussein.
The last person to give evidence at the Gareth Williams
inquest was Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire - the senior investigating
officer in the case. She stated confidently that she was sure that she and her
team would be able to unlock the mystery in the end. But she also felt that this, her final appearance in court,
was an appropriate time to remind the assembled audience of Williams’ internet
browsing habits.
The last website he accessed probably just a few hours
before his death was connected to cycling - a photo of him competing in a
cross-country cycling race has been seen frequently in the national newspapers.
But then she went on to deal with the browsing information
that had been made much of in the media over the last 20 months. Williams had accessed bondage websites on four days over a
two-year period. He had never accessed so-called “claustrophilia” sites which
cater for people who get a thrill out of being confined in small spaces.
There we have it - the view of the woman in charge of the
probe. Williams may have had a passing interest in bondage but no more than
that. Even this passing interest may have a perfectly innocent explanation.
All MI6 officers get extensive training before they are
allowed out on to the streets. Much of this takes place at Fort Monckton near
Gosport - a Napoleonic era fortress surrounded by barbed wire and accessible
only by a drawbridge. It includes instruction in basic entry and exit
procedures - buildings and cars mainly.
If you ever get locked out of your flat and know a friendly
spook from school or university give them a ring.
They should be able to get you back inside and could save
you a fortune on locksmith’s fees. The instruction also includes some
counter-surveillance techniques - how to make sure you are not followed.
And some instruction on what to do if you fall into the
wrong hands - resistance to interrogation and crucially what to do if you are
restrained - tied or chained up. It is possible Williams had some of this training and it
might well account for the episode when he was discovered tied up in his room
by his Cheltenham landlady.
That the sex game angle was a simple smear is a view
certainly not ruled out by the Westminster coroner who said, “it is still a
legitimate line of inquiry” Gareth died at the hands of MI6.
In her narrative verdict, Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I am sure a
third party placed the bag into the bath and on the balance of probabilities
locked the bag.
The cause of death was unnatural and likely to have been
criminally meditated. I am therefore satisfied that on the balance of
probabilities Gareth was killed unlawfully.” I was impressed by Dr Wilcox. She had good judgment and
wisdom as can be seen from her verdict in the case. She played down the bondage question and the interest in
female fashion - Williams had an expensive collection of women’s clothing
nearly all of it unworn and most of it not in his size. She seemed to accept the view of Williams’ sister these were
a store of presents for his female acquaintances. Dr Wilcox pretty much dismissed the idea of any sexual
component in his death.
SADLY that is the aspect many people will remember. Well,
these kinky games with yourself or other people go wrong - what can you expect
- becomes the prevailing attitude. There is some consolation, perhaps, that occasionally the
dark arts of post-mortem reputation trashing are employed in a good cause and
based on hard facts rather than a set-up.
The strange and squalid habits of Osama Bin Laden before his
death have been used to great effect by the US to make him a laughing stock.
By Crispin Black, former Government intelligence adviser.
* Crispin Black’s espionage thriller The Falklands Intercept
will be published by Gibson Square on June 19.
Source and photo's on: Mirror.co.uk.
Source: www.mirror.co.uk. - Mirror News - UK
