[Quote]:

Gareth Williams, an MI6 spy found dead inside a locked holdall could have been killed by someone who specialised in “the dark arts of the secret services”, a coroner was told.

Gareth Williams, an MI6 spy found dead inside a locked holdall could have been killed by someone who specialised in “the dark arts of the secret services”, a coroner was told.

Gareth Williams could not have locked the bag from the inside, meaning a “third party” must have done it, according to a lawyer representing his family.

Relatives believe his death in 2010 may have been linked to his work at MI6, where he had recently qualified for “operational deployment”, and that fingerprints, DNA and other evidence was wiped from the scene in a deliberate cover up.

Police have always said they were keeping an open mind on whether the 31-year-old codebreaker was murdered or died as a result of an accident, possibly during a bizarre sex game.

But at an interim hearing ahead of the full inquest into his death, Westminster Coroner’s Court in London was told that a delay by MI6 in notifying police of his disappearance meant a post-mortem examination had been “ineffective” and the cause of his death remained unclear.