Top detective claims British spook found dead in padlocked bag could have been poisoned

Senior officer who was first on the scene claims Gareth Williams was poisoned and left to rot in a bag in an over-heated room

LAST SIGHTING: Gareth Williams at Holland Park Tube station on 14 August 2010 (PA)

An MI6 spy whose decomposed body was found in a padlocked bag could have been poisoned, a senior detective on the scene has claimed.

The death of British spook Gareth Williams has been steeped in mystery ever since his body was found locked inside a North Face bag in a flat in Pimlico, London, in August 2010.

The coroner found that Mr Williams’ death was likely to have been “criminally mediated” on the balance of probabilities, but was unable to provide definitive answers as to the cause.

Speaking to The Sun today, Colin Sutton, a retired murder squad detective, revealed how the spook’s flat was very hot when officers first broke in.

He suggested that the heating could have been left on to speed up the decomposition of the body.

He said: “If he had been poisoned, then the chemical compounds might have vanished by the time toxicology results were conducted.

“If the motive for Gareth’s death was around his job then poison become much more likely.”

The fresh claims align with the coroner’s verdict that Mr Williams was “unlawfully killed”.

But they are in stark contrast to a separate police investigation which suggested the spy may have died in a sex game gone wrong.