Gareth Williams: The Spy Who Should Have Thought Outside the Box

Do you have anything in a smaller size? I was thinking a briefcase ..." Image source: The Tight Package section of Erotic Illusions.
There are certain occupations for which a predilection toward extreme bondage is problematical, and being a spy is definitely one of them. As is indicated by the fate of young Gareth Williams, a British spy who was found naked, dead and padlocked in a North Face suitcase in August 2010.

Mr. Williams' sad fate is in the news right now because the results of the inquest into his death have finally been released. It took a long time, at least in part because Mr. Williams was discovered to have been into an extreme form of bondage called claustrophilia, in which you get off sexually from being in tiny, enclosed spaces ... like luggage bags.

The question at hand was, did Williams die a death by misadventure or was he killed as sometimes occurs to spies who Know Too Much or are In The Way or are simply Inconvenient to this or that spy agency. The key point for the inquest was that the bag was padlocked shut, and was on the outside of the bag. Could Mr. Williams have possibly locked the bag with the padlock on the outside?

That's how the inquest ended up, well ... we'll let scotsman.com tell the story:

Last week, Westminster coroner’s court was treated to the bizarre spectacle of escapologists attempting to zip themselves up in similar hold-alls to establish if someone of Williams’ build and expertise might have been able to padlock themselves inside, with one, Peter Faulding, telling the inquest he had tried and failed 300 times.

Source.

The trail of justice can get into some strange paths. The story has also been covered on The Daily Beast, with predictably more coverage of the fetish aspects than the criminal aspects.

It's looking kind of like murder now, or at least manslaughter (could have been a play partner who took a powder when it became evident that Williams had kicked the luggage) but who knows when or if the murderer will ever be found, especially as Williams may have been killed by his own agency ... another thing that sometimes happens to spies.