MI6 chief says sorry to dead spy's family Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain's secret intelligence service MI6, apologised "unreservedly" to the family of a dead spy on Wednesday, acknowledging the agency's tardiness in registering his absence from work after his death. As an inquest was concluded into the death of Gareth Williams, a brilliant codebreaker who died in unexplained circumstances in August 2010, Sir John said his organisation should have acted more swiftly to establish the spy's whereabouts when he failed to turn up for work. The coroner investigating the death of Williams, whose body was found zipped inside a holdall in his London flat, judged it was "unlikely this death will ever be satisfactorily explained." Dr Fiona Wilcox said that "on the balance of probabilities" Williams was unlawfully killed and that it was unlikely he could have got into the bag himself. She said she was "satisfied ... that a third party moved the bag containing Gareth into the bath," where his body was found. At the time of his death, Williams, 31, was a codes and ciphers expert employed by the Government Communications Headquarters and on secondment to MI6. It was a role that put him at the cutting edge of the covert communications technology used in foreign intelligence gathering. Williams" absence was only investigated by his line manager one week after he failed to turn up for work. When the body was discovered, it was so badly decomposed that a postmortem examination could not determine the cause of death. Williams" family criticised MI6 after the verdict, lamenting "the failure of his employers ... to take even the most basic inquiries as to his whereabouts and welfare, which any reasonable employer would have taken." In response, Sir John said "lessons have been learnt, in particular the responsibility of all staff to report unaccounted staff absences." During the inquest, the lack of significant DNA at the scene of the death led lawyers acting for Williams" family to suggest another person was present at the flat when he died. This person, they suggested, "was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services" or "evidence has been removed ... by experts in dark arts." In her summing up, Dr Wilcox said it remained a "legitimate line of inquiry" that UK intelligence secret services had been involved in his death but that she had seen "no evidence to support that he died at the hands of" spies. It emerged on Tuesday that memory sticks found among Williams" possessions were examined by MI6 but never handed to detectives investigating his murder. However, MI6 said on Wednesday: "We fully co-operated with the police and will continue to do so during the ongoing investigation. We gave all the evidence to the police when they wanted it; at no time did we withhold any evidence. The coroner said that in the handing of Williams's death "it would appear that many agencies fell short." She noted that during the investigation, Scotland Yard was not able to speak to Williams MI6 colleagues directly. Dr Wilcox also identified breakdowns in communication by her office in ordering a second post mortem, a DNA mix-up by forensics and the late submission of evidence by MI6 to police. She also said leaks to the media about Williams" alleged interest in bondage and drag queens had no bearing on his death. "I wonder if this was an attempt by some third party to manipulate the evidence," she said.