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A FORMER associate of Alexander Litvinenko has claimed that the ex-spy was killed because he had collected sensitive information on a high-ranking Kremlin official.

Yuri Shvets, a former spy now based in America, claims Litvinenko had been doing due diligence work for a British company on the official, who was facilitating a business deal.

Shvets believes Litvinenko had acquired a damaging eight-page dossier with details on the official that may have ruined a multi-million-pound deal with the British company.

The claims shed new light on the activities of Litvinenko, who died on November 23 after being poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive substance.

His death has been the subject of several theories, including claims that he was murdered in a Kremlin plot to silence his criticism of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Shvets is a former KGB major who now works from Washington, advising businesses on corruption and security in the former Soviet Union.

He has been interviewed by detectives from Scotland Yard. He gave his first full interview last week to his friend Tom Mangold, a journalist, in a programme for BBC Radio 4.

Shvets says Litvinenko came to him for help after a British security company had offered him a $100,000 contract to do due diligence work on five Russian figures.

One of the five, whom Shvets refused to name, is said to be a powerful Kremlin official.

Litvinenko acquired the eight-page dossier on September 20. Shvets says Litvinenko showed the dossier to Andrei Lugovoi, another former Russian agent, two weeks later.

This, Shvets believes, was a mistake because he claims Lugovoi probably tipped off the official about the dossier.

Lugovoi met Litvinenko at the Millennium hotel in London on November 1, the suspected day of the poisoning. Lugovoi has denied any involvement in the murder and is himself contaminated with polonium.

Scotland Yard detectives were present at interviews with Lugovoi and others during a visit to Moscow last week. The British officers were not allowed to put any questions, however. Russian prosecutors conducted the interview.

MURDERED Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was killed because of an eight-page dossier he had compiled on a powerful Russian figure, a business associate has said.

Litvinenko died on November 23, after receiving a lethal dose of radioactive polonium 210.

On his deathbed, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his killing.

Ex-spy Yuri Shvets, who is based in America, said Litvinenko was asked to write reports on five Russians for a British company before investment deals were made. He asked Shvets for help.

The British company was not named, but Shvets said he had passed Litvinenko the information for the dossier on one individual in September.

Shvets said the report contained damaging personal details about a ''very highly placed member of Putin’s administration.''

''Litvinenko obtained the report on September 20. ''Within the next two weeks he gave the report to Andrei Lugovoy. I believe that triggered the entire assassination,'' he said.

Shvets said Litvinenko had given the dossier to Lugovoy to show him how reports on Russian companies and individuals should be presented to western clients.

However, Shvets said he believed Lugovoy was still employed by the Russian secret service the FSB, the successor to the KGB, and had leaked Litvinenko’s dossier to the Russian figure.

Shvets said the report had led to the British company pulling out of a deal, losing the Russian figure potential earnings of ''dozens of millions of dollars. ''Lugovoy and businessman Dmitry Kovtun met Litvinenko at a central London hotel, soon after he had met Italian KGB expert Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar. Litvinenko felt ill that night and two days later was admitted to hospital.

''Litvinenko told me he met Lugovoy and other Russians and they offered him tea that wasn’t made in front of him,'' said Shvets.

Police in the Czech Republic are investigating the death of a young British chess champion who fell from her hotel room window during one of the world's leading tournaments.

Jessica Gilbert, 19, from Woldingham, Surrey, was found dead on Wednesday morning outside the Hotel Labe, in Pardubice. A winner of the world amateur championship at the age of 11, she was in Pardubice for the Czech Open, which features 4,000 players from 50 countries.

Although detectives initially suspected that she may have taken her own life, it emerged she might have been sleep walking when she fell.

John Saunders, editor of British Chess Magazine, said yesterday: "I have had a couple of people come to me independently saying: 'Did you know that she had this sleep walking problem?'

"These are people who are well known in chess – women chess players who are likely to know Jess better than anybody. I completely trust what they say."

Mr Saunders added that the chess community was stunned by the death. "I think they are just appalled really, because she was just so nice and so pleasant; people are just shocked," he said. Miss Gilbert regularly represented England in international events and had risen to the title of Women's World Chess Federation Master.

A Czech police spokeswoman said the death was being investigated and a postmortem was being carried out. However, a spokesman for the tournament organisers, the Ave Kontakt agency, said: "There are no signs of anyone else being involved."

Fellow Britons in the tournament abandoned their matches as a mark of respect after news of Miss Gilbert's death.

Her parents, Ian and Angela, released a statement yesterday asking to be left to grieve for their daughter, adding that she had been "much loved and was an exceptionally talented chess player".

Leonard Barden, the Guardian's chess correspondent, said Miss Gilbert had been working towards attaining a women's international master (WIM) title, and was due to start a degree in medicine at Oxford this autumn: "She always wanted to do medicine, from the age of 11. I find the whole thing very mysterious. It is such a shock."

The Reverend Howard Curtis, the president of the Coulsdon Chess club in Surrey, where Miss Gilbert was a member for 12 years, said: "She was very competitive but she was also positive, she played the game in a good spirit although she was obviously better than most of us."

He added: "She had everything to live for, she was going to university, she was going to get her WIM, she was beginning to blossom... everything was at her feet."

A British teenage chess champion has fallen to her death from an eighth-floor hotel room in what police believe may have been a sleepwalking accident.

Jessie Gilbert, 19, who was competing in the Czech Open, was found dead outside her hotel on Wednesday morning.

Although detectives initially suspected suicide, they are now investigating the theory that the doctor's daughter from Reigate, Surrey, who was about to begin studying at Oxford University, may have fallen by accident after her friends revealed that she had suffered from sleepwalking since childhood.

"When I first heard what had happened that was my immediate line of thought, that she was sleepwalking," said a family friend.

Miss Gilbert, who had played chess for England, was planning to take her place at Oxford in October to study medicine and was enjoying a gap year competing in tournaments.

Described as "quiet with a ready smile", the former Croydon High School pupil had beaten grandmaster Danny Gormally, one of Britain's leading chess players, in a tournament last December.

She had travelled to the Czech Republic with a 14-year-old friend, the girl's mother and three other youngsters and was staying at the Labe Hotel in Pardubice near the tournament arena when she fell. Police were called at around 4.30am.

"She and her 14-year-old friend were sharing a room when the older girl died," said a spokesman for Pardubice police. "Her friends told us that Jessica was a sleep-walker.

"The younger girl was in the bathroom when it happened. We therefore do not have an eyewitness. At the moment we do not think that anyone else was involved. Either it was an accident or a suicide."

Miss Gilbert's mother, Angela, and her three other daughters - Sam, Annie and Josie - are waiting for her body to be flown home after a post mortem examination. Initial reports suggested there had been no foul play.

Brian Smith, of Wood Green chess club, where Miss Gilbert played, had captained her on the victorious all-women England team in Turin, Italy, at the Olympiad in June.

"There's not anybody in the chess world who hasn't heard of her," he said. "This is a girl with a lust for life; it's crazy to say that she committed suicide. It comes back to her childhood - it was sleepwalking."

In a web page dedicated to Miss Gilbert, the teenage champion wrote: "I started playing chess at the age of eight and quickly became hooked on the game. Since then I have always played as much as I can alongside school studies.

"I have played in a wide variety of events including having been given many opportunities to represent the country abroad. I have also always enjoyed coaching chess, both in group and individual contexts.

"I am currently taking a year out to play and study chess and am particularly working towards attaining a Women's International Master title. I will be starting medical school at Oxford in October but plan to continue actively participating in the chess world."

Andrew Martin, who mentored Miss Gilbert, said: "I watched her grow into an intelligent, friendly and vivacious young lady. It is a tragedy we have lost her."

Miss Gilbert had taken the Women's World Amateur Championship title - regarded as a minor tournament despite its name - by the age of 11.

Despite being ranked 21,138th in the world, she was deemed a serious contender after beating Mr Gormally at a tournament in Surrey.

John Saunders, editor of British Chess Magazine, said: "If people took her for granted she was dangerous.

"She would have reached her peak in her twenties or early thirties. Her behaviour was always absolutely impeccable, even when she lost. There was no ego.

"She was quiet and not like those teenage girls who dress up to the nines. She was a serious girl with a ready smile and very cheerful."

A spokesman for the British embassy in Prague said: "We have been told by the Czech police that they are not regarding the death as suspicious."

A child chess prodigy who was once ranked as one of the most intelligent people on earth, Jessie Gilbert had a glittering future ahead of her.

But today the 19 year old's devastated family was in mourning after she plunged to her death from her eighth floor hotel room.

The tragedy happened while Miss Gilbert, a popular member of England's women's chess squad who planned to read medicine at Oxford University, was competing in the Czech Open international tournament.

It is understood she was alone in her room before the fall. Police sources and tournament organisers described the death as an apparent suicide.

But friends of Miss Gilbert insist taking her own life was not in her character. They say she had a problem with sleepwalking which could have led to a terrible accident.

Her body was found stuck in the branches of a tree beneath the window she fell from at the Hotel Labe in Paradubice, 65 miles east of Prague, at 3.30am on Wednesday morning.

Miss Gilbert shot to fame in 1999 when she became an adult world chess champion at the age of 11, just three years after she started playing. She shrugged off competition from mainly adult opponents to claim the World Women's Amateur title.

As a result she was awarded a £4,000 chess scholarship to America, where she studied with Grand Master Edmar Mednis for a week.

The same year she was finalist in the Brain of the Year competition run by the Brain Trust charity, where she was beaten to the title by the American astronaut John Glenn.

A former pupil of £9,000 a year Croydon High School, an independent school for girls, she was due to play her next game in the Czech Open on the day her body was found. Fellow British players there abandoned matches as a mark of respect.

Until three months ago Miss Gilbert, who has one elder and two younger sisters, lived with her parents Angela, 52, a doctor, and Ian, 48, a city banker, at their detached £700,000 house in the village of Woldingham, near Caterham, Surrey.

Neighbours said the couple had recently divorced, sold the family home and moved to separate properties.

'The family have been through a very difficult time recently,' said one neighbour.

'I don't know how it affected the girls but it must have been very stressful for them.'

Miss Gilbert was close to Nicholas Pert, a top English men's player and International Grand Master. They both played at the Olympiad chess tournament in Turin, Italy, in May and June this year, but he denies they had a sexual relationship.

Mr. Pert, 25, a trainee actuary, said: 'We were just friends. She was a very popular, outgoing girl.

'I haven't seen her since Turin. She seemed fine, perfectly happy the last time I saw her.

'It's very sad news. I feel terrible for her family. I wouldn't like to speculate on what happened, but she'd told me and I think quite a lot of other people that she suffered from sleepwalking.'

John Saunders, editor of British Chess Monthly magazine, said he had also heard from a number of 'reliable sources' that she had a problem with sleepwalking.

He thought Miss Gilbert was a well-balanced individual who coped well with the pressure of top class chess.

Mr. Saunders, who played her a number of times, said: 'People who know her are horrified at the suggestion it was suicide and simply won't believe it. She had everything to live for.

'You can very often psycho-analyse someone when you are playing them at chess, and she gave the impression of someone who was really hard working, with a serious manner, who wanted to get better.

'She was a very together person. She struck me as quite quiet, reserved, but very polite. Some teenage chess players dress like they are 25 but not Jessie, in fact she was just the opposite. She was younger than her age and not one for drinking and dancing the night away.'

In the Czech Open, Miss Gilbert was playing in the second-tier competition of the tournament. After five rounds she was 129th out of 329 taking part. She had beaten one female opponent and drawn with four different male players.

Jiri Petruzalek of the Ave Kontakt agency which is organising the tournament said it appeared Gilbert had committed suicide.

'She was playing quite well, certainly up to her usual standards, and there was no hint that something like this was about to happen. No one noticed anything strange in her behaviour or manner while she was here.

Miss Gilbert's mother was too upset to comment at her home in Reigate, Surrey. Her father was unavailable to comment.

In a short statement issued through their solicitor, the family paid tribute to the 'much loved' and 'exceptionally talented' teenager.

The solicitor, Wendy Ryle, declined to comment on the state of Mr. and Mr. Gilbert's marriage or the circumstances of their daughter's death.

In a recent entry on her website, Miss Gilbert said: 'I am currently taking a year out to play and study chess.... I will be starting medical school at Oxford in October 2006 but plan to continue actively participating in the chess world!'

A Pardubice police spokesman said officers are investigating whether a criminal act took place. A post mortem is to be carried out.

THE father of tragic teenage chess prodigy Jessie Gilbert is facing trial accused of raping her, it was revealed last night.

Tormented Jessie, 19, apparently threw herself from the eighth floor of a hotel in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

It emerged last night her banker father Ian Gilbert, 48, has been charged with SEVEN counts of rape and two of indecent assault. His dead daughter is believed to be just one of his alleged victims.

Talented Jessie was competing in an international chess tournament when she fell to her death.

She is said to have been traumatised by the criminal proceedings hanging over the family.

Last night Surrey Police confirmed Gilbert was on bail awaiting trial at Guildford Crown Court on August 21.

The teenager, who hoped to study medicine at Oxford University, had faced the ordeal of being interviewed in a rape suite and possibly underwent medical tests.

Czech police captain David Krkada said: ''She was afraid and had bad feelings about it.'' Gilbert, of Woldingham, Surrey, who works for Royal Bank of Scotland, has split from his wife Angela, 52.

On the night of Jessie’s death, she had allegedly been drinking heavily with her room-mate and best pal Amisha Parmer, 14, at the Hotel Labe in Pardubice.

Mr Krkada said: ''At some point, the younger girl, who was not used to drinking, became ill and went to the bathroom.

''When she emerged, Jessie had gone – but Amisha didn’t realise what had happened.

Jessie has a history of sleepwalking so she assumed she had wandered off in her sleep or just gone for a walk to get some fresh air.

''This was about midnight. But at 3.30 am Amisha was woken to be told her friend had died. She had fallen to the ground.

'' It is still not certain what happened. It could have been an accident. But there are several factors which suggest she probably jumped.

''She was on medication for depression and we found prescription pills in her room.

''There was also a lot of trouble in her family. Her parents split up and her father is facing a serious court case.''

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