The First Post : Bondage gear found at MI6 flat - but was it planted?

Bondage gear found at MI6 flat - but was it planted?
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‘Male escort evidence’ and porn said to have been found at murdered spy’s flat

By Jack Bremer | August 27, 2010

Police investigating the murder of the MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams have discovered bondage equipment in his London flat, along with evidence linking him to a male escort, according to reports emerging overnight. The findings appear to support the theory that his private life rather than national security was the motive for his murder - unless the items were planted by his killer.

Assuming they were not planted, their discovery raises concerns among national security personnel - in London and Washington - that an MI6 employee enjoying high security clearance might have had a secret lifestyle that risked his being compromised.

The CIA and the Pentagon are reported to have come into the picture because Williams travelled regularly to the States, possibly on codebreaking jobs for the US National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. The US Defence Department has refused to confirm whether he ever worked for the agency.

As The First Post reported yesterday, Williams's body was found stuffed into a holdall, sitting in the bath of the Pimlico flat where he was living while working on secondment at the MI6 headquarters, a short walk away.

Early reports said escort agency numbers had been found on one of the many mobile phone SIM cards discovered in the flat. Now police have removed porn films, bondage items and "paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism", according to a source quoted by the Times, as well as the evidence linking him to a male escort.

While investigators attempt to discover whether or not these findings are a red herring, further press interviews with old friends and acquaintances paint a picture of a loner - a gifted mathematician who had few friends.

Dylan Parry, who attended secondary school with Williams in Anglesey, north Wales, said he was "the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level".

But Williams's family are adamant that he is not a homosexual. His uncle William Hughes said today that his parents were "very, very angry... It's not the picture they have of their son.

"Maybe it's the Government or somebody trying to discredit him."