Sun : Murdered spook was a cross dresser

Murdered spook was a cross dresser

By ANTHONY FRANCE, JOHN KAY, GUY PATRICK and EMILY NASH | August 26, 2010

MURDERED MI6 worker Gareth Williams was a secret transvestite who may have been killed by a gay lover, detectives said yesterday.

His body lay undiscovered for TWO WEEKS after he was killed and his remains stuffed into a suitcase in his bath.

Cops found women's clothing that would fit him at his Pimlico flat in central London, a short distance from MI6's HQ beside the Thames.

Keen cyclist and brilliant former student Mr Williams was days away from completing a one-year secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the intelligence eavesdropping base.

Police are also working on the theory that intelligence expert Mr Williams may have been killed by a foreign spy.

Spook agencies in some countries target British operatives by using good-looking agents to seduce them into giving up secrets.

And Mr Williams, 31 - found murdered at his central London home - was known to meet men in the capital's gay mecca of Vauxhall Cross and Soho in the West End.

Officers broke into his £400,000 top-floor flat in Pimlico when he failed to contact colleagues. Investigators suspect Mr Williams might have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry.

Mr Williams' mobile phone and several SIM cards were on a table. His decomposing body was in a suitcase in the bathroom.

Further tests were taking place today to determine how the cycling and fitness fanatic met his death after a post-mortem examination was inconclusive.

Mr Williams was a middle-ranking officer at GCHQ, Britain's eavesdropping base in Cheltenham, Gloucs. But he was on secondment to MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service which gathers information about the UK's enemies.

Downing Street was monitoring developments yesterday as Scotland Yard's Homicide and Serious Crime Command probed the murder of keen cyclist Mr Williams.

The Yard's Counter Terrorism Command and the domestic intelligence agency MI5 were also being kept up to date.

As the inquiry progressed it was revealed that women's clothes that fitted Mr Williams were found at the flat.

He was thought to have been dead for two weeks. A post mortem proved "inconclusive" on the cause of death. Neighbour Laura Houghton, 30, said: "His windows were always shut and curtains were often closed."

Senior Government figures were concerned that anyone with a private life as sensitive as his could hold a post in which he could be vulnerable to blackmail.

The flat was thought to belong to the intelligence services. Ownership of the building was hidden behind a private company, New Rodina, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Rodina means "motherland" in Russian.

Public documents showed that several current and former residents of the freehold block had links to London and Cheltenham.

Mr Williams' parents Ellen and Ian and his sister Kerry, 28, who recently married, were too distressed to talk last night.

A London police officer was outside the family home in Holyhead, Anglesey, North Wales.

Mr Williams' uncle William Hughes said: "It was a terrible shock. He worked for GCHQ for many years and we knew he was in London. but he would never talk about his work."

Keith Thompson, from Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at the age of 17.

He said: "I heard the news in a text message yesterday morning and it was a shock.

"We are a small club, only 20 members, and all of us knew Gareth. We are totally devastated. He was a really lovely young man."