Telegraph : Family fury at private life smears of British spy Gareth Williams

Family fury at private life smears of British spy Gareth Williams

Duncan Gardham, Richard Edwards and Gordon Rayner | August 27, 2010

The family of Gareth Williams, the murdered British spy, have attacked “completely false” smears about his private life.

As police focused inquiries on his close friends and associates, it was disclosed that the 31-year-old MI6 worker’s parents were “furious” about claims that he had a secret double life, including suggestions he was gay, or a transvestite.

Police also dismissed reports of bondage equipment being found in the London flat where Mr Williams was discovered, and claims that his mobile phone contained numbers for male escorts.

Detectives admitted they are baffled by the death and yesterday launched a second forensic sweep of the crime scene after all initial inquiries had failed to turn up a lead.

The key question police are trying to clarify is why the killer — or a partner — placed Mr Williams's body in a large hold-all in the bath.

Police are working on the assumption it is a murder but have not ruled out that Mr Williams could have died in a bizarre accident or from an accidental drugs overdose.

The investigation is focused on his immediate circle of friends and associates. One theory is that someone who was with him in his flat when he died panicked and put his body in the bag to disguise what happened.

The spy’s parents, Ellen and Ian, who live in Holyhead, were said to be “absolutely devastated” and “raw with emotion”.

William Hughes, 62, the victim’s uncle, said they were also “very, very angry” about reports of secrets in his private life.

“It is completely false. The lad had been away from home for a long time — we did not know much about his private life, but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay. It's not the picture they have of their son.

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

The agent, who worked for the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham and who was on secondment to MI6, was found by police on Monday evening. A post mortem was inconclusive and police are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests which could shed light on how he died.

There was also no obvious sign of him being strangled or smothered and insiders say the circumstances of his death remain “puzzling”.

Detectives are trying to establish Mr Williams's last known movements and speaking to friends and colleagues about his private life.

However initial sweeps of CCTV and telephone records have failed to uncover any clues.

There was no sign of any forced entry at the flat, suggesting that the killer was someone Mr Williams knew.

One source said: "We are treating this as murder but we really have no idea at this stage how he died. There are no obvious marks on the body and we are waiting for the results of toxicology tests.

“All we have right now is a body in a bag in a bath. We have no pre-concieved ideas of what happened but we have been talking to people who knew Gareth to build up a picture of his last movements and carefully piecing things together. Our forensics officers are still in the flat to see if they can get any closer to identifying whether anyone else was with him when he died."