This Is Gloucestershire : Bosses pay tribute to paid to murdered GCHQ spy Gareth Williams

Bosses pay tribute to paid to murdered GCHQ spy Gareth Williams

August 27, 2010

GCHQ bosses have paid tribute to murdered spy Gareth Williams.

Dr Williams, who worked at the Cheltenham base for 10 years, was found dead inside a bag in his London flat.

Bosses at the Government base last night issued a statement acknowledging for the first time Dr Williams worked at the centre in Benhall.

It said: "We can confirm Dr Gareth Williams was a GCHQ employee who was working in London.

"Gareth's sad death is the subject of a police investigation so further comment would not be appropriate.

"Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time."

Detectives investigating the death of cycling enthusiast Dr Williams, who rented a house in Prestbury, are trying to establish a motive for his murder.

The 30-year-old's decomposing body was found stuffed into a sports holdall at his rented flat in Pimlico on Monday afternoon.

He was on secondment with MI6, but suggestions have emerged his death may have been linked to his private life.

Potential employees of GCHQ face an intrusive vetting process that reaches into every corner of their private life to reduce any possibility of blackmail.

Meanwhile, senior figures at the Cheltenham and County Cycling Club where Dr Williams was a member are considering holding a memorial to him.

Club member Don Muir said members were slowly coming to terms with the loss and were due to meet last night to discuss ways of remembering Dr Williams.

"The whole thing has been a shock," said Mr Muir.

"We haven't had a chance to get together to discuss memorials, but we are meeting for an event so will have a chance to think about it then."

Dr Willams was said to be a man who excelled academically as a teenager.

He was a maths graduate who reportedly began a masters at St Catherine's College, Cambridge.

His uncle William Hughes, from his home town of Anglesey, said: "He was a clever lad. When he was at secondary school he would go to university one day a week.

"It's a long way from Anglesey to Cheltenham and London."

Dr Williams' parents Ian and Ellen, from Valley in Anglesey, reportedly flew back from a foreign holiday yesterday to identify their son's body.

The news has shocked their small Welsh community, where villagers added to the image of a very quiet, private man.

Chris Hall, manager of the family run Valley Hotel in Valley, said: "We are a really tight-knit community here.

"But I didn't know Gareth or his family. I have been speaking to people in the village and no one seems to be able to be able to put a face to the name.

"He was obviously a very private person. It seems the whole family was very private."

Dr Williams' father was an employee at the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station in Anglesey.

A spokeswoman said the company offered "appropriate support" to all its employees.

Jenny Elliott, his former landlady in Prestbury, described Dr Williams as a "lovely guy".

His neighbour in London, Laura Houghton, 30, said: "His windows were always shut and curtains were often closed. I could never tell if anyone was in."

Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Service said formal identification had yet to take place.

A post-mortem examination carried out at Westminster Mortuary was unable to provide a cause of death and further tests are being carried out.

The flat where Dr Williams was found is in a freehold block whose ownership is hidden behind the private company New Rodina, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The word rodina means "motherland" in Russian and Bulgarian.

Officers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC) are investigating and are treating Dr Williams' death as suspicious and unexplained.