This Is London : 'He was naive at school, people could take advantage'

'He was naive at school, people could take advantage'

Peter Dominiczak | August 26, 2010

A close childhood friend of murdered spy Gareth Williams today described him as "socially awkward and naive" and told how he was nicknamed "the maths genius" at school.

Dylan Parry, 34, a volunteer at Westminster Cathedral who went to school with Mr Williams at Bodedern secondary in Anglesey, described him as an isolated child only interested in maths and computers.

He told the Standard how his friend travelled by train each week from his home in Anglesey to Bangor University aged just 16 to study for a mathematics degree part-time because he was so gifted. Mr Williams, a Welsh speaker, was raised in Holyhead by his father Ian, who worked at the local nuclear power plant, and mother Ellen. Aged 19, Mr Williams graduated from Bangor and in 2000 went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, to undertake a postgraduate certificate in maths but dropped out a year later after failing an exam. He then moved to Cheltenham, where he began his career at GCHQ.

Mr Parry said: "His death has been a huge shock for anyone who knew him. He was such a quiet young man. He came to secondary school a couple of years early because he was so good. He was the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level."

Mr Parry added: "It was clear he was going to go far, but we all assumed he would end up in academia. Finding out he became a spy was a shock."

Mr Parry said that his mother saw Mr Williams cycling in Anglesey two weeks ago and that "nothing seemed out of the ordinary".

He added that his friend was someone "people could easily take advantage of" and speculated that the murder was nothing to do with his work for MI6.

"Back then he wasn't the kind of person to have a girlfriend - or a boyfriend for that matter. He was very naive about people. I wouldn't have thought he was a very good judge of character and it's possible he got to know someone who wasn't very safe. He was so innocent."