Manchester Evening News : Professor who helped death riddle spy get job at MI6

Professor who helped death riddle spy get job at MI6

Yakub Qureshi | August 28, 2010

The professor who helped death-riddle MI6 man Gareth Williams begin his intelligence career has told of his shock at the tragedy.

Gareth, whose body was found stuffed inside a bag at his flat, gained a PhD in computer game technology at Manchester University. Prof Terry Hewitt has described how he helped the ‘exceptional’ maths scholar secure his first job with the government’s codebreaking agency, GCHQ.

Prof Hewitt, who now works for Bangor University, told the MEN: “He came into my office one day and said ‘I’m going to GCHQ’. He had to tell me as I was his referee for his vetting. MI5 eventually got hold of me and examined me about him.

“He worked very well. He was clearly a very able student. He came to us at the age of 18 – four years younger than most postgraduate students.

“He was modelling how light reflects on surfaces. His knowledge of maths skills and computing techniques would make him attractive to them.”

His PhD thesis, entitled ‘Methods for Global Illumination Models’, examined how light and shade could be replicated in computer games.

The subject involved the study of complex mathematical calculations and advanced computer technology.

Prof Hewitt, a computer graphics expert who left Manchester in 2008, added that Mr Williams – whose mysterious death has sparked fears over possible security breaches – was friendly but ‘reserved’ with staff and fellow students.

He said: “Everything that was said about him was true, He was interested in cycling.

“He was very private and worked well on his own. He was certainly not a ‘geek’ but was reserved is the best description. I thing that reserve came about because he was so much younger than other students around him.

“I was shocked when I heard the news. He was an exceptionally gifted student and very talented.”

Mr Williams, originally from Anglesey, gained special permission to leave school for university aged just 15.

After completing his degree at Bangor University while still living with his parents, he moved to Manchester in 1997.

Mr Williams signed up for the Cheltenham-based GCHQ, which employs 5,000 people to intercept and break coded international communications, just after beginning a post-doctoral qualification at Cambridge, and dropping out of the course.

Officials have confirmed that he had been working for MI6 for the past year, following a secondment from GCHQ.

It is believed the intelligence worker lay dead for two weeks before being found, although there were no signs of forced entry to the flat.

Post-mortem tests have so far proved inconclusive.

The investigation has now turned to the intelligence worker’s private life.

Metropolitan Police have yet to describe the death as a murder, with one line of inquiry that the may have died as a result of a botched sex game.