Guardian : MI6 agent Gareth Williams was not gay, says friend

MI6 agent Gareth Williams was not gay, says friend

Sian Lloyd-Jones tells Mail on Sunday that codebreaker was preparing to take on new identity before his death

Press Association | December 26, 2010

MI6 agent Gareth Williams was preparing to take on a new identity eight months before he was found dead, it was reported today.

A close friend insisted the Williams was a straight man after detectives suggested the 31-year-old may have died at the hands of a mystery bondage sex partner he met on London's gay scene.

Sian Lloyd-Jones, 33, told the Mail on Sunday that before he died, Williams was studying for a new identity as he visited her central London flat.

She said: "He said he was learning his new identity. It was all so relaxed. He often came round with his work. That night he came over with his box file and started going through it. He had two passports."

She said Williams had been looking for a girlfriend. "He was open with his family, and if he was gay and had any temptations he would have spoken about them, especially to his sister," she said. "Hand on heart, there were no innuendos about him."

She added: "He cherished the time he had with his sister and with me, and he wanted that with other girls."

Police have said it would have been impossible for the dead man to lock himself in the holdall where his naked body was found.

They also say forensic evidence indicates other people were in Williams's Pimlico flat, but they have been unable to trace them.

Scotland Yard said it was impossible to say whether Williams was already dead when he was put in the bag or suffocated once zipped inside.

The spy also hoarded unworn women's designer clothes worth £15,000 in his wardrobe alongside several wigs.

Lloyd-Jones, who went to primary school with Williams before renewing their friendship four years ago, said the outfits were probably gifts for her or his sister Ceri.

"He bought me a high-end Balenciaga top, a Gucci bag, a Mulberry bag, an Armani fur. He did the same for his sister. "I truly believe that Ceri and I were going to receive the clothing. We received so many things from him, that wouldn't have been strange," she said.

Lloyd-Jones added that the wigs could have been for a fancy dress party in October, which he planned to attend as a Japanese superhero.

Williams, of Anglesey, north Wales, was found by police at his top-floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico, on 23 August.

Investigators believe he died in the early hours of Monday 16 August; he was last seen the previous day returning from a shopping trip to Harrods.

His decomposing body was in a large North Face holdall sealed by a travel-style Yale padlock through the zip fasteners. The keys were inside, under his body.

The mathematician worked as a cipher and codes expert for GCHQ, the government listening station, but had been on secondment to MI6.

Postmortem tests and a police inquiry failed to determine how he died. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said it would not be making any further comment on the investigation.

An inquest will be held at Westminster coroner's court on 15 February.