This Is Gloucestershire : Dead spy 'had been learning a new identity'

Dead spy 'had been learning a new identity'

December 28, 2010

GCHQ spy Gareth Williams was training to take on a new identity eight months before he was found dead, it has emerged.

And a close friend has insisted the Cheltenham man was not gay after detectives suggested he 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, Mr 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."

And she said Dr Williams was a straight man who was looking for a girlfriend.

She said: "He was open with his family and, if he was gay and had any temptations, he would have spoken about them."

Dr Williams, 31, was on secondment at MI6 from GCHQ in Cheltenham when he was found dead in a padlocked holdall in his flat in London four months ago. He had worked in Cheltenham for 10 years and rented a flat in Bouncers Lane.

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

The death has sparked a frenzy of speculation after postmortem tests and a police inquiry failed to determine how he died.