This Is Gloucestershire : Claims about GCHQ spy 'are just a decoy'

Claims about GCHQ spy 'are just a decoy'

January 24, 2011

A FORMER tutor of murdered GCHQ spy Dr Gareth Williams has claimed allegations about his private life are a 'decoy', according to reports.

The 31-year-old's body was found in a padlocked bag in his London flat last year.

He had been on secondment with MI6 in London following 10 years working at GCHQ in Cheltenham, during which time he rented a room in Prestbury.

Media reports have linked Dr Williams with an interest in women's clothing after designer dresses were found in his wardrobe.

It has also been suggested the expert codebreaker was homosexual.

However, Cheryl Eastap, who taught Dr Williams at Central St Martin's College in London, told the Mail on Sunday the claims and leaked suggestions were 'hurtful'.

She said: "It was hurtful to his family and it was a decoy.

"I don't think he was gay or a crossdresser. Maybe he collected dresses."

Ms Eastap dismissed newspaper reports last week that Dr Williams might have locked himself in the North Face holdall as some kind of 'homework' for her course, which was exploring confined spaces.

A Scotland Yard spokesman declined to say if any leaked information had come from police, MI5 or MI6.

Wales Online : Allegations about dead spy’s private life ‘a decoy’

Allegations about dead spy’s private life ‘a decoy’

by Carys Jones, Western Mail | January 24, 2011

A FORMER tutor of MI6 spy Gareth Williams yesterday claimed allegations about his sexuality and his private life were leaked as a decoy.

The 31-year-old from Anglesey was found dead in a padlocked sports bag in his central London flat last August.

Cheryl Eastap, who taught the GCHQ code-breaker on a part-time clothing design course in London, said suggestions from anonymous police and security sources that he was gay and a cross-dresser may have been made to make his death appear to be an accident rather than something more sinister.

Around £15,000 worth of designer women’s clothing was also found at his home, but Ms Eastap told a Sunday newspaper he may well have collected the outfits as many other fashions students do.

She said: “The police should not have leaked all these things about him.

“It was hurtful to his family and it was a decoy.”

Although the tutor said it was quite normal for fashion students to collect such items, she said Williams had not needed them for her course.

Despite a high-profile investigation into Mr Williams’s death, no one has yet been arrested or questioned as a suspect.

An inquest is due to take place next month.