Telegraph : Profile: Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy who led a secret double life

Profile: Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy who led a secret double life

Gareth Williams, the MI6 spy who was found dead in a bag in his bath, was a child prodigy.

By Victoria Ward and Matthew Holehouse | April 23, 2012

He took a maths GCSE at primary school and A-levels at 13, graduating with a first from Bangor University by the age of 17.

He went on to study advanced mathematics at Cambridge, eventually leaving because he felt he had learned all he could.

Williams grew up in Anglesey, north Wales. He was a quiet child from a tight-knit family, whose great passion was cycling.

Friends said that despite his extraordinary mathematical mind, he was "very naive about people". He was a loner, with few social contacts, even among his work colleagues. He struggled to make friends after being catapulted into the company of older people at an early age.

Dylan Parry, 34, from Anglesey, said he was an isolated child. "He never really made friends, either his own age or from those younger than him,” he said.

“He didn't have any of the normal childhood interests or pursuits of teenagers. His only real interest was maths. He was obsessed with his subject. Socially he was very awkward but very nice."

By the time he left Cambridge, Williams’ potential had already been spotted by GCHQ scouts.

In 2001, he took at job as a code expert at the GCHQ "doughnut" building in Cheltenham, working alongside hundreds of mathematicians, cryptologists and analysts going on to develop techniques to speed up data encryption.

For the first time, it is likely Williams felt challenged and comfortable in his surroundings, working with like-minded people in a top-secret environment that suited his personality.

His sparse bedsit was immaculate and devoid of personal belongings and clutter. His former landlady, Jenny Elliot, 71, said that “his life was his work”.

In 2003, Williams spent six months at Menwith Hill, the RAF station in Yorkshire and in 2006 he spent time at Fort Meade in Maryland, home of the United States’ National Security Agency, GCHQ’s partner in global surveillance.

He is also reported to have made a number of visits to Afghanistan.

Last year, he was seconded to the London headquarters of MI6, a sign of his steady progress up the hierarchy at GCHQ.

The 31-year-old was assigned to live at 36 Alderney Street, in Pimlico, central London, an MI6 safe house.

Williams died before he could take up his next post in the Cyber Security Operations Centre at GCHQ.

Three months after his death, police revealed he had been pursuing a double life. Unknown to his family he had been visiting bondage websites and drag clubs and owned a £15,000 collection of women's designer clothing.

He had also attended two six to eight week courses in fashion design for beginners at Central St Martin's College in London during evenings and weekends.

He is also known to have visited Barcode, a gay bar in Vauxhall. However police have been unable to visit any sexual partners of Mr Williams, either male or female.

His family said before the police announcement that they were "very, very angry" at "completely false" rumours about the nature of Mr Williams' private life.