Telegraph : Gareth Williams profile: the codebreaker with a secret double life

Gareth Williams profile: the codebreaker with a secret double life

Gareth Williams was the spy with the very secret double life - but not the one you might expect.

Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | May 2, 2012

When at work in one of the most sensitive secretive organisations, Gareth Williams was a maths genius carrying out "world class" work for the intelligence services.

But at home he had a penchant for womens' clothing, dancing naked in leather boots and visiting bondage websites.

Over the course of an eight day inquest in to his bizarre death an extraordinary picture of this seemingly unassuming, quiet man emerged.

A devoted son and brother, the 31-year-old codebreaker appeared to have a bright future ahead of him until his untimely and very strange demise.

But his death opened a door on a completely alternative lifestyle, no doubt to the shock and surprise of loved ones.

On the outside, to work colleagues he appeared a little introvert and not willing to join in the office camaraderie.

Having been seconded to MI6 in London from GCHQ he had asked, and been granted, an early return to Cheltenham because he disliked the city life because, in his sister Ceri Subbe’s words, he was really a “country boy”.

The job wasn’t what he had expected and he hated the “rat race, flash car competitions and post-work drinking culture”.

A keen cyclist and walker, he wanted to return to the freedom of the outdoors.

One colleague even suggested he wanted to the head back to GCHQ because people there were more on his technical level.

He didn’t appear to make, or want, many friends. His landlady in Cheltenham for 10 years said he never had anyone to the flat.

In London, one friend, Elizabeth Guthrie said she had never visited his home but he was happy to sit at hers watching DVDs rather than go out drinking.

Only too aware of the sensitivities of his job, he was a “scrupulous risk-assessor" and as meticulous as a “Swiss clock”.

He appeared to be a super intelligent prodigy who didn’t find it easy, or wanted, to fit in.

But he had another life, one that could not have contrasted more with his public image.

Police arriving at his flat found £20,000 worth of exclusive designer women's clothing and shoes, including Christian Laboutin, Christian Dior and Chloe.

It would have taken a substantial chunk of his annual salary of just under 40k.

Carol Kirton, who worked at upmarket west London fashion store Dover Street Market recalled how he was “different from other male customers”

She described him as “shy” but "on a mission to buy an item" when he came in.

Most of the clothes were untouched and it remains uncertain why he had them.

It may have been a genuine healthy interest as it also emerged he had completed two six week fashion courses St Martin’s College in London.

Perhaps he was planning for a life after spying and his friends insisted he was not gay or a transvestite.

But the deeper the police delved in to his life the stranger it became.

In 2007, his Cheltenham landlady Jennifer Ellliot discovered him tied to his own bedposts wearing only boxer shorts.

He insisted he was attempting some escapology – at 1.30am - but Mrs Elliot and her husband were convinced it was “sexual”.

Evidence of visits to bondage and fetish websites were also found on his phones and lap tops as well as images of high profile drag queens.

Some searches related to models in various forms of a “hogtie” – a bondage position often performed naked.

There was also a link to an article about a woman who was enclosed in plastic before having the air sucked out with a vacuum.

However, police said the searches only occurred during four separate periods over two years and described it as “sporadic research” rather than an active interest.

But they also found a homemade video showing Mr Williams naked except for black leather boots in which he “wiggles and girates” with his back to the camera was on one of his iPhones.

It remains unclear if Mr Williams spymasters knew any of his alternate lifestyle but one unnamed witness appeared to suggest even if they had it would not necessarily have stopped him being employed.

The senior MI6 manager SIS F said vetting processes focused on “trustworthiness, integrity and reliability” and that people can have “lifestyle choices” that are “perfectly legitimate”.

There was no question over Mr Williams’ talent.

Originally from Holyhead, north Wales, he gained a maths O-level aged 10, graduated from Bangor University at 17 before completing a PhD and post-graduate studies at Manchester and Cambridge Universities.

At GCHQ he was described as a prodigy who did “world class” work and at MI6 he was working alongside undercover operatives.

In 2009 he was part of team that won a national award for technical prowess and after his death he was given a posthumous one for significant achievement in crypt analysis

But he left the world in very unceremonious circumstances, naked in a sports bag in a bath and as the mystery over how he came to meet end continues the enigma that was Gareth Williams may never be unravelled.