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.

Telegraph : MI6 spy Gareth Williams was a child prodigy whose private life was kept secret from closest friends and family

MI6 spy Gareth Williams was a child prodigy whose private life was kept secret from closest friends and family

By Victoria Ward | December 22, 2010

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

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. 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, his intensely private personality meaning that the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death are baffling detectives three months on.

Guardian : Who was Gareth Williams?

Who was Gareth Williams?

When the bagged body of an MI6 agent was found in a bathtub, speculation went into overdrive. Was it suicide? Murder? A professional hit, or a sexual game gone wrong?

Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy | November 20, 2010

Three months after his body was found in a holdall in the bath of his Pimlico flat, police still seem no closer to finding out what happened to Gareth Williams.

On Tuesday 24 August, a storm was brewing off the North Wales coast. As gusts reached 50mph in the village of Valley, on Anglesey, two sodden police officers stood at a front door on a close of modern bungalows above the beach. They knocked and knocked. Eventually someone ran out into the rain to tell them that Ellen and Ian Williams were away on holiday in the US. While detectives tried to locate the Williams abroad, someone found Ellen's father, John Hughes, who lived around the corner and broke the news: his 31-year-old grandson Gareth, a boy who had always been fit and healthy, was dead. Grandpa John was so distraught that he tripped, cut his head and had to be taken to hospital.

Then Gareth's uncle, William Hughes, who lived on a farm in nearby Trefor village, got the call. "Gareth couldn't be dead? Surely not?" Uncle William sat numbly with Gareth's 86-year-old great aunt before their open fire, staring at the porcelain figures on the mantelpiece. Gareth had been an exceptional boy, selected to work as some kind of analyst for GCHQ, the government's secret listening station in Cheltenham, but the family never talked about it. And neither did Gareth. He'd been home just three weeks earlier, recalled Hughes, cycling the lanes on his race bike before the whole family had got together. But his life was "now being lived a long way from the family in Anglesey," Hughes said, "so some things we couldn't know."

On 25 August, Ian and Ellen Williams touched down at Manchester airport and were met by police, who officially broke the news that two days earlier in London, a man believed to be their son had been found dead. The body had been found padlocked inside a sports bag in the flat where Gareth was staying. It could have been there for up to a fortnight. As they were escorted to the capital, to join their daughter Ceri, there were news reports everywhere: "British spy murdered." Apparently he had been "stabbed to death". According to stories, Gareth was a brain-box, a techie who "worked with codes", as far as they knew. Was he also a spy, they wondered?

For Ellen and Ian, Gareth's death was a horror story that "destroyed" them. For the rest of the world, it was a rare glimpse into the clandestine world of espionage. His death was compared to that of Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident killed by a poison-tipped umbrella in London 32 years before, and the 2006 murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko. Cold war details increased public fervour. The building in which the body was found was owned by a private company, registered offshore, called New Rodina. Rodina was Russian for "motherland". Did real spies read John Le Carré too?

In the midst of lurid speculation, Ian and Ellen Williams reached London. In normal circumstances, they would be required to make a physical identification. However, given the degree of decomposition, police would rely on family photos. Was Gareth murdered, his distraught family asked. Despite launching a major investigation – Operation Finlayson – Scotland Yard were finding it a hard question to answer. One major problem facing investigators was the length of time that the body had lain undiscovered. Another was that they were being blocked by the security services from probing too deeply into Williams's life. Detectives had no idea what Gareth Williams really did or who he was, and had been unable as yet to find anyone close to him. They needed the family's help.

Gareth's sister Ceri, a physiotherapist, and her husband Dr Chris Subbe, a senior registrar at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, told police they had seen Gareth in June, when he had taken them for tea at the Ritz in London to celebrate their second wedding anniversary. He'd been in the capital for more than six months, but couldn't say what he was doing.

The three spent that afternoon "laughing and joking", and afterwards continued to talk frequently by phone. Ceri last spoke to her brother on 11 August, after he returned from a short trip to the US. He now intended to "tidy things up", before returning to GCHQ in Cheltenham on 3 September.

Ceri's dates matched what police learned from Gareth's former landlady, Jenny Elliot, who had rented him a room in her house near Cheltenham for the 10 years he had worked for GCHQ, before transferring to London last year. Gareth had called her in August, asking if he could return. "Like we were going to say no," Elliot says. "He was about the best lodger you could ever have. I mean, you never heard a word from him. He had no TV, record player, or anything."

Ceri had called her brother again about a week later. No answer. She tried repeatedly, becoming worried. Gareth was like a Swiss watch. Now she contacted the police; the security services were already concerned, as Gareth had failed to show for work. On 23 August, at 6.30pm, a uniformed officer was sent to Williams's top-floor flat in a Georgian townhouse in Alderney Street, Pimlico. It was only a few hundred yards from the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall, and was used by the Secret Intelligence Service as a safe house. A lettings agent who held a spare key showed the policeman in. He was asked to wait downstairs as the officer went up and entered the curtained rooms. The place was "spotless": two iPhones, some sim cards and an Apple notebook sat on a table. Then he entered the bathroom, and found a holdall in the bathtub. Red liquid seeped from it. Inside was a body, in such a contorted position that he thought its "legs and arms had been cut off". Radioing for assistance, the policeman noted that there were no signs a struggle. This was not a robbery or home invasion. It was a "neat job", a euphemism for a professional kill.

Given his clearances and access to classified material, Williams's death triggered alarm across Whitehall. MI5 agents swept through the Alderney Street flat, followed by detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, assisted by SO15, Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command. Alderney Street was cordoned off as Home Office scientists began processing the scene. Once the spooks had departed, it was down to the murder squad to study the evidence. So far, they had a body in an "advanced state of decay". There was no weapon and no sign of forced entry or a struggle.

Concentrating on the holdall and its contents, detectives established that Williams had not been stabbed, shot or hacked to pieces. On August 25, Home Office pathologist Dr Ben Swift carried out a post-mortem that, together with the first batch of toxicological tests, came back "inconclusive". "If we don't know what to look for, and are not guided by what we see or smell on the body, we cannot find it," says a forensic scientist who worked on the Litvinenko case. "We do 50 obvious poisons. Fifty rare. We can do the isotopes. Litvinenko alerted us to that. But in the absence of a specific direction, the possibilities are as limitless as a killer's imagination… and we cannot test for that."

Detectives set out their theories. One reading of the crime scene pointed to a forensically aware hit man. Slender 5ft 7in Gareth had been stuffed inside the near-airtight red North Face sports bag and placed in the bath, containing any spillage and minimising odours, too. The heating was on, increasing the rate of decomposition, which significantly lessened the chances of retrieving evidence from the corpse.

Or perhaps the body in the bag was evidence of a stage-managed "personal event", masterminded by a controlling individual. Was this a suicide (with Williams acting on his own)? Or a sadistic or masochistic sexual act gone wrong (with Williams engaging in some kind of auto-erotic asphyxiation?). "If you can imagine it, then we are investigating it," a detective said in late August. But what would shape police inquiries was the dawning realisation that Gareth Williams had not been alone.

Returning to the holdall, studying the zips and lock, police became certain that he could not have locked himself inside. And there was further proof that someone else must have been in the flat with him: his front door had been locked from the outside.

Criminal psychologists studied the case. One, who spoke anonymously, thought his death might have been a masochistic ritual that had gone wrong: "For a retentive individual with an ever-green mind like Gareth Williams, always on duty and in control, the bag could have been a furtive release."

The Williams family was adamant that the Gareth they knew would not have behaved this way. And, for now, the family was all the police had, since they had found no close friends or lovers. Another pressing problem with their theories was that detectives had failed to turn up any other suspects or accomplices.

Police, pathologists and forensic investigators agreed on one thing only. They would have to focus on the 12 days between the last call Gareth made to Ceri and the discovery of his body on 23 August. Pulling mobile phone records and credit card transactions, scouring hours of CCTV footage, the Operation Finlayson team dug deep, as ever more lurid stories circulated.

"Murdered MI6 worker Gareth Williams was a secret transvestite who may have been killed by a gay lover, detectives said yesterday… Cops found women's clothing that would fit him at his Pimlico flat in central London." The Sun ran with this version of events, while other newspapers, quoting similar unnamed sources, reported that cocaine had been found, a cache of gay pornography, a small armoury of S&M paraphernalia. Williams was also said to have frequently paid for male escorts.

Senior detectives angrily rebutted the stories. Uncle William in Anglesey thought they read like a concerted smear, and wondered why anyone would want to destroy Gareth's reputation after he was dead.

Like most well-constructed character assassinations, however, this one was founded on a grain of fact that made it that much harder to quash. Detectives had been quietly investigating whether Gareth Williams was gay. They had canvassed witnesses in the Vauxhall Cross village of gay clubs and bars, a short walk from Alderney Street. They had also studied Williams's computers and reading matter, his journals, magazines and computer cache. Despite outright denials from his family, detectives were privately certain that Gareth was gay, although they had been unable to find trace of any sexual encounters. They had also come to believe that his sexual orientation was not central to the inquiry (although his sexual preferences might be). There was no evidence of Williams paying for escorts, buying S&M equipment, using porn or drugs of any kind. "This man didn't really even drink," one frustrated detective said.

The police felt they were being hurried along by other parties, keen for the scandal to go away. "Someone, somewhere, who has access to case material, is saying, 'He's queer and asked for it', rather than waiting for the outcome of the case," one veteran detective said.

In North Wales, the family lit their fires, closed their curtains and privately pondered if anyone had ever understood the real Gareth.

At Ysgol Gynradd Morswyn, Gareth's primary school, a short hop between Valley and Holyhead, head teacher Islwyn Williams remembers him as an exceptional pupil. At five, Gareth made a beeline for the school computer and never left it. While most of his classmates were still playing with Lego, Gareth had a GCSE in maths. At the age of 10, he went to secondary school, gaining A grades in A-level maths and computer science at 13. The school contacted Bangor University, which accepted him as a part-time student on a maths degree course. "He was the best logician… with the fastest brain I have ever met," said Geraint Williams, his maths teacher.

Fellow pupils remember Gareth as a loner. Dylan Parry, 34, thought him "isolated" by his intellect. His abilities shut him off from everyone else. He was naive. Parry believed someone "could easily take advantage of him". He recalled Gareth travelling by train each week to university, while still living at home with Ian and Ellen. Too clever for school. Too young for university.

The family downplay his isolation. They point to their closeness and his sporting prowess. By the time he was 17, Gareth had followed his father into competitive cycling. Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, with whom Ian and Gareth rode, says: "He was a really lovely young man, but wasn't a great conversationalist. Gareth wasn't the sort to go to the pub after a race."

In 1997, aged 18, Gareth left home to begin a PhD at Manchester University, acquiring an advanced level of learning that sat uneasily with his elementary life skills, although his academic mentor, professor Terry Hewitt, believed he could take it: "He was very private and worked well on his own. He was certainly not a 'geek' even if he was reserved." His dissertation focused on computer games. They had always been a private passion, with him achieving an online reputation as unbeatable. Three years on, aged 21, Gareth was approached by the British security services, who the university believes had spotted his precocious online gaming abilities. Hewitt recalled: "In 2000, Gareth came into my office and said, 'I'm going to GCHQ'. He had to tell me, as I was his referee for his vetting." Gareth left Manchester and Anglesey behind to sign the Official Secrets Act.

Williams began an advanced maths course at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but withdrew the following year, torn between academia and the demands of his new employer. At GCHQ, he was seen as stable, reliable and potentially brilliant, according to a contractor who worked there at the time. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he recalled that GCHQ was a world in which Gareth fitted, working alone, or in small teams, waist-deep in mathematical problems, challenged by cutting-edge technology and real-time problems. Possibly for the first time, he was part of a community of similarly focused individuals who were taken on for their discretion as well as for their brains, intercepting, monitoring and analysing email and telephone calls from around the world. He did feel the pressure, constantly, according to the contractor, who noted that at GCHQ many technicians were as clever or cleverer than Williams.

Work became his life. There was little time for much outside it, something evidenced by how he chose to live, renting a modest room in the Prestbury area of the town. Inside was a single, child-sized bed, a small chest of drawers, three upright wooden chairs and a gas heater – all furnished by Jenny Elliot. Over the decade he spent there, Williams introduced no luxuries, accumulated no clutter. He brought no one back. He rarely even went out after work, excepting an occasional "drink with colleagues". He worked late into the night and rose early. There was something oppressively austere about him, those colleagues thought, something they used to call his "GDR sensibility". So serious and quiet was he that when he did become animated, he "alarmed people with his unusual laugh".

Due to the nature of his work, it is hard for those who met Gareth to describe what he did, and those who talked to us did so having already left GCHQ. But all agreed that, although very capable, Williams was "a middle-ranking" technician "asserting himself in a number of sensitive areas, any one of which could theoretically have brought him into contact with enemies of our state". While GCHQ gathers intelligence from Europe, Africa and Russia, its partners in the US National Security Agency (NSA) also had access to British and European signals traffic at Menwith Hill, a top-secret RAF base near Harrogate, in Yorkshire.

When Williams arrived at Menwith, shortly after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, GCHQ and the NSA were increasingly focused on the threat of Islamist violence at home and abroad. "Between the UK and the US, we were deluged by the chatter from radicals here and over the Atlantic as they talked on landlines, satellite or mobile phones – with contacts in hot countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as with Saudi, and hubs like Dubai," one former GCHQ security consultant said. "A group around Williams worked on software to assemble, search and analyse the data, drawing out patterns and meanings."

Williams's elevation within GCHQ came with the "Liquid Bomb" plot, where a group of British radicals of Asian origin were found to be planning to detonate home-made explosives on board seven flights to major north American cities. Intercepting emails and phone calls between these plotters and their contacts abroad, Williams flew between the UK and the US, working at Fort Meade (the NSA HQ, in Baltimore).

Williams was brought into close proximity to US intelligence, Islamic radicals and Middle Eastern agents. He would rub shoulders with the Russians, too, according to a foreign intelligence analyst based in the UK, who described how technology and software honed by GCHQ was deployed in tracking a Moscow-backed sleeper cell to which Britain had been alerted as early as 2003. The case blew up in June 2010 when 10 people were arrested in the US and accused of being part of an espionage ring. One of them, a glamorous 28-year-old called Anna Chapman, had lived for five years in the UK. According to the former GCHQ contractor, "Williams had been obsessed by the case, its methodology and characters."

He was now on secondment to MI6, with its focus on foreign targets and intelligence-gathering, becoming more of a spy than a desk-bound technician, although Williams would shortly be called back to GCHQ to work on a new and ambitious project.

He had been liaising again with counterparts at the NSA, who were part of an effort to create an American cyber defence policy, to prevent the siphoning off of secret or commercially sensitive data or a military style assault on defence or civil systems. Its importance was alluded to last month in a speech by home secretary Theresa May, in which she identified cyber crime as among the pre-eminent future threats facing the UK. A cyber crimes specialist who knew Williams revealed that at the time of his death he was researching British vulnerability to Russian, Turkish and Chinese gangs: "He was already on top of it."

Rogue individuals and nation states, Islamist terror groups and radical loners, extortionists and organised criminals – these were just some of those Williams had observed, investigated, disrupted and provoked. Any one of them was capable of reciprocating, lethally.

Back at the Yard, Operation Finlayson detectives were looking at a vast range of potential threats, but still had few clues, no accomplices or even a plausible denouement for a man whose personal and professional inclinations were to camouflage everything he did.

By September, an exhaustive trawl had come up with some CCTV footage. In the frames released to the public, Gareth Williams saunters by Holland Park tube station in west London at 3pm on 14 August, three days after he had last spoken to his sister.

Staff at the nearby Valerie's Patisserie said that in the week before, a man fitting Gareth's description had spent several hours in the cafe on consecutive days, sitting at the rear with a laptop, receiving occasional visitors. One security source said that he believed Williams was "working" in west London – monitoring one of the many foreign embassies in the area – just as he had been "working" while on his recent "holiday" to the US.

Police released footage of Williams on 15 August, too. At 2pm, he was filmed at a cash machine, visiting Harrods, walking at 2.30pm via Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge towards Sloane Street. Soon after he vanished.

By the end of September, after a second barrage of toxicology tests proved inconclusive, Gareth Williams's body was released and laid to rest in North Wales. On 26 September, the extended Williams clan gathered outside the Bethel chapel in Holyhead to bid farewell. Given the florid rumours that had circulated around his death, they were surprised by the appearance there of Sir John Sawers, head of MI6. Williams had been with his service for less than a year, yet Sawyers told reporters, "I wanted to be here today as the only public face of the Secret Intelligence Service. My deepest sympathies go to the family. Gareth was a hugely talented person, and he was very modest and generous as well. He did really valuable work with us in the cause of national security."

What a difference 30 days make. After an investigation that had failed to turn up the smallest vice, Williams was no longer lampooned but celebrated as a very British spy: modest, capable and known well by no one.

As they buried Gareth, Dr Chris Subbe, speaking for his wife Ceri and the family, recalled how they had laughed and chatted with him at the Ritz, celebrating their marriage and his brilliant career. "The world was ours for the taking," he said. "Yet here I am three months later to the day, trying to describe your rich life with my poor words."

The Australian : Murdered spy more James Bondage than James Bond

Murdered spy more James Bondage than James Bond

From: The Times | August 28, 2010

POLICE investigating the murder of a British spy found bondage equipment in his flat and evidence linking him to a male escort, The Times has learnt.

The find has raised questions over how Gareth Williams's private life slipped through the vetting procedures of the security services.

Senior security personnel are said to be "extremely concerned" that an employee with high clearance had a lifestyle that put him in danger of being compromised.

A source close to the investigation said evidence discovered in the London flat included bondage items, porn films and paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism. It is also understood Mr Williams, who was on secondment to MI6 from GCHQ, the British government's top-secret listening post at Cheltenham, has been linked to a male escort.

Detectives have focused their investigations on the private life of Mr Williams, 30, since he was found on Monday murdered and stuffed into a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, a short walk from MI6 headquarters in London.

It also emerged that Mr Williams travelled regularly to Washington DC on official business, raising further concerns about potential national security breaches because of the information to which he had access.

The national security agency refused to confirm or deny yesterday that Mr Williams, who is believed to have been an expert in codes, had worked for it.

The initial post-mortem examination has proved inconclusive and several tests, thought to include toxicology tests, are now being conducted.

The picture of Mr Williams that has emerged is that of a genius who led a solitary existence. Friends described him as athletic, kind and intelligent, but extremely private. Dylan Parry, a school friend, described him as academically gifted but socially naive, an isolated child fascinated by mathematics and computers. He was "the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level".

A former maths teacher said Mr Williams had "definitely the best brain" he had known. "It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ."

Online tributes mainly referred to his shy and quiet nature. One fellow Cambridge student said: "He seemed a shy and quiet chap, but had a peculiarly memorable laugh and smile that are haunting me somewhat today. I knew that Gareth had gone on to work at Cheltenham but would never have imagined his life culminating in this."

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at 17. "We were clubmates, but Gareth wasn't the sort to go the pub after a race so he didn't have any close friends in the group. I never spoke to him about his job or his private life."

Telegraph : Family of dead spy in tribute to 'loving son'

Family of dead spy in tribute to 'loving son'

By Nick Collins | August 28, 2010

The family of Gareth Williams, the British spy found murdered this week, paid tribute to their ''generous, loving son, brother, and friend'' as police investigated whether the GCHQ codes expert had been living a secret double life.

The message came as detectives revealed that the last reported sighting of the 30-year-old was on Sunday, August 15 - eight days before his decomposing body was found at his London home.

His family said: ''Gareth was a generous, loving son, brother, and friend, and he was a very private person. He was a great athlete, and loved cycling and music.

''His loss has devastated us and we would ask that anyone with information to come forward and assist the police inquiry.''

The mathematician, who was on secondment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in the bath of his Government flat on Monday.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that Mr Williams was in London from Wednesday August 11, and what officers believe is the last confirmed sighting of him still alive in London was on Sunday August 15."

Investigators have begun examining his private life amid claims linking him to a male escort and suggestions that bondage equipment had been found at his home.

In the statement released by police, Mr Williams' family said the "speculation" had been "very distressing".

Sources close to the investigation have rejected the claims.

Relative William Hughes, 62, a councillor on Anglesey, insisted there was no evidence the allegations are correct.

Mr Hughes, a cousin of Mr Williams' mother, Ellen, said: "I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all.

"They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

"They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. I don't see any evidence of it.

"It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business."

Mr Hughes said it was possible the Government, or another agency, might be attempting to discredit Mr Williams.

Police turned their focus to Mr Williams' private life after colleagues discovered his body and raised the alarm.

He was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, in Vauxhall, London.

He was due to return to a rented flat in Cheltenham where Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, is based.

It is understood Mr Williams also worked for the United States National Security Agency and made regular trips to Washington DC and Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

The mystery over his final hours deepened after a post-mortem examination failed to identify a cause of death.

Further tests will determine if the cycling fanatic was asphyxiated or poisoned, as well as if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

A pathologist found Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police have refused to categorise the death as a murder despite the bizarre circumstances, and say he may have died innocently.

They were considering whether he became the victim of a sex game that went wrong.

Officers suspect he may have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat in smart Alderney Street, Pimlico.

But questions remain over why his body was not discovered earlier.

Friends described Mr Williams as an extremely bright, quiet and determined man who did not discuss his private life.

Childhood friend Dylan Parry, 34, said he was academically gifted but socially naive and could be easily-led.

Daily Mail : Riddle of murder spy's money trail: Why, for three days in a row, was £2,000 paid into his account and then taken out?

Riddle of murder spy's money trail: Why, for three days in a row, was £2,000 paid into his account and then taken out?

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews, Tom Kelly and James Tozer | August 28, 2010

Thousands of pounds mysteriously moved through the bank account of murdered MI6 spy Gareth Williams in the fortnight before his death.

Police sources say they are investigating three sums of £2,000 paid into his account on consecutive days, then withdrawn on consecutive days with the last transaction happening on the eve of his killing.

It is understood to have been established that the sums did not come from his £42,000 salary, and officers are trying to discover who supplied the money and why.

One theory being explored is that the movement of cash could indicate 31-year-old Mr Williams was a victim of blackmail and had transferred money from a savings account into his current account before using it to pay off his tormentor.

Another possibility is that he could have been selling information and was paid the money before transferring it into another account or passing it on to another informant.

There could also be a perfectly innocent explanation, with perhaps a friend or relative repaying the cipher and codes specialist for a loan and him putting the money in a different account.

It is understood that an internal row has broken out between the police and both the intelligence and security services, with ‘spooks’ effectively being accused of sabotaging the police operation.

A source claimed detectives have been ‘blocked’ from interviewing several potentially crucial witnesses.

Mr Williams’s ‘best friend’, a female colleague at the Government’s listening post, was posted to work for an intelligence agency linked to Pentagon in the U.S. five weeks ago.

The 25-year-old woman and her husband, who also knew Mr Williams, both worked at GCHQ in Cheltenham and were ‘suddenly’ transferred to Denver, Colorado, on secret duties.

Murder squad detectives are keen to speak to her in case she can offer any clues to why someone would want Mr Williams dead.

But they were informed this week by the security services that she was ‘unavailable’ for interview.

A second key security services witness, so far unnamed, who also knew Mr Williams, has also been put ‘off limits’ to the frustrated detectives.

The body of Mr Williams, a loner who loved cycling, was found stuffed in a sports bag in the bath at his £400,000 apartment half a mile from MI6 headquarters in London by officers on Monday afternoon.

He had been on secondment to MI6 for a year but was due to return next week to his position at the government listening post, GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

The Daily Mail revealed yesterday that he had flown to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon’s listening post nicknamed the ‘Puzzle Palace’, up to four times a year and returned from his last U.S. trip only weeks before his murder.

Investigators are awaiting the results of toxicology tests to discover if poison, drugs, alcohol or suffocation caused his death.

There are no outward signs of violence and Scotland Yard continues to describe his death as ‘suspicious and unexplained’.

One police source said: ‘There is near mutiny among the team.

‘The investigation is in complete disarray because most of the team thinks there should be a public appeal to garner potentially crucial information about Gareth Williams’s movements.

‘But they are being told "No", without any explanation or debate. It is assumed that it’s an order from on high.’

A second source added: ‘It is absolutely bizarre because SO15 (Counter Terror Command) are not conducting the inquiry – it is being handled by homicide command.

’It’s very strange but it explains why the spooks are blocking them. Officers in SO15 are security vetted but the homicide detectives are not.

‘The security services are not going to want to trust them with top-secret information. ‘They would only trust the SO15 officers. This guy may only have been a cipher but he clearly had access to secret material, and they won’t want ordinary police officers tramping all over it.’

Questions are now being asked over why the inquiry was given to murder squad detectives in the first place, rather than security-vetted counter terror officers.

One theory was that this was specifically demanded by the security services. The source added: ‘It’s clearly a big cover up, for whatever reason. The security services obviously don’t want the police to pry too deeply into this one.

‘So by insisting the inquiry is carried out by ordinary officers, who don’t have security clearance, they have an excuse to block them from access to sensitive information and key witnesses.

‘It makes it easier for the whole thing to be swept under the carpet. Why, we can only guess at.’ Publicly, the Metropolitan Police said the notion of any dispute was ‘absolute rubbish’ and said that ‘organised and well established procedures are in place to ensure collaborative and supportive working’.

Family's disgust at slurs about his private life

The family of Gareth Williams are ‘furious’ at lurid allegations circulating about his lifestyle and fear they could be a government smear campaign to discredit him and divert attention from the security services.

His uncle William Hughes, said the spy’s parents Ian and Ellen were ‘very, very upset about these untruths’.

Speculation has been rife that the spy was a transvestite who was murdered by a gay lover or killed in a sex game gone wrong.

The lurid reports were made in a series of newspapers but police chose not to issue a denial until last night.

Only after staying silent on the claims for three days did Scotland Yard finally state that there was no truth in reports of a link to a male escort and said that no bondage equipment or gay paraphernalia had been found at the London apartment where he was found dead.

Mr Hughes, who lives near Mr Williams’s parents in Anglesey, North Wales, said: ‘Someone, somewhere is trying to discredit Gareth with these untrue claims about his private life.

‘The family are concerned that it may be part of an attempt to put false and unkind personal details about Gareth’s private life into the public domain to diminish him and take attention away from the security services he worked so loyally for.

‘They are very, very angry. It is completely false. The lad had been away from home for a long time - we did not know much about his private life but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay. It’s not the picture they have of their son.’

Mr and Mrs Williams are being supported by their daughter Ceri at the family home in Valley, Anglesey.

Mr Hughes, 62, said: ‘I have spoken to Gareth’s parents and they are not doing well at all. They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

‘They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business.

‘When you have these rumours in the papers, it is most distressing. It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories.’

The spy’s former landlady, who for ten years rented a self-contained flat to him in the annexe of her home in Cheltenham, said he never brought anyone, male or female, back in the time he lived there.

Jenny Elliott said: ‘I would do his washing and hang it out to dry. I never noticed anything funny like that. He never came across as gay. Any time I went into his flat I never noticed anything untoward. I would even fold up his washing and put it into drawers.’

Friends too said there was no suggestion he could be gay. One schoolfriend, Dylan Parry, said: ‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual. He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.’

Daily Mail : Parents of murdered British spy hit back at 'government's gay smear' campaign to discredit him

Parents of murdered British spy hit back at 'government's gay smear' campaign to discredit him

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews and Liz Hull | August 27, 2010

The family of murdered British spy Gareth Williams today accused the government of running a 'dirty tricks' campaign to blacken his name.'

William Hughes, the codebreaker's uncle, said Mr Williams' parents Ellen and Ian were 'furious' at suggestions their son has been labelled as gay and a cross dresser.

'It is completely false,' Mr Hughes, 62, who yesterday visited the Williams's family home in Holyhead, North Wales.

'They are very, very angry,' he told the London Evening Standard.

'The lad had been away from home for a long time — we did not know much about his private life, but it has never crossed any of our minds that he could be gay.

'It's not the picture they have of their son.

'Maybe it's the Government or somebody trying to discredit him.'

The mathematics genius, who was on secondment to MI6, was found dead in a sports holdall in the bath of his Government flat on Monday.

Scotland Yard detectives continued to investigate whether GCHQ codes expert the 31-year-old lived a secretive double life.

Police sources believe one theory is the spy's killer may have planted a trail of clues to make it seem as though he was murdered by a gay lover.

They said gay magazines and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near the agent's body.

The latest reports on Mr Williams include claims that bondage gear and equipment associated with sado-masochism had been discovered in the flat he used in Pimlico, London, while it has also been claimed he had links to a male escort.

Mr Williams lived alone and did not have a partner.

But people who knew the cycling enthusiast said he never gave any indication of being homosexual and a former landlord, who rented a flat to him for ten years, never saw him bring anyone – male or female – back to his home.

Sources close to the inquiry have dismissed some of the allegations, which raises questions over who was behind them - and why they were made.

Mr Hughes, a cousin of Mr Williams's mother, Ellen, said: 'I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all.

'They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

'They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths. I don't see any evidence of it.

'It never crossed my mind that Gareth was that sort of person. He left home at a young age and what happened in his private life was his business,' he said.

'When you have these rumours in the papers, it is most distressing.

'It is heartbreaking that he has died so young and his family have enough on their plate without having to read these stories.'

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: 'There is no question of there being a government dirty tricks campaign; we are as concerned as the family to establish the facts of Gareth's death.

'But the police investigation is now underway and we must await its outcome.'

The family criticisms comes as CIA agents began examining details of Mr Williams's work and private life in the US to establish if there could be a link to his death — or a threat to national security.

The Daily Mail can reveal Mr Williams flew to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world, up to four times a year.

Mr Williams, who worked for the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham but was on secondment to MI6 in London, returned from his last trip to America only a few weeks before he was found dead.

Questions also remain over why his body lay undiscovered for up to a fortnight at his £400,000 flat in a Victorian townhouse in central London, half a mile from MI6 headquarters.

The body of the keen cyclist was found in a sports holdall in the bath on Monday afternoon.

But yesterday his former landlady in Cheltenham insisted he had not been off work, intensifying the mystery surrounding his death.

Security sources could not explain why some one holding such a sensitive post was able to go 'missing' for such a long time before police were called.

Officers were last night examining the hard drive of a laptop computer found in the flat.

Landlady Jenny Elliott said: 'He definitely wasn't on annual leave as the security services woman who came to see me after they found his body told me that he wasn't on holiday.

'Why did no one notice? It's disgraceful the police weren't alerted earlier that he was missing. His murder is devastating and I just hope the person who did it is caught.

Mrs Elliott, 71, who rented Mr Williams a self-contained flat attached to her home in Cheltenham, said he would often travel to America for weeks at a time three or four times a year either with a male colleague or on his own.

His uncle, Mr Hughes, who lives in Anglesey, North Wales where Mr Williams grew up, said: 'He'd been making the trips for a couple of years.

'I only found this out very recently and I do not know where in America he was staying or who he was working for out there, but I do know it was in relation to his job.

'His last trip was this summer. He returned from the States just a couple of weeks or so before he died.'

A U.S. intelligence source said there was 'no panic' yet within the National Security Agency and people who knew Mr Williams were still to be questioned.

The source said: 'The strong implication is that his death is not connected to his intelligence work, though this could change at any time. They are understandably concerned about what has happened and are keeping a close eye on developments.'

Police are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests which could shed light on how he died.

Police have also asked a pathologist to check whether Mr Williams's neck was broken, which would suggest a professional hit, the sources said

A postmortem examination proved inconclusive and now they must wait for toxicology results to find out whether drugs, alcohol, poisoning or suffocation were the cause of death.

Sources say he was not stabbed, shot, strangled or beaten. Scotland Yard is describing the death as 'suspicious and unexplained'.

A former MI6 officer said that intelligence chiefs are furious that details of Mr Williams's work as a spy had been leaked.

Harry Ferguson said senior officials at the Secret Intelligence Service wanted to suppress any information about his work and to simply refer to him as a 'civil servant' when news of the murder was made public.

'They hoped details of his role could all be kept covered up. It is a standard process. Blurting it out has caused a lot of unnecessary embarrassment, risk and upheaval to the SIS.

'If it had been managed properly it could have been kept quiet. He could simply have been described as a government worker or civil servant.

'They are especially frustrated that it has emerged that not only was he was working in GCHQ, but also on secondment to MI6.'

Mr Ferguson said secret service bosses feared that the 'nightmare scenario' had come true when the body was discovered.

'One of the concerns about having such a high profile building as the SIS does is that, while staff can be protected when inside the building, there a significant risk that they could be followed home,' he said.

'It is the sort of thing that a small group of Islamists or other terror network would clearly be capable of doing.'

He said the apparent 'ritualistic' scene at Mr Williams' flat, with his mobile phone and SIM cards carefully laid out, also suggested it could have been carried out by a foreign agency to send a message.

The reclusive maths genius and rumours of cross-dressing and blackmail

From a tender age, it was clear to his teachers at Morswyn primary school on Anglesey that there was something special about Gareth Williams.

A talented pupil, he was fast-tracked through education, earning his maths GCSE aged nine while most of his contemporaries were still grappling with basic arithmetic.

By 13 he had secured his A-levels and had a degree in maths by 17.

He was known as ‘the maths genius’ by fellow pupils and possessed the ‘fastest brain’ his teachers had encountered. But his academic excellence came at a price.

Forced to study with children several years older than himself, he found it hard to make friends and was last night described by former school mates as ‘socially naive’ and ‘introverted’.

Detectives were last night investigating whether this shy, private side to his nature made him vulnerable to blackmail amid lurid claims that he was a secret cross-dresser.

Geraint Williams, his maths teacher at secondary school, recalled how young Gareth was so clever that he sat his intermediate maths GCSE, gaining a grade B, while still at primary school, before being moved up to Bodedern Secondary School, Holyhead, a year ahead of his peers.

Within months of his arrival he took his advanced GCSE, scoring an A grade, and received top marks in A-level maths and computer studies two years later, when he was 13.

His teachers were initially at a loss at how best to educate him.Their solution was to move him up two years and enrol the youngster, then aged 15, on a three-year maths degree course at his local university at Bangor, which he attained in just two years with first class honours.

Teacher Mr Williams said: ‘I’d heard about this amazing pupil who had done his GCSE at primary school and got a B at intermediate level.

‘He took the higher level GCSE in a couple of months and got an A. It was a problem for us – what could we do with him? We got him to follow A-levels and he did A-level maths and computer science in the third-form. He achieved As in them.

‘That was a big problem because he was still only 13, so we contacted Bangor University and he followed the first year of maths degree course.’

The teacher added: ‘He was the best logician and the pupil with the fastest brain I have ever met. You only had to say things once, that’s why he was so successful. He could understand things immediately. He was also extremely good with computer science.

‘Gareth was also a very nice lad, quiet and unassuming. It’s very sad.’

After leaving Bangor University at 17, Mr Williams went on to study for a PhD at Manchester University before enrolling in postgraduate certificate at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2000.

He dropped out a year later, but last night friends speculated that he left after being taken on by the Secret Services, which traditionally recruit from Oxbridge.

They said it was an open secret that Mr Williams worked at GCHQ, but added that any notion that the quiet, unassuming boy lead a James Bond spy lifestyle was laughable.

One close friend, who attended primary school with Mr Williams, said: ‘Gareth was a super, super brain. Beyond intelligent, a very, very clever guy.

‘He was hand-picked while at Cambridge by the services, they want the cream of the crop and he certainly was that.

‘It was common knowledge that he worked at GCHQ, but any notion that he led a James Bond style lifestyle is rubbish.

‘Those kind of people have to be able to blend in, but Gareth wasn’t like that, he was very different.

‘He was introverted and found it difficult to make friends, but he was a lovely, lovely bloke. It is such a tragic waste of such a talented life.’

The dead man’s parents, Ian, an engineer at Wylfa power station, and mother Ellen, who worked in education, were on holiday in America celebrating their joint 50th birthdays when news of their son’s death broke.Last night they were said to be ‘devastated’.

Another former school friend, Dylan Parry, 34, said he was ‘dumfounded’ by the murder.

‘Gareth was the last person I would have believed would be involved in the murkier elements of life,’ said Mr Parry, of Holyhead. ‘He really was about as far from a James Bond figure as it’s possible to imagine.

‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual.‘

He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.

‘We nicknamed him the maths genius because he was so clever. He was so naive, he was someone people could easily take advantage of.

‘I wouldn’t have thought he was a very good judge of character and it’s possible he got to know someone who wasn’t very safe. He was so innocent.’

Wales Online : Police believe spy knew his killer

Police believe spy knew his killer

Western Mail | August 27, 2010

THE family of a Welsh spy, whose murder at his London flat remains shrouded in mystery, hit out last night at allegations about his private life.

Detectives investigating the murder of 30-year-old Gareth Williams were picking over details of his life last night for clues that could identify his killer.

The code expert’s decomposing body was found stuffed into a bag in the bath of his government flat.

He was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of MI6 from his job at national “listening post” GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Further tests were taking place to determine how the cycling and fitness fanatic met his death after a post-mortem examination was inconclusive.

A pathologist found Mr Williams had not been stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police are refusing to categorise the case as a murder inquiry, despite the bizarre circumstances, as they insist he may have died innocently.

One line of inquiry is reportedly that he is the victim of a sex game that went wrong and questions remain over why he was not discovered sooner.

Police believe Mr Williams’ body could have lain undiscovered for up to a fortnight and it is thought he was on holiday at the time of his death.

They believe the key to the case could lie in his private life.

But his uncle, William Hughes, said suggestions reported in London newspapers that the GCHQ and MI6 officer was gay and a transvestite had deeply upset his parents, Ian and Elen, from Valley on Anglesey.

The couple were still too upset to speak of their son’s death yesterday.

But 62-year-old Mr Hughes said: “They’re devastated. That is the worst part of it [the allegations about his private life].

“Terrible accusations have been made and there’s no truth whatsoever in them. They just need to be left alone and given space.”

Mr Hughes said Mr Williams’ parents remained in the dark as to whether his death was linked to his security services work or his personal life. Mr Williams has been described as an extremely private person.

Investigators suspect he might have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat in smart Alderney Street, Pimlico.

Police have begun examining his mobile phone and financial records as well as CCTV cameras from streets and businesses surrounding his home.

His home has been the subject of a fingertip search amid fears that top-secret work material could have gone missing.

Mr Williams’ parents travelled to London with his sister Ceri, who lives near Wrexham, yesterday to speak to police and formally identify his body.

Mr Hughes said they were deeply shocked and flew back from a holiday in North America after learning of his death.

He said: “The last time I saw Gareth was just a few months ago at a family party and he was fine.

“He was always a quiet person, he was from a young age. But this is a close family and we all see each other quite regularly at family occasions.”

He said he never knew Mr Williams to bring home a girlfriend or a partner, describing him as a “very, very private person”.

“It’s a long way from Anglesey to Cheltenham and London. When he came home, he brought his bicycle. He enjoyed cycling around the island,” he said.

“I knew he worked at GCHQ and he had been working in London but I didn’t know what he did. It wasn’t said that we shouldn’t talk about it, I simply never asked and he never told me.

“He was a bright boy from a young age and his parents were very proud of him.”

Officers broke down the door of Mr Williams’ home on Monday afternoon when attempts by government officials to locate him via his former landlady failed.

Investigators from the Metropolitan Police’s homicide and serious crime command labelled the death as “suspicious and unexplained”.

Former landlady Jenny Elliott said the victim lived in a flat attached to her Cheltenham property for 10 years and was preparing to return on September 3.

“He phoned me a few weeks ago to say he was coming back,” she said.

She described him as “a lovely guy, very friendly, very well-mannered and polite and no trouble at all”.

She added: “He was often away. He went to America to work a lot and often combined it with holiday because he hated flying.”

Mr Williams’ London neighbours described him as “extremely friendly”, athletic and a keen cyclist.

He joined Cambridge University’s St Catharine’s College to undertake a postgraduate certificate in mathematics in 2000, but dropped out a year later.

Sources close to the inquiry said it was not clear how he died and played down speculation that the murder was linked to his secretive line of work.

One source said: “The suggestion there is terrorism or national security links to this case is pretty low down the list of probabilities.”

The Alderney Street flat is about half-a-mile from the riverside headquarters of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service.

A childhood friend of Mr Williams described him as academically gifted but socially naive.

Dylan Parry, 34, said the GCHQ codes and cyphers expert was an isolated child fascinated by mathematics and computers.

Mr Parry, a volunteer at Westminster Cathedral, went to school with Mr Williams at Uwchradd Bodedern secondary.

He said Mr Williams travelled to Bangor University every week aged 16 to study for a mathematics degree part time. He graduated with a first class mathematics degree from Bangor aged 19.

He said: “It was clear he was going to go far, but we all assumed he would end up in academia.

“Finding out he became a spy was a shock.”

He graduated with a first class mathematics degree from Bangor University aged 19.

He continued his studies with an elite course at St Catharine’s College but dropped out.

The university is one of the traditional hunting grounds for recruiters looking for bright young things to join the intelligence community.

Ronald Jones, 86, who lives with his wife Eileen, a few doors away from the Williams family on Anglesey, said: “The whole family keep to themselves very much.

“We’ve never had a discussion with them.

“I don’t remember ever seeing Gareth’s mother but the father runs every day.

“They’ve lived here for about 18 years.”

Mrs Jones, 85, said: “They were polite and always greeted you but further than that I don’t think they bothered with anyone.”

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, described the family as “really lovely people”.

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at the age of 17.

He said: “I heard the news in a text message yesterday morning and it was a shock.

“We are a small club, only 20 members, and all of us knew Gareth.

“We are totally devastated. He was a really lovely young man.

“Of course, once he moved to Cheltenham, he joined the club there and we didn’t see much of him.

“I last saw him on our Boxing Day meeting last year.

“He was his usual self really.

“It’s true that he was very quiet. He wasn’t a great conversationalist.

“We were club mates but Gareth wasn’t the sort to go the pub after a race so he didn’t have any close friends in the group.

“I never spoke to him about his job or his private life. Nobody did with Gareth.

“It was his cycling that we knew about. He was known for being very good on hill races but a couple of times he won the club’s best all-rounder award.

“He was also a good runner but that was to be expected, his whole family is very sporty.

“His father was a member of this club and Ceri was an athlete. We’ll be getting in touch to offer our condolences when they are home.

“We have also cancelled a club event we had planned for tonight. Nobody feels up to it now.”

Daily Mail : CIA probes British spy murder as it emerges he was sent on frequent missions to Pentagon's high-security listening post

CIA probes British spy murder as it emerges he was sent on frequent missions to Pentagon's high-security listening post

By Charlotte Gill, Emily Andrews and Liz Hull | August 27, 2010

The CIA was called in to help investigate the murder of an MI6 spy last night as it emerged he was sent on frequent secret missions to the United States.

American intelligence officers are poring over every detail of Gareth Williams's work and personal life to see if the circumstances of his death endangered U.S. national security.

The Daily Mail can reveal that the 31-year-old codebreaker flew to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world, up to four times a year. He returned from his last trip to America only a few weeks before he was found dead.

Questions also remain over why his body lay undiscovered for up to a fortnight at his £400,000 flat in a Victorian townhouse in Pimlico, central London, half a mile from MI6 headquarters.

Mr Williams worked at the Government's listening post, GCHQ in Cheltenham, but had been on secondment to MI6 for the past year and was due to return to GCHQ next Friday.

The body of the keen cyclist was found in a sports holdall in the bath on Monday afternoon.

But yesterday his former landlady in Cheltenham insisted he had not been off work, intensifying the mystery surrounding his death.

Security sources could not explain why some one holding such a sensitive post was able to go 'missing' for such a long time before police were called.

Officers were last night examining the hard drive of a laptop computer found in the flat.

Landlady Jenny Elliott said: 'He definitely wasn't on annual leave as the security services woman who came to see me after they found his body told me that he wasn't on holiday.

'Why did no one notice? It's disgraceful the police weren't alerted earlier that he was missing. His murder is devastating and I just hope the person who did it is caught.

Mrs Elliott, 71, who rented Mr Williams a self-contained flat attached to her home in Cheltenham, said he would often travel to America for weeks at a time three or four times a year either with a male colleague or on his own.

His uncle, who lives in Anglesey, North Wales, where Mr Williams grew up, said: 'He'd been making the trips for a couple of years.

'I only found this out very recently and I do not know where in America he was staying or who he was working for out there, but I do know it was in relation to his job.

'His last trip was this summer. He returned from the States just a couple of weeks or so before he died.'

A U.S. intelligence source said there was 'no panic' yet within the National Security Agency and people who knew Mr Williams were still to be questioned.

The source said: 'The strong implication is that his death is not connected to his intelligence work, though this could change at any time. They are understandably concerned about what has happened and are keeping a close eye on developments.'

Mr Williams's devastated parents Ian and Ellen have faced speculation over their son's private life.

It has been reported that Mr Williams, who lived alone and did not have a partner, was a gay cross dresser and may have been killed by a gay lover.

Police sources believe another theory is the spy's killer may have planted a trail of clues to make it seem as though he was murdered by a gay lover.

They said gay magazines and the phone numbers of gay escort men were found in the apartment near the agent's body.

Police have also asked a pathologist to check whether Mr Williams's neck was broken, which would suggest a professional hit, the sources said.

Those who know him say there is nothing to suggest that he may have been homosexual.

Mrs Elliott, who rented her flat to him for ten years during his time at GCHQ, never saw him bring anyone – male or female – back to his home.

Detectives are still trying to ascertainhow Mr Williams died. A postmortem examination proved inconclusive and now they must wait for toxicology results to find out whether drugs, alcohol, poisoning or suffocation were the cause of death.

Sources say he was not stabbed, shot, strangled or beaten. Scotland Yard is describing the death as 'suspicious and unexplained'.

A former MI6 officer said that intelligence chiefs are furious that details of Mr Williams's work as a spy had been leaked.

Harry Ferguson said senior officials at the Secret Intelligence Service wanted to suppress any information about his work and to simply refer to him as a 'civil servant' when news of the murder was made public.

'They hoped details of his role could all be kept covered up. It is a standard process. Blurting it out has caused a lot of unnecessary embarrassment, risk and upheaval to the SIS.

'If it had been managed properly it could have been kept quiet. He could simply have been described as a government worker or civil servant.

'They are especially frustrated that it has emerged that not only was he was working in GCHQ, but also on secondment to MI6.'

Mr Ferguson said secret service bosses feared that the 'nightmare scenario' had come true when the body was discovered.

'One of the concerns about having such a high profile building as the SIS does is that, while staff can be protected when inside the building, there a significant risk that they could be followed home,' he said.

'It is the sort of thing that a small group of Islamists or other terror network would clearly be capable of doing.'

He said the apparent 'ritualistic' scene at Mr Williams' flat, with his mobile phone and SIM cards carefully laid out, also suggested it could have been carried out by a foreign agency to send a message.

The reclusive maths genius and rumours of cross-dressing and blackmail

FROM a tender age, it was clear to his teachers at Morswyn primary school on Anglesey that there was something special about Gareth Williams.

A talented pupil, he was fast-tracked through education, earning his maths GCSE aged nine while most of his contemporaries were still grappling with basic arithmetic.

By 13 he had secured his A-levels and had a degree in maths by 17.

He was known as ‘the maths genius’ by fellow pupils and possessed the ‘fastest brain’ his teachers had encountered. But his academic excellence came at a price.

Forced to study with children several years older than himself, he found it hard to make friends and was last night described by former school mates as ‘socially naive’ and ‘introverted’.

Detectives were last night investigating whether this shy, private side to his nature made him vulnerable to blackmail amid lurid claims that he was a secret cross-dresser.

Geraint Williams, his maths teacher at secondary school, recalled how young Gareth was so clever that he sat his intermediate maths GCSE, gaining a grade B, while still at primary school, before being moved up to Bodedern Secondary School, Holyhead, a year ahead of his peers.

Within months of his arrival he took his advanced GCSE, scoring an A grade, and received top marks in A-level maths and computer studies two years later, when he was 13.

His teachers were initially at a loss at how best to educate him. Their solution was to move him up two years and enrol the youngster, then aged 15, on a three-year maths degree course at his local university at Bangor, which he attained in just two years with first class honours.

Teacher Mr Williams said: ‘I’d heard about this amazing pupil who had done his GCSE at primary school and got a B at intermediate level.

‘He took the higher level GCSE in a couple of months and got an A. It was a problem for us – what could we do with him? We got him to follow A-levels and he did A-level maths and computer science in the third-form. He achieved As in them.

‘That was a big problem because he was still only 13, so we contacted Bangor University and he followed the first year of maths degree course.’

The teacher added: ‘He was the best logician and the pupil with the fastest brain I have ever met. You only had to say things once, that’s why he was so successful. He could understand things immediately. He was also extremely good with computer science.

‘Gareth was also a very nice lad, quiet and unassuming. It’s very sad.’

After leaving Bangor University at 17, Mr Williams went on to study for a PhD at Manchester University before enrolling in postgraduate certificate at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2000.

He dropped out a year later, but last night friends speculated that he left after being taken on by the Secret Services, which traditionally recruit from Oxbridge.

They said it was an open secret that Mr Williams worked at GCHQ, but added that any notion that the quiet, unassuming boy lead a James Bond spy lifestyle was laughable.

One close friend, who attended primary school with Mr Williams, said: ‘Gareth was a super, super brain. Beyond intelligent, a very, very clever guy.

‘He was hand-picked while at Cambridge by the services, they want the cream of the crop and he certainly was that.

‘It was common knowledge that he worked at GCHQ, but any notion that he led a James Bond style lifestyle is rubbish.

‘Those kind of people have to be able to blend in, but Gareth wasn’t like that, he was very different.

‘He was introverted and found it difficult to make friends, but he was a lovely, lovely bloke. It is such a tragic waste of such a talented life.’

The dead man’s parents, Ian, an engineer at Wylfa power station, and mother Ellen, who worked in education, were on holiday in America celebrating their joint 50th birthdays when news of their son’s death broke.Last night they were said to be ‘devastated’.

Another former school friend, Dylan Parry, 34, said he was ‘dumfounded’ by the murder.

‘Gareth was the last person I would have believed would be involved in the murkier elements of life,’ said Mr Parry, of Holyhead. ‘He really was about as far from a James Bond figure as it’s possible to imagine.

‘Gareth was introverted and socially awkward. He wasn’t dashing or cavalier or a charmer, although he was extremely nice in a quiet way.

‘There has been a lot of speculation about his sexuality, but he was so introverted as to be asexual.‘

He wasn’t able to form relationships because he was so obsessed with his maths studies.

‘We nicknamed him the maths genius because he was so clever. He was so naive, he was someone people could easily take advantage of.

‘I wouldn’t have thought he was a very good judge of character and it’s possible he got to know someone who wasn’t very safe. He was so innocent.’

The Australian : Slain spy Gareth Williams linked to bondage, male escort

Slain spy Gareth Williams linked to bondage, male escort

Staff writers | From: The Times | August 27, 2010

POLICE investigating the murder of a British spy found bondage equipment in his flat and evidence linking him to a male escort.

The find has raised questions over how Gareth Williams's private life slipped through the vetting procedures of the security services. Senior security personnel are said to be "extremely concerned" that an employee with high clearance had a lifestyle that put him in danger of being compromised.

A source close to the investigation said that evidence discovered in the London flat included bondage items, porn films and paraphernalia associated with sado-masochism. It is also understood that Mr Williams, who was on secondment to M16 from GCHQ, the Government's top secret listening post, has been linked to a male escort.

Detectives have focused their investigations on the private life of Mr Williams, 30, since he was found on Monday murdered and stuffed into a holdall in his flat in Pimlico, a short walk from M16 headquarters.

It also emerged that Mr Williams travelled regularly to the United States on official business, raising further concerns about potential national security breaches because of the information he had access to. He went to Washington several times a year, stayed for a few weeks each time and went shortly before he died.

Last night the National Security Agency refused to confirm or deny that Mr Williams, who is believed to be an expert in codes and ciphers, had worked for them. It is not unusual for members of the security services to spend time working for government security departments in America.

Jenny Elliott, the spy's former landlady in Cheltenham, said Mr Williams regularly travelled to America. "He would go to Washington about three times a year. It was always Washington. That was part of his job." She said that Mr Williams would usually combine the trip with a holiday.

Detectives from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command may have to wait for up to a week to find out how Mr Williams died. The initial postmortem examination proved inconclusive and several tests, thought to include toxicology tests, are now being conducted.

A picture of Mr Williams as a genius who led a solitary existence began to emerge yesterday. Friends described him as athletic, kind and intelligent, but above all extremely private. Dylan Parry, a schoolfriend, described him as academically gifted but socially naive. Mr Parry, 34, said Mr Williams was an isolated child fascinated by mathematics and computers.

The pair attended Uwchradd Bodedern secondary in Anglesey, where Mr Williams was "the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level".

"It was clear he was going to go far, but we all assumed he would end up in academia. Finding out he became a spy was a shock," Mr Parry said.

Geraint Williams, the spy's maths teacher at Bodedern, said he had "definitely the best brain" he had known. "If you explained something once to Gareth he remembered it. You didn't have to explain a second time. It all stuck there. It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ."

Online tributes mainly referred to his shy and quiet nature. One fellow Cambridge student, said: "He seemed a shy and quiet chap, but had a peculiarly memorable laugh and smile that are haunting me somewhat today. I knew that Gareth had gone on to work at Cheltenham but would never have imagined his life culminating in this."

Keith Thompson, of Holyhead Cycling Club, said he had known Mr Williams since he joined the club at the age of 17. "It's true that he was very quiet. He wasn't a great conversationalist. We were clubmates but Gareth wasn't the sort to go the pub after a race so he didn't have any close friends in the group. I never spoke to him about his job or his private life. Nobody did with Gareth. It was his cycling that we knew about. A couple of times he won the club's 'best all-rounder' award."

Daily Record : Revealed: Murdered spy was elite codebreaker and made secret trips to US

Revealed: Murdered spy was elite codebreaker and made secret trips to US

By Jon Clements | August 27, 2010

MURDERED spy Gareth Williams was one of the world's elite codebreakers helping US spooks foil al-Qaeda terrorism, it was revealed yesterday.

The 31-year-old maths genius jetted to America regularly to meet National Security Agency officials at their Fort Meade HQ in Maryland, nicknamed "The Puzzle Palace".

Williams's mysterious death has been greeted with dismay at the NSA.

Fort Meade officials have been kept updated on the investigation into how the keen cyclist, on attachment to MI6, was found dead in a sports bag in his bath.

They are keen to know if there has been any breach of global security as a result of the murder at his Government-owned flat in Pimlico, central London.

Police investigating Williams's death continue to focus on his personal life hoping to establish who have a motive to kill him.

Relatives are baffled by suggestions his body was undiscovered for up to two weeks as sister Ceri, from Chester, spoke to him last Wednesday.

Further tests to establish the cause of death may not be completed until next week and detectives are urgently checking his mobile phone records.

Speaking at his farmhouse on Anglesey, north Wales, Williams's uncle Michael Hughes revealed: "He'd be away in the US for up to three or four weeks at a time and he was making up to four of these trips per year.

"They were very hush-hush, they were so secret that I only recently found out about them and we are a very close family.

"His last trip out there was a few weeks ago, Gareth was regularly back and forth from America."

Williams, so gifted he secured a first class honours degree in maths aged just 17, spent up to 19 days working on each trip before having a fortnight on holiday.

One Western intelligence source said: "Williams will have had high-level meetings with American intelligence officers.

"His job would have been crucial to the security of the UK and UK interests abroad - but also to America and Europe.

"Although not particularly high up the GCHQ ladder, the importance of his role should not be underestimated. The man was a mathematical genuis."

Williams may have had input into the monitoring of communications between Taliban commanders in Afghanistan and even the tracking of serious organised crime suspects.

A spokesman for Bangor University, where he completed his degree in just two years, described the fitness fanatic as "extremely gifted".

He said: "Gareth came here at the age of 15 and he attained the highest degree possible. It is an exceptional achievement for any student, let alone someone so young."

Former classmate Dylan Parry said: "Gareth seemed precocious yet naive about the harsher realities of life. He was someone people could easily take advantage of.

"It would have been very hard to imagine Gareth in a relationship or attracted to the vain things of life."

Britain relies heavily on the NSA to help monitor the telephone calls, emails and texts of UK terror suspects.

When MI5 discovered the plot in 2006 by British Muslims to bomb transatlantic jets, GCHQ called in the NSA to help.

Williams worked closely alongside them.

Spy satellites tracked emails from mastermind Rashid Rauf in Pakistan to the two ringleaders in London.

The messages were vital in convicting Abdullah Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain in 2008.

Telegraph : British spy death investigation focuses on Gareth Williams' private life

British spy death investigation focuses on Gareth Williams' private life

August 27, 2010

The private life of Gareth Williams, the British code breaker found dead in his flat, is being investigated amid speculation that he could have died during a sex game gone wrong.

Detectives investigating the murder of Gareth Williams are looking into the possibility that he lived a double life and the absence of any indication of a break-in suggests he may have known his killer.

A report in The Times today claims that bondage gear and equipment associated with sado-masochism were removed from the 30-year-old's London apartment by police looking for clues.

The GCHQ mathematics prodigy's decomposing body was found stuffed into a bag in the bath of his central London Government flat on Monday.

But the mystery over his final hours deepened after a post-mortem examination failed to identify a cause of death.

Further tests will determine if the cycling fanatic was asphyxiated or poisoned, as well as if drugs or alcohol were present in his system.

A pathologist found Mr Williams was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Police refused to categorise the death as a murder, despite the bizarre circumstances, as they insist he may have died innocently.

One line of inquiry is that he is the victim of a sex game that went wrong and questions remain over why he was not discovered sooner.

Mr Williams was days from completing a one-year secondment to the headquarters of MI6 from his job at national ''listening post'' GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Police believe Mr Williams's body could have lain undiscovered for up to a fortnight and it is thought he was on holiday at the time of his death.

They suspect the key to the case could lie in his private life and are examining his mobile phone and financial records as well as CCTV cameras around his home.

Sources played down speculation that the murder was linked to his secretive line of work.

Investigators suspect Mr Williams might have known his killer as there was no sign of forced entry at his top-floor flat in Alderney Street, Pimlico.

Yesterday, Mr Williams's parents Ian and Ellen travelled to London with his sister Ceri from their home in Anglesey to speak to police and formally identify his body.

Further details of Mr Williams continued to emerge as friends described him as an extremely bright, quiet and determined man.

Childhood friend Dylan Parry, 34, said Mr Williams was academically gifted but socially naive and could be easily led.

He said: ''He was the kind of person who found it difficult to engage with people on a normal level.''

Windsor Star : Murdered spy may have mixed with bad crowd

Murdered spy may have mixed with bad crowd

By Richard Edwards and John Bingham, The Daily Telegraph | August 27, 2010

London -- The British spy found murdered in London this week was "one of life's innocents" who could have fallen in with "unsafe" company, friends have claimed.

As police continued to draw a blank over the mysterious death of Gareth Williams, friends said he had an extraordinary mathematical mind but was "very naive about people."

There was no sign of forced entry at the flat in central London where the 31 year-old was found stuffed into a sports bag on Monday afternoon, suggesting the killer was someone Williams knew.

Detectives have been unable to find any regular friends, male or female, linked to the cipher and codes expert, who worked for MI6 and the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham. They are investigating whether he had recently met his killer and are analyzing mobile phone sim cards found in the flat in Pimlico, central London.

Detectives are also investigating whether he lived a double life unknown to his superiors and are studying his recent movements, including a trip to Las Vegas he had described as a "real eye opener." School friends said that Williams was nicknamed "child genius." but added that he was "not a good judge of character."

Williams took a math General Certificate of Education at primary school and A Levels at 13. He graduated with a first from Bangor University by the age of 17 and earned a masters at Cambridge University. Like many prodigies, however, he struggled to make friends after being catapulted into the company of older people at an early age.

Dylan Parry, 34, a friend from his home in Anglesey, said he was an isolated child only interested in maths and computers. "He never really made friends, either his own age or from those younger than him. 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."

Parry added that the spy was someone "people could easily take advantage of" and suggested the murder may have been nothing to do with his work for MI6. "Back then (in his teens) he wasn't the kind to have a girlfriend -- or a boyfriend for that matter. He was very naive about people.

"I wouldn't have thought he was a very good judge of character and it's possible he got to know someone who wasn't very safe. He was so innocent."

Geraint Williams, a math teacher at Bodedern High School, said the "exceptional" pupil had "the best brain I have ever seen."

"He was the best logician. It didn't surprise me at all that he was very interested in codes and ciphers and it didn't surprise me that he was recruited by GCHQ. He was definitely going to go into something like that with his brain."

Keith Thompson, who knew Williams through Holyhead Cycling Club, said: "I never spoke to him about his job or his private life. Nobody did with Gareth."

© Copyright (c) The Windsor Star

Channel 4 : Family shock after spy sex claims

Family shock after spy sex claims

August 27, 2010

The family of a spy who was found dead in a bag in his bath are "shocked" by allegations about his life. Channel 4 News hears that code breakers are still needed by governments.

Gareth Williams had worked at GCHQ, but was recently based at MI6. His body was found by police on Monday in the flat which had been provided for him in London by the government. Scotland Yard detectives have been investigating his private life in an attempt to discover why he was killed.

There have been claims that Mr Williams was linked to a male escort and that bondage equipment was found in his home. A relative said there is no evidence the allegations are true: "I have spoken to Gareth's parents and they are not doing well at all. They are in a state of shock and struggling to come to terms with what has happened. They have seen what has been in the papers and they are very, very upset about these untruths."

It is understood that Mr Williams made regular trips to Washington DC and Fort Meade, near Baltimore.

Bob Ayres, a former intelligence officer from America, said that code breakers are still very much needed today: "As long as people use codes to protect their communications, there will still be people working to break them.

"Codes now are based on sophisticated cryptographic systems. Spies are used to create and produce cryptographic systems that other people can't break, and to break the systems used by other countries. These systems are based on sophisticated mathematics, so that is the ideal background."

Channel 4 News has exclusively learnt that the government's most secretive intelligence agencies have launched internal enquiries into the vetting of an MI6 employee found dead in his flat.

"There is nothing to suggest a security leak", a source told Channel 4 News. "This is most likely the human tragedy of a private young man who may have had issues."

GCHQ conducts what it called "rigorous security clearance" for potential employees to ascertain whether there is the "the risk of an individual being placed in a potentially compromising position."

"If you do not meet the Developed Vetting requirements for the job, or fail to disclose any security related issues or concerns, you will not be considered for employment," the organisation said.

The CIA has also been investigating any possible security breach, but British authorities believed that Mr Williams' killer probably did not know about his work

A childhood friend of Gareth Williams, Dylan Parry, said Mr Williams was academically gifted but socially naïve. Bob Ayres said that intelligence organisations prefer staff to be: "Quiet, reserved and keep to themselves. If you are complying with the desires of an intelligence organisation, you do not tell people what you do or where you work. You do not get engaged in conversations which might lead you to say what you do.

"Either Gareth Williams was being a good intelligence practitioner, or he was just shy and uncomfortable.

"Intelligence, spying, these are jobs and business that go on every day, 24 hours a day. Every nation spies on everyone else and everybody spies on them. There is nothing romantic or intriguing about it. It is just a business. In terms of men in raincoats standing under bridges, that is a very small percentage of what actually goes on in the intelligence business.

"You might think it is a game, but it is when you realise the consequences of losing the game it becomes more serious."

Further tests will be carried out on Mr Williams' body after a post-mortem examination did not identify a cause of death. A pathologist said he was not stabbed or shot and there were no obvious signs of strangulation.

Daily Star : MI6 SPY MURDERED BY 'MATA HARI' HONEYTRAP ASSASSIN

MI6 SPY MURDERED BY 'MATA HARI' HONEYTRAP ASSASSIN

By Jerry Lawton, chief crime correspondent | August 27, 2010

A REAL-LIFE James Bond found murdered in his bath could have fallen prey to a modern day Mata Hari.

Police found a SIM card containing telephone numbers of escort agencies in the flat where 31-year-old spy Gareth Williams was discovered stuffed inside a giant sports bag.

Porn was also recovered from the £500,000 top floor apartment.

Mr Williams, an expert code-cracker, was within days of coming to the end of a year-long secondment to MI6 and returning to GCHQ in Cheltenham, Glos.

Intelligence experts are trying to locate his laptop and MP3 player. They fear he could have been targeted by enemy agents in a “honeytrap’’. They were last night trying to determine if state secrets could be in the wrong hands.

MI6 try to infiltrate foreign terror networks such as al-Qaida and monitor the Russian and Chinese underworld.

A senior intelligence source said: “It is a major concern that classified information Mr Williams may have been privy to could have leaked.

“Establishing if national security has been compromised is our immediate priority in light of his tragic death. Items discovered in the flat suggest there may have been a sexual element to this.”

Some reports, unconfirmed by police, suggested women’s clothes in Mr Williams’ size were discovered in the apartment in Pimlico, central London, suggesting he might have been a cross-dresser.

But detectives have not ruled out the possibility his killers may have placed items there. Last night police were trying to determine if he was strangled, suffocated or poisoned.

His dad Ian, a nuclear power plant worker, mum Ellen and sister Ceri arrived in London after breaking off a holiday in the US.

Childhood pal Dylan Parry, 34, feared his school friend was vulnerable because he was “so innocent”.

Mr Williams’s best friend Raphael L’Hoste-Morton, 32, a former GCHQ colleague who works for a youth group in Gloucester, denied they had had a sexual relationship.

Mr L’Hoste-Morton, who had been on foreign exchange trips with Mr Williams, was too upset to discuss the tragedy.