Gareth Williams: the mysterious death of a brilliant mathematician

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/02/gareth-williams-mysterious-death-mathematician

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He was the best of logicians, according to a former maths teacher, but the manner of Gareth Williams's death apparently defied logic.

The 31-year-old "high-flier" who was possessed of "tremendous technical ability" left a puzzle that may never be satisfactorily solved.

To add to his family's grief, the police investigation saw all vestige of privacy destroyed for a man who was, in life, intensely private.

Those custodians of his memory sat through the inquest as his wardrobe doors were flung open and his computer data analysed amid innuendo and speculation. It cannot have been a comforting experience.

His parents, Ian and Ellen, listened as a complicated picture emerged of their prodigy son, the brilliant mathematician who took O-levels at 10 and graduated from Bangor University seven years later.

To his sister Ceri, 28, a physiotherapist in Chester, Williams was the perfect "big brother", always on hand to proffer advice, or pay for "dainty finger sandwiches" at the Ritz on her trips to London.

His "passions" were the mountains, fell running and cycling. Strong, fit and muscular, he loved the outdoor life and climbing expeditions with his father.

Having applied successfully for a three-year secondment from GCHQ, the government listening post in Cheltenham, to MI6 in London, Williams cut it short and was moving back to the countryside he loved.

His closest friends in London described him as "a laugh", someone to watch DVDs with, or meet for coffee and cake in Knightsbridge.

Sian Lloyd Jones, a fashion stylist he had known since primary school in Anglesey, north Wales, and her flat-mate Elizabeth Guthrie, were both "just friends". Police don't appear to have found any sexual partner. "Was he in love with you?" the coroner, Fiona Wilcox, asked Jones. "Just very, very fond of me," she replied.

Neither ever visited his flat, and nor did work colleagues.

And neither had knowledge of the £20,000 collection of "high-end" women's clothing and 26 pairs of designer women's shoes he kept there. Perhaps they were for "gifts", they said, maintaining that they certainly wouldn't be for him. Police thought they, possibly, could fit him.

His former landlords in Cheltenham, who rescued him after he tied himself to his bedposts three years before his death, thought it a "sexual" adventure, rather than "escapology".

And he had visited bondage sites, though police did stress only on "sporadic and isolated" occasions. Such visits made up a "tiny" percentage of his web browsing. His family's lawyer suggested they coincided with him preparing for SIS training courses, and police had tried to discover if his training involved "trying to escape from being tied", but had been given "no information".

Video of him posing naked apart from boots, found on his phone, could not be thus explained.

Williams's workmates knew little of him, beyond the "shy" smile of an "introverted" colleague. He avoided after-work socialising, pursuing his hobbies mainly alone. Largely teetotal, he would drink with his female friends in their flat, but not out in company.

He was a member of the British Mountaineering Council and the British Film Council, and was passionate about the arts and music.

Stephen Gale, a retired GCHQ board member, said it was "very lucky to recruit him" when he joined at 21 with a first-class degree in maths and a PhD in computer sciences. His bosses were so impressed that they paid for him to gain a further qualification in advanced mathematics at Cambridge University, though he didn't sit the exam after a cycling accident.

Colleagues at GCHQ described him as "the red bullet", as he flew around Gloucestershire on his bike.

He was a "world class" intelligence officer, who spent one year attached to the cryptology team and then five with the maths and number theory team. By 2005 he was on active liaison and technical operations, taking part in anything from theoretical problem-solving to the practical application of the techniques he had developed.

He won two awards, one posthumously in 2010 for his outstanding technical contribution in innovation. In 2009, he was part of a team awarded the prestigious Mary Church award in recognition of significant achievement in cryptic analysis.

"He was very well liked and very highly respected by his colleagues," said Gale.

As Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sebire, the senior investigating officer, pledged the police investigation "would not stop until we find the answers", she paid tribute to Williams.

"He was a brilliant young man who spent his entire adult life working for his country and was commended for it," she said.