Security News > 2010 > August > Gareth Williams: 'backroom boy' spy was really a high-flier
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7969595/Gareth-Williams-backroom-boy-spy-was-really-a-high-flier.html By Gordon Thomas Telegraph.co.uk 29 Aug 2010 The Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham is Britain's last great secret. Now it is in the focus of intense speculation among its stunned staff. Never before has one of their own been murdered. In GCHQ's cafes, the seating area around the lawn at the core of the doughnut-shaped building and behind anonymous doors simply marked "No admission", the same question continues to be asked: who murdered Gareth Williams -- and why? Despite his widow's-peak haircut and geeky smile, he worked at the cutting edge of computer technology. His mathematical brain made him a vital tool in the fight against terrorism and cyber warfare. Yet the security services are anxious to play down his role, so as not to alarm the world over his importance to anyone involved in his murder. In 2000, Williams left his Cambridge University course in advanced mathematics because he had already learned all he could. By then, he had also been "tapped" -- recruited by GCHQ scouts, who tour universities looking for talent. No one can be certain why he signed up. It wasnât the salary. His 40,000 UKP a year was far less than he could have earned in industry. But it is very likely that, like so many of his young colleagues at GCHQ, he was attracted by the challenges, the excitement of working at the centre of events that he would often know about before even the Prime Minister. [...]