1. The great-grandson of John Barr Affleck, Britain's Consul General in Tianjin from 1935 to 1938, Heywood lived and worked in China since the early 1990s and became associated with the Bo Xilai family.
22 Facts About Neil Heywood
1. 2.
Neil Heywood's death sparked a major political scandal and precipitated Bo's downfall in 2012.
3.
Neil Heywood graduated in international relations from the University of Warwick.
4.
Fluent in Chinese, Neil Heywood spent more than a decade in China.
5.
Neil Heywood was married to Wang Lulu, a Chinese national from Dalian, and the couple had two children; a boy named George, and a daughter, Olivia, who were ages 7 and 11, respectively, at the time of his death.
6.
Neil Heywood drove a second-hand Jaguar S-Type, with a Union Jack bumper sticker.
7.
Neil Heywood served as an intermediary, linking Western companies wishing to do business in China to powerful figures in the Chinese political structure.
8.
Neil Heywood ran a company named Neil Heywood Boddington Associates, registered to his mother's house in London.
9.
Neil Heywood developed a business relationship with Gu Kailai, a lawyer, businesswoman, and the wife of Bo Xilai.
10.
Neil Heywood appears to have played the role of a Bai Shoutao or white glove for the Bo family, doing business on their behalf, since, according to Chinese custom, a prominent party family could not involve themselves directly with financial dealings.
11.
Rumors that Neil Heywood might have been employed as an agent by MI6 have been denied by Foreign Secretary William Hague, an unusual move, as the British government typically refuses to comment on the identity of its agents.
12.
The Wall Street Journal later reported they had confirmed, after interviewing former and current British officials and others, that Neil Heywood had since 2009 been regularly supplying information to MI6, although he was not an MI6 employee.
13.
Neil Heywood had business links with Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai.
14.
Neil Heywood reportedly met with the Bo family in Dalian, the northeast metropolis where Bo was mayor from 1994 to 2000.
15.
Neil Heywood was then working at a Dalian English-language school, and helped Bo's youngest son gain admission to Harrow.
16.
The court heard Neil Heywood had blackmailed the family and threatened to expose their corrupt ownership of a villa in the French Riviera.
17.
On 14 November 2011, Neil Heywood was summoned to Chongqing by Gu Kailai.
18.
Neil Heywood is listed as the supervisor of the Guagua Technology Company, belonging to Bo Guagua.
19.
Neil Heywood was found in his hotel room, 26 hours after his death.
20.
An internal Chinese report confirmed that Neil Heywood died from potassium cyanide added to his drink.
21.
However, further investigations led to new findings suggesting the death of Neil Heywood was a murder committed by Gu Kailai.
22.
Neil Heywood was arrested and allegedly confessed that he prepared the poison and handed it to an employee of Bo.