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.
He was married to Wang Lulu (王露露), 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.
[8] Heywood served as an intermediary, linking Western companies wishing to do business in China to powerful figures in the Chinese political structure.
In its filings, it claims to be a "multi-discipline consultancy focusing on serving the interests of UK businesses in the People's Republic of China".
[13] The Wall Street Journal later reported they had confirmed, after interviewing former and current British officials and others, that Heywood had since 2009 been regularly supplying information to MI6, although he was not an MI6 employee.
[11] The Daily Telegraph reports that Heywood and Gu "shared a long and close personal relationship, but were not romantically involved.
The court heard Heywood had blackmailed the family and threatened to expose their corrupt ownership of a villa in the French Riviera.
[citation needed] She sent Zhang Xiaojun (张晓军) to bring him from Beijing to the Nanshan Lijing Holiday Hotel (南山丽景度假酒店).
[19][20] Gu Kailai hosted a banquet there in the past, but according to two sources quoted by The Daily Telegraph, she was not at the scene at the time of Heywood's murder.
[30][31] The same day, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said that, according to the reinvestigation, the evidence indicated Heywood was a victim of homicide, of which Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai, and Zhang Xiaojun, her bodyguard, were "strongly suspected".
On 13 April 2012, Heywood's widow, Wang Lulu, visited the British Embassy in Beijing, and asked for a visa to travel to the UK with her two young children, reportedly concerned that the people who had killed her husband might come after her and her family.
The entrance to the family's gated compound in Beijing was guarded by troops from the People's Liberation Army, and police ordered her not to communicate with international journalists.
[35] The same day, four policemen, all senior officers from Chongqing, where the UK businessman was killed, were formally accused of covering up the murder of Heywood and indicted.
[37] Following the verdict, Britain's embassy in China stated that it had welcomed the investigation, adding "[we] consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied.
"[36][37] BBC News commented that "informed observers see the fingerprints of the Communist Party of China all over this outcome", stating that the trial's conclusion was "all too neat and uncannily suited to one particular agenda", that of limiting the scandal's damage.