Described as “very odd” and a habitual drug user, Gwilherm Athorn lived in Clerkenwell at the time Margot Bamborough disappeared. He becomes a person of interest when Irene Hickson tells Strike and Robin that Athorn had been telling people that he had killed the missing doctor by some sort of magical ability to “ill-wish” people.¹ However, nothing came of these claims after Gwilherm was found dead under a bridge of an apparent heart attack a year later.² 

“Well,” said Irene, “remember, Jan, there was that one with the beard down to here.…” She placed her hand at waist level, “… remember? What was he called? Apton? Applethorpe? Jan, you remember. You do remember, Jan, he stank like a tramp and you had to go round his house once. He used to wander around near St. John’s. I think he lived on Clerkenwell Road. Sometimes he had his kid with him. Really funny-looking kid. Massive ears.” ³

Strike later meets Gwilherm’s widow, Deborah, and their son, Samhain, when he visits their home on Albermarle Way. Gwilherm’s ashes are on the Athorn’s mantelpiece in front of an Egyptian ankh that Gwilherm had painted on the wall.⁴  

 

^{1: Troubled Blood, Chapter 20
2: Troubled Blood, Chapter 42
3: Troubled Blood, Chapter 20
4: Troubled Blood, Chapter 38}