Peter Kelly pictured outside the Ku-ring-Gai Council chambers in September. Credit:Jessica Hromas But his book - inscribed with Winston Churchill quote, "The truth is so precious, she must be attended by a bodyguard of lies" raises yet more questions about his identity. Written under the pseudonym Gibson Nance, No Bodyguard is for sale in the biographies and memoirs section of Amazon Books, and is dedicated to his children. It comes with the assurance that "the names of almost everyone in this book have been changed to protect the guilty as much as the innocent." The author "Gibson Nance", is known through most of the book by yet another name: Bill McKenzie. Verifying Cr Kelly as the author would be difficult were it not for the fact that his photograph is prominently displayed on the back cover. He also openly discusses the book with friends on Facebook.

Peter Kelly's picture is on the back No Bodyguard, which is written under the pseudonym Gibson Nance. Graphic in its description The book opens with an assassination, as McKenzie stabs to death a "notorious drug dealer" on the streets of Penang, Malaysia while carrying out a mission for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Later in the book, after killing a man on a deserted stretch of Malaysian road, he recalls how he "pushed the lifeless body with my right foot until it rolled further down into the undergrowth and off the edge of the road". No Bodyguard has a quote from Winston Churchill on the front cover: "The truth is so precious, she must be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

But the most graphically recounted hit takes place in a bathroom in Pattaya, Thailand in 1983, when he kills a man using a piece of scrap water piping, before finishing him off with pistol fitted with a silencer. "In one reflex motion, I stabbed the water pipe into his throat, crushing his larynx in one blow," he writes. "I have no idea if the people I helped eliminate were a direct threat to Australia or its interests," he notes in subsequent passages, adding if they were in were involved in the arms or drug trade "their removal was probably a good thing". The book not only chronicles escapades of dangerous espionage, but the breakdown of three marriages, and a doomed love affair with an ex-MI6 agent, rendered in explicit detail. Kelly's background

Cr Kelly has previously told Fairfax Media he studied Chinese at the RAAF school of languages in 1979, and spent 15 years in the Australian Army including in intelligence roles, before switching to a civilian role. These details match the book's main character, as do many other jobs and employers from his past. Not mentioned in the book, however, is the doctorate in international business Cr Kelly claims he was awarded by La Ruggero University II in Rome, or the professorship at Poseidon University. He drew attention to his academic qualifications after he employed the titles "professor" and "doctor" on a campaign flyer, which was distributed across the council ward during last month's election. In an interview with Fairfax Media last month, Cr Kelly said La Ruggero was run by an institution called the Norman Academy, which he described as "kind of like a club for royalty". He said he was invited to join the academy by a Malaysian prince. At a council meeting earlier this month, he was caught off guard by fellow independent councillor Martin Smith, who asked Cr Kelly to justify his credentials to the community.

In a response this week, Cr Kelly made clear he was unwilling to answer any further questions on the matter. "The question is not relevant to my performance of the duties of councillor and, as such, I will not be responding to it," he said in a written one-line statement submitted at Tuesday night's council meeting. He did not attend the meeting. It is understood he was in Canberra for the federal sitting week for his job as an adviser to One Nation senator Brian Burston. Behind the scenes, Cr Kelly has accused the block of independent Ku-ring-gai councillors of mounting a smear campaign against him and threatened defamation action. "I feel you have mistaken my patience and moral code as a sign of weakness and continue to try to smear me as Martin tried to do at council last Tuesday by questioning my credentials in an open forum to cast doubt on my qualifications," he wrote in an email to the four independents on October 12.

"You think you're not a party to the defamation? You're a fool." Cr Kelly did not respond to any of Fairfax Media's attempts to contact him for this article.