Wiltshire Police told ‘no ex-spy’ in Novichok poisoning area

Police investigating the nerve agent poisoning of an ex-Russian spy were told he was not living in the area and they were “overreacting”.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury city centre after being exposed to Novichok in 2018.

Officers found out who they were by using Google to search Mr Skripal’s name, the inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess was told.

An email from April 2021 from Wiltshire Police Inspector Gill Hughes said national security unit Special Branch had been “very dismissive” of the information provided about Mr Skripal’s poisoning by the force’s control room, the inquiry was told.

Wiltshire Police was also told by counter-terrorism police that they were “not aware” that Mr Skripal was housed in Salisbury and “were not taking any further action”.

The inquiry, being held in London, has been called to examine the death of Ms Sturgess who was poisoned with the nerve agent which was unwittingly given to her by her boyfriend Charlie Rowley.

Earlier, another officer, Det Sgt Nick Bailey, who was poisoned by the nerve agent, told the inquiry that Novichok left him “hot” and “freaking out”.

He was contaminated after the nerve agent was smeared on former Russian spy Mr Skripal’s door handle in Salisbury in March 2018.

Questioning Mr Bailey on his recollection of events, counsel to the inquiry Francesca Whitelaw said: “It is fair to say the poisoning had a very significant mental and physical impact on you?”

At the beginning of his evidence, Mr Bailey said: “My recollection of the events of March 2018 is hazy at best.

“I spent a lot of time dealing with it when it happened and dealing with the aftermath of it, processing it, and I got to a point where the only way for me to kind of move on from it was to stop thinking about it and to close it off.

“So it’s been some time since I have actually had to then go back to those events – so yes, my memory of the incident isn’t the best.”

Mr Bailey recalled a colleague calling the control room to say “a Russian spy has been poisoned”.

“It is not something that I had heard before and it’s not something I had thought I would ever hear again,” he said.

“It was a bizarre incident.

“I remember thinking ‘I will never hear that phrase on a Wiltshire Police radio again’.”

Mr Bailey was then asked to recall entering Mr Skripal’s address, detailing everything he touched in the house.

He also spoke of how his symptoms worsened overnight after being poisoned.

He said: “Overnight, I would describe it as getting a lot worse.

“I went down at around five in the morning because I was freaking out a little and my vision was impaired.

“Once I turned the lights on, everything was crystal clear and it was juddered as opposed to being a smooth motion of looking around.

“It was almost in frames – it was quite scary.”

The inquiry chairman Lord Hughes concluded Mr Bailey’s evidence by saying: “I am very conscious you have had to relive a very nasty experience but it was necessary and thank you for doing it.”

The inquiry continues.