Novichok inquiry: Perfume bottle contained enough poison to 'kill thousands'

• Watch latest on inquiry into death of Dawn Sturgess after Novichok poisoning

An "innocent" British woman may have been "caught in the crossfire" of an international assassination attempt, a public inquiry has heard.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.

It happened just a few months after the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury.

Ms Sturgess died after her boyfriend Charlie Rowley unwittingly gave her a perfume bottle containing the nerve agent. The mother-of-three collapsed at Mr Rowley's home in Amesbury and later died at Salisbury District Hospital.

An inquiry into her death, which started in Salisbury on Monday 14 October, heard there was "enough poison to kill thousands of people" in the bottle.

The UK security services blamed Russia for the attack and the inquiry will hear some highly classified evidence in private.

Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the Dawn Sturgess inquiry, said: “It’s no exaggeration to say the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess’s death were extraordinary, they were indeed unique.”

Ms Sturgess “lived a life that was wholly removed from the worlds of politics and international relations”, he added.

“When Ms Sturgess was poisoned by Novichok four months after the Skripal poisonings, the real possibility emerged that she had been caught – an innocent victim – in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt.

“Whether or not that is in fact what happened will, of course, be for you to determine.”

Who is Sergei Skripal?

Sergei Skripal was born in Russia and served as a paratrooper, and later as a member of Russian Military Intelligence the GRU, the inquiry heard.

He was convicted in Russia on espionage charges in 2004 after he was alleged to have spied for Britain.

Mr Skripal was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was given a presidential pardon and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange in 2010.

Mr Skripal then lived in Salisbury, mostly at a property in Christie Miller Road. It was at this house where he was poisoned with Novichok in March 2018.

The Russian nerve agent had been smeared on Mr Skripal's front door and he and his daughter Yulia were later found slumped on a shopping bench in the city.

During the opening of the inquiry, Mr O’Connor said Ms Sturgess was poisoned by a military grade chemical - Novichok - that had been concealed in the perfume bottle and left in a public place.

The perfume bottle contained “enough poison to kill thousands of people”, the inquiry into her death was told.

“She was entirely unaware of the mortal danger she faced, because the highly toxic liquid had been concealed – carefully and deliberately concealed – inside a perfume bottle," Mr O'Connor said.

“Moreover, the evidence will suggest that this bottle – which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people – must earlier have been left somewhere in public place creating the obvious risk that someone would find it and take it home."

He described those who discarded it as having a “grotesque disregard for human life”, adding: "The real possibility was she was caught in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt”.

But CCTV of the Skripals was played on the first day of the inquiry. It reveals how they walked through Salisbury city centre, going to a pub and then for a meal, before they were found slumped on a bench.

Neither Mr Skripal or his daughter will give evidence at the Russian-state Salisbury poisonings inquiry over fears for their safety.

But in the last week, Mr Skripal provided a further witness statement to the inquiry, in which he placed the blame firmly on Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attack on him and his daughter.

"I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself," he said. "I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me.

"Any GRU commander taking a decision like this without Putin’s permission would have been severely punished."

He said: “I had received a presidential pardon and was a free man with no convictions under Russian law.

“I never thought the Russian regime would try to murder me in Great Britain.

“They could have killed me easily if they wanted to when I was in prison.”

He added: "I think Yulia was right in principle when she said 'If [the Russian government] want to kill you they will find a way anywhere'.

"Nobody can be protected 100% from an assassin, especially one who plans carefully or is prepared to die.”

The inquiry also heard from Michael Mansfield KC, counsel on behalf of Dawn Sturgess’s family, that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal was “no bolt from the blue”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally referred to Mr Skripal as “a traitor who had left the motherland” and Mr Putin was “committed to eliminating, through chemical means, defectors deemed to have turned to Western intelligence”, Mr Mansfield said.

“The evidence suggests a risk to Mr Skripal that was real, substantial and foreseeable; as a result, did he or the UK authorities recognise the collateral risk posed to the community in which he resided, and were any precautionary measures for that community considered? These are central questions for this inquiry.

“Given Mr Skripal was a manifestly obvious target, what was done to prevent the attack? That is a question of profound importance – to Dawn’s family, to her partner, to the emergency services, and to the wider public. The Novichok attack against Mr Skripal caused Dawn’s death, nearly killed her partner, and placed first responders and the wider public – in Salisbury, Amesbury, London and more widely – at very great risk.

“If the attack could and should have been prevented by the UK authorities, Dawn’s family and partner are entitled to know – so are the wider public; was there a failure to prevent a chemical weapons attack on UK soil? Were countless members of the public put at risk, with the potential for hundreds or even thousands of deaths?”

The inquiry continues and will look into whether UK authorities took appropriate precautions to protect Mr Skripal from being attacked and examine whether the poisoning of Ms Sturgess could have been prevented.

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