Dawn Sturgess inquiry: Counter terrorism unit 'dismissive' of police concerns ex-spy was poisoned

Counter-terrorism police’s are said to have been "very dismissive" to Wiltshire Police when it suggested a former Russian spy had been poisoned in Salisbury, an inquiry has heard.

A top counter terrorism officer has now admitted the special branch's response was "extremely disappointing".

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said the officer who took calls on the evening of 4 March 2018 had not “necessarily performed to the standard that we would have expected from all of our officers”.

He is giving evidence at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, which is examining how a British woman was fatally poisoned after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok.

An email sent in April 2021 by Wiltshire Police Inspector Gill Hughes, previously shown to the inquiry, said special branch had been “very dismissive” of the information the control room provided about Mr Skripal’s poisoning.

Counsel to the inquiry Andrew O’Connor asked Mr Murphy on Tuesday: “If Inspector Hughes is right about the way in which her queries were responded to, would you agree that that is an inappropriate and unprofessional way to react to a query?”

Mr Murphy replied: "Yes. It’s extremely disappointing actually.

"We ask a lot of CTP (counter-terrorism police) officers performing on-call duty all around the country, and of course – particularly when we’re encouraging forces to get in touch with us – we clearly expect the on-call CTP officer to provide an entirely professional response in terms of how they approach that contact.

"I have had the opportunity to look and see the evidence provided in the last few days and I don’t think that officer necessarily performed to the standard that we would have expected from all of our officers."

Mr Murphy recalled sending police officers into scenes "contaminated with one of the most dangerous substances on the planet" after the Novichok poisonings.

He told the inquiry it was an "extremely sobering moment" when they discovered a nerve agent was present in the Wiltshire city.

Mr Murphy, who had also worked on the case of poisoned Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, said the Salisbury poisonings were "truly an unprecedented incident of a scale that we had not seen".

Officers were investigating the attempted murders of former spy Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and then-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in Salisbury in March 2018.

Ms Sturgess, 44, died on 8 July 2018 after she was exposed to the nerve agent, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in nearby Amesbury, Wiltshire. The perfume bottle contained enough Novichok to kill thousands of people.

Speaking about the level of media interest in the incident at the inquiry, Mr Murphy said: "Even with (the Litvinenko case) in mind, this was truly an unprecedented incident of a scale that we had not seen both in terms of the media interest and, even in the early hypothesis that this had been a state sponsored incident.

"Clearly, that then brings additional complexities into how we communicate with each other, day-to-day management of our investigation.

"It was so unprecedented on lots of levels, but yes, media were real and present in every aspect of Salisbury, in almost every aspect of police activity."

Counsel to the inquiry Andrew O’Connor then said: "It must also have brought into focus the tension… between, on the one hand the role of the police and the need to protect the public."

Mr Murphy replied: "Yes."

Mr O’Connor continued: "The need to protect the public must have been all the more obvious once you realised that there was actually a nerve agent in play?"

The officer responded: "I would describe it as a very sobering moment that there was a chemical warfare agent present in Salisbury, responsible for Sergei and Yulia’s poisoning.

"We had a number of scenes now that we were clearly deeply concerned were contaminated with that and yes, there were significant implications then for anybody who may have been to those locations and of course where there might be contamination that we are unaware of.

"So yes, it’s an extremely sobering moment in a very unusual investigation."

The counsel to the inquiry then asked: "There are similar considerations, are there not, relating to the safety of your police officers?"

Mr Murphy said: "Yes, absolutely.

"As you will no doubt hear, we were putting police officers in scenes that were contaminated with one of the most dangerous substances on the planet and that was a very substantial decision to be taking in a leadership sense.

"But also, those officers were all volunteers going into that work."

The inquiry has also heard from Nick Bailey, a Detective Sergeant at the time who was contaminated by the nerve agent. He held back tears as he gave evidence, describing his fear as his symptoms began to set in.

The inquiry continues.

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