Live Salisbury inquiry: Perfume bottle ‘had enough Novichok to kill thousands’
The perfume bottle carrying the Russian nerve agent that killed Dawn Sturgess contained “enough poison to kill thousands of people”, the inquiry into her death has been told.
The public inquiry into the fatal poisoning of a British woman, who was exposed to the chemical weapon Novichok, opened this morning.
Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the Dawn Sturgess inquiry, said: “This bottle - which we shall hear contained enough poison to kill thousands of people - must earlier have been left somewhere in a public place creating the obvious risk that someone would find it and take it home.
“You may conclude, sir, that those who discarded the bottle in this way acted with a grotesque disregard for human life.”
Ms Sturgess, 44, died after coming into contact with the chemical weapon in July 2018, following the attempted murder of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
The inquiry, chaired by The Rt Hon Lord Hughes of Ombersley, is taking place at the Guildhall in Salisbury from Oct 14-18.
Skripal points finger at Putin for signing off on assassination
Former spy Sergei Skripal has accused President Putin of personally ordering his assassination.
Mr Skripal said in his witness statement, read to the inquiry: “I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. 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.
“That he [Putin] ordered the attack is my private opinion, based on my years of experience and my analysis of the continuous degradation of Russia. I do not have concrete evidence to support this.”
He added: “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.”
Putin ordered Novichok attack, says British Government
The British Government has accused Vladmimir Putin of ordering the Novichok attack on Sergei Skripal which led to Dawn Sturgess’ death, the inquiry has heard.
The public inquiry into the fatal poisoning of a British woman, who was exposed to the chemical weapon Novichok, opened this morning.
In a statement to the public inquiry Jonathan Allen, a senior Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office official, said: “In light of the required seniority under Russian law to approve assassinations of suspected terrorists outside Russia, and that this incident concerned a politically sensitive target (Mr Skripal was a UK citizen, and was targeted on UK soil), it is HMG’s view that President Putin authorised the operation.”
Although ministers have previously pointed the finger at the Russian President, this is a rare official confirmation of the Government’s belief that he was responsible.
Flight records tie Russian intelligence officers to London
Three Russian military intelligence officers at the centre of the Novichok inquiry had “travelled extensively” and “often together” in Europe before entering the UK ahead of the Salisbury poisonings, the inquiry heard.
The men flew from Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow, to London using the aliases Alexander Petrov, Ruslan Boshirov and Sergey Fedotov, the inquiry was told.
It heard their real names are Aleksandr Mishkin, Anatoly Chepiga and Denis Sergeev, and in 2018 they were each associated with unit 29155 of the GRU Russian military agency.
Fedotov landed at Heathrow on the morning of Friday March 2 2018 and returned two days later, while Petrov and Boshirov arrived together at Gatwick on Friday afternoon and left together on Sunday, said Andrew O’Connor KC.
Skripal kept real identity because he felt ‘safe’ in Salisbury
The inquiry was told that Sergei Skripal turned down suggestions by the British intelligence services that he change his name in order to protect his identity after he left Russia, adding that he felt safe in Salisbury.
In a statement he said: “I believe I was offered protection, including changing my name. It was never suggested that this was a necessary option and I decided against it.
“I had received a Presidential pardon from the Russian state and wanted to lead as normal a life as possible, including maintaining my personal and family relationships.”
Mr Skripal added: “I did not think, and it was not suggested, that I needed to live in a gated community or a block of flats. Christie Miller Road was a quiet street built for police officers.
“Several neighbours were ex-police. Residents knew and kept an eye out for each other. I felt quite safe there.”
Andrew O’Connor KC said the inquiry would examine whether enough was done to protect Mr Skripal and whether “it was appropriate in all the circumstances to allow Mr Skripal, as appears to have been the case, to decline certain security measures”.
Mr Skripal, who was born in Russia, served as a paratrooper, and later as a member of the GRU – Russian Military Intelligence - before being convicted in Russia on espionage charges in 2004 after he was alleged to have spied for Britain.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison but in 2010 he was given a presidential pardon and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange.
Still unclear where Sturgess’ boyfriend found perfume bottle
The inquiry may never “arrive at a single convincing explanation” for how Dawn Sturgess’ boyfriend came to find the bottle of perfume containing the Novichok which killed her. Andrew O’Connor KC has said.
Counsel to the inquiry said Charlie Rowley’s recollection of the events that led him to find the bottle, and where he did so, remained sketchy.
“Charlie Rowley was unable to provide a clear answer to these questions. He initially said that he had no recollection of when or where he had found the bottle,” said Mr O’Connor, adding:
“He subsequently suggested that he may have picked it up off the street in either Amesbury or Salisbury. Later still he became confident that he had found it shortly before he gave it to Dawn in a bin in the Brown Street car park, a bin that was used by a charity shop on Catherine Street.”
Mr O’Connor added: “We will explore these various scenarios, and quite possibly others, over the coming weeks. However, as will I imagine already be apparent, we are not optimistic that we will arrive at a single convincing explanation.”
CCTV shows Russian agents roaming Salisbury
CCTV images shown to the public inquiry captured the two Russian agents arriving in Salisbury and carrying out a reconnaissance visit of the area, while being careful to avoid the city centre.
The next day, on March 4, 2018, Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin returned to Salisbury from London and were captured by CCTV walking towards the Skripals’ home on the edge of Salisbury.
CCTV cameras did not capture their route past the house, where they are thought to have smeared the door handle with Novichok, but it showed them emerging onto a nearby main road and returning towards the city centre.
Andrew O’Connor KC said the inquiry would have to examine a number of questions about Chepiga and Mishkin’s movements in Salisbury, including whether they had brought with them the perfume bottle which killed Ms Sturgess.
“Where did they go and what did they do during the missing 31 minutes in the area of the city centre?,” said Mr O’Connor, adding: “Was the perfume bottle that CR gave to DS months later with such terribleconsequences brought to Salisbury on that Sunday by these two men?
“If so, did they discard it in the city centre during the missing 31 minutes, or at a different time and in a different place?”
The pair also denied having brought the bottle of Nina Ricci perfume to Britain in Heathrow costumes, saying they would have looked odd had women’s perfume been found in their possession.
Inquiry shown suspected assassins’ TV interview
The inquiry has been shown an extract of the interview Russia Today conducted with ‘Alexander Petrov’ and ‘Ruslan Boshirov’, aliases for Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin - the agents suspected of carrying out the Salisbury poisonings.
The pair claimed they were tourists and their sole reason for visiting the UK was to see the historic sites of “wonderful” Salisbury, on the recommendation of a friend, including the cathedral “famous for its 123-metre spire”.
Downing Street responded at the time by dismissing their account as “lies and blatant fabrications” which would be “deeply offensive” to the victims of the chemical weapons attack.
Doctors initially thought symptoms were drug overdose
Dawn Sturgess’s family want to understand why doctors initially theorised that her symptoms may have been caused by a drug overdose when she was taken to hospital, Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the Dawn Sturgess inquiry, said.
Mr O’Connor added the family wish to know “whether any of the things that may have gone wrong in Dawn’s treatment could have made a difference to her chances of survival”, adding: “To use a legal term - if there were failings, were they causative?”
Family deserves to know if mistakes were made, says counsel
Andrew O’Connor KC said the family of Dawn Sturgess deserve to know if mistakes were made by the UK in protecting a double agent targeted by Russia which might have led to her death.
He told the hearing: “A question Dawn Sturgess’ family are particularly concerned that [the inquiry] should investigate – had the UK government taken appropriate steps to protect both Sergei Skripal from attack and the wider public from the collateral damage of any such attack?
“To put the same question another way, is it possible that mistakes were made in protecting Sergei Skripal that might indirectly have contributed to DS’s death?”
The inquiry was shown CCTV photographs of the Skripals leaving their home after coming into contact with the poison and visiting the centre of Salisbury before collapsing on a riverside bench from the effect of Novichok two hours later.
Risk to public after perfume bottle discarded with enough Novichok to kill thousands
An “obvious risk” to the public was created when the perfume bottle containing “enough poison to kill thousands of people” was discarded in a bin, the inquiry into Dawn Sturgess’ death has been told.
Andrew O’Connor KC said: “A particularly shocking feature of Dawn’s death is that she unwittingly applied the poison to her own skin.
“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.
“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.”
Photographs of the Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume bottle were shown to the inquiry.
Who are the lawyers in the counsel?
The counsel comprises Andrew O’Connor KC, Francesca Whitelaw KC and Émilie Pottle.
Mr O’Connor KC has previously appeared at the 7/7 inquests, the Hillsborough inquests, the Litvinenko Inquiry, the Manchester Arena Inquiry and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
He acted as one of the counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and was also leading counsel to the Inquests into the deaths of the four young men killed in East London by Stephen Port.
He is currently acting for the Ministry of Defence in the Independent Inquiry into allegations of misconduct by UK Special Forces in Afghanistan.
Ms Whitelaw KC has been involved in inquiries following terror attacks including the Fishmongers’ Hall Inquest, the Sudesh Amman Inquest, and the Forbury Gardens Inquests.
She has also been a part of inquiries into the infected blood scandal, Omagh Bombings and the Inquests into the deaths of trainee soldiers at Deepcut Barracks.
Émilie Pottle specialises in public and international law, having represented the UK and foreign government departments, individuals and NGOs.
‘Why has this taken so long?’ counsel asks
Andrew O’Connor KC has questioned the time taken for the inquiry to begin in earnest.
“Why has it all taken so long?” he said, adding: “It is six years since Dawn Sturgess died. That is a long time to wait for answers, especially of course for her family.”
The latest financial report in March 2024 put total costs to date for the inquiry at more than £2.3 million.
As of March, the total legal costs had run to £1,385,870, IT Costs were £83,548, staffing costs £798,721 and estates and hearings £93,517. The Chairman costs have come to £45,487, while the Inquiry Secretary’s costs have reached £211,764.
‘Caught in the crossfire of an outrageous assassination attempt’
Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel for the Inquiry, has opened by saying Dawn Sturgess was the unintentional victim of an attempted assassination.
He said: “She has been caught, an innocent victim, in the crossfire of an illegal and outrageous international assassination attempt.”
Members of a Russian military intelligence squad, Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, were suspected of smearing the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle.
The pair later claimed to have been tourists, telling Russia Today that they had visited the cathedral city “famous for its 123-metre spire”.
An international arrest warrant was issued for the three Russian men thought to be involved in the attacks on British soil.
The Russian constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens and it is therefore unlikely they will ever stand trial.
Inquiry begins
The judge-led public inquiry, which is sitting at Salisbury’s historic Guildhall this week before moving to London, will determine how and why Ms Sturgess came to die.
It will be required to consider highly confidential material which the inquiry chair, the former Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes of Ombersley, has deemed will impact on national security and can only be examined in closed hearings, on grounds of national security.
Ms Sturgess’ bereaved parents Stan and Caroline, and her two sons and teenage daughter, hope the inquiry will finally begin to answer the questions that have hung over her death since the day Mr Rowley picked up the adulterated bottle of perfume six years ago.
Caroline Sturgess told The Telegraph before the opening of the inquiry: “What happened to Dawn was so, so sad. It was just awful. It’s been so difficult.
“It’s been so long and there are so many questions that still haven’t been answered.”
Skripals will not give evidence over safety fears
A former spy and his daughter poisoned by the deadly nerve agent Novichok will not give evidence at the Russian-state Salisbury poisonings inquiry over fears for their safety.
The judge leading the inquiry previously said if Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are identified and their current whereabouts are discovered, the risk of an attack on them “is not properly controllable”.
Lord Hughes said the Skripals had provided further statements addressing specific questions raised by the Sturgess family and that transcripts of police interviews with the father and daughter had been disclosed.
Who is chairing the Inquiry?
The Rt Hon Anthony Hughes of Ombersley was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1970 and served as a Recorder of the Crown Court from 1985 to 1997. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1990 and was later appointed a judge of the High Court (Family Division from 1997 to 2003 and Queen’s Bench Division from 2004 to 2006).
In 2006, he was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, serving as the Vice President of its Criminal Division from 2009 until his appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court in April 2013. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court from April 2013 to August 2018.
He is currently a Judicial Commissioner under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, working with the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.
Dawn Sturgess’s ‘voice’ must be heard at Novichok inquiry, say family
The family of the only fatality of the Salisbury Novichok poisonings have said “her voice must be heard” at the public inquiry into her death.
The judge-led inquiry will seek to establish how and why Dawn Sturgess came to die in the Russian poison attack in 2018.
For her bereaved parents Stan and Caroline, and for her two sons and teenage daughter, the inquiry may finally begin to answer the questions that have hung over her death the past six years.
Read the full story here.
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