Dad poisoned by Novichok handed lad bread for ducks AFTER exposure to deadly nerve agent ‘that could have killed 1,000s’
A DAD who was poisoned by Novichok handed a young boy bread to feed ducks after he was exposed to the deadly nerve agent.
Suspected Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were targets of the toxic substance attack in Salisbury, in March 2018.
The cruel nerve agent was spread on their front door handle and later concealed in a perfume bottle that had “enough poison to kill thousands of people”.
Mum-of-three Dawn Sturgess, 44, was also “caught in the crossfire” and tragically died in July after exposure to the Novichok, an inquest heard.
New CCTV images have now revealed how Sergei and Yulia were walking around happily after being contaminated with the nerve agent.
The pair went into a pub and the dad even gave a child bread while they stopped to feed some ducks.
They also visited a Zizzi’s restaurant before sitting down to relax on a park bench – where they eventually collapsed.
Sergei and Yulia survived the Novichok poisoning after a gruelling stint in hospital.
The duo spent two years hauled up in an MI5 safe house, and are understood to have relocated to a secret location overseas.
Dawn Sturgess sadly died after she was exposed and her boyfriend Charlie Rowley, 45, was seriously ill.
Charlie had found the perfume bottle, discarded by the Russian poisoners seven miles away from the Salisbury attack, and innocently gifted it to Dawn.
Heartbreaking CCTV footage revealed the mum’s final moments before she succumbed to the nerve agent.
She was pictured wearing a pink summer dress and straw hat walking around Amesbury town.
The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes of Ombersley, began on Monday at The Guildhall in Salisbury.
Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the Dawn Sturgess inquiry, told the hearing: “When Ms Sturgess was poisoned by Novichok four months after the Skripal poisoning, 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.”
He added: “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.
“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.”
He added it could be determined those who threw away the bottle “acted with a grotesque disregard for human life”.
At the inquiry, Dawn’s family described her as an “intelligent, funny, extremely selfless and very kind person”.
She was also a “very loved mother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, auntie, niece, cousin and friend”.
A tribute written by Dawn’s mother Caroline Sturgess read: “She always cared deeply for her family and many friends that surrounded her.
“She did not judge a single person and strived to make others happy even when she didn’t feel like smiling herself.”
The hearing also heard from Sergei, via a statement, to protect his safety it was decided he and his daughter would not attend in person.
He said: “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 is what I meant when I said ‘special services in Russia will do nothing again without permission Putin’ that he 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.”
The former spy claimed when he was working in GRU special services he was told of allegations that “Putin had been involved in illegal activity to do with the disposal of rare metals”.
He also said he believed poisoning was a “KGB technique” because it is “not honourable”.
Sergei highlighted the poisoning of Litvinenko in 2006 and said he has read claims that “Putin is personally very interested in poison”.
“I think Yulia was right in principle when she said ‘If [the Russian government] want to kill you they will find a way anywhere'”, he added.
“Nobody can be protected 100% from an assassin, especially one who plans carefully or is prepared to die.”