UK to Hold Public Inquiry Into Death of Alleged Novichok Victim Dawn Sturgess

British national Dawn Sturgess died in July 2018 from alleged poisoning by the ‘Novichok’ nerve agent four months after the attack on former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal.

The British government will hold a public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who died after allegedly ingesting Novichok in 2018.

The inquiry will be held in Salisbury Guildhall and at venues in London and will start "as soon as is reasonably possible in 2022."

Home Secretary Priti Patel said: "We are establishing an inquiry to ensure that all relevant evidence can be considered, with the hope that the family of Dawn Sturgess will get the answers they need and deserve."

Ms Sturgess, who was 44, died after her boyfriend Charlie Rowley found a perfume bottle in a rubbish bin in Amesbury, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. Rowley survived but she died on 8 July 2018.

The British police claim the perfume bottle had been used by Russian intelligence agents to smuggle novichok into the country.

UK prosecutors have charged three Russians with attempting to kill Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Priti Patel at Conservative Party conference in October 2021

© AP Photo / Jon Super / Priti Patel

Russia has denied any involvement in the incident and the two main suspects, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov maintained they were in Salisbury as tourists around the time of the Skripal poisoning.

The Metropolitan Police claims Petrov and Boshirov were fake names and claims their real names were Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga.

A third suspect has been named as Denis Sergeev, who UK police say was travelling under the name Sergey Fedotov,

The public inquiry will be chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, who was nominated by the Lord Chief Justice.

Ms Patel said: "I want to thank Baroness Hallett for agreeing to take on the role of chair and will be carefully considering her recommendations in this case. Above all though, my thoughts remain with Dawn’s family."

She went on to say: "As the sponsoring department, the Home Office will provide support and ensure that the inquiry has the resources that it needs."

Composite photo of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

© Photo : AFP, Facebook/Yulia Skripal

The inquiry will supersede an inquest which began in 2019.

In December 2019 David Ridley, the senior coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, invited Petrov and Boshirov to aid the inquest into Dawn Sturgess’s death.

The British government, which expelled Russian diplomats before the investigation even concluded, has never explained why Russia wanted to target Sergei Skripal, a convicted double agent who was pardoned and lived in the UK as part of a spy swap programme.

Nor have researchers at the Porton Down lab verified the country in which the poison used in Salisbury and Amesbury was produced, while the UK rejected Russia’s request for a joint investigation.