Novichok Poisoning (a Nerve Agent)

Our Novichok nightmare: Former Russian spy and his daughter targeted by Putin in Salisbury poisonings relive hell of hallucinations 'like LSD' that left them close to death

A former Russian spy and his daughter targeted by Vladimir Putin in a chemical attack on the streets of Britain have revealed the terrifying details of their ordeal for the first time.

Sergei Skripal, a double agent who had passed intelligence to MI6, and his then 33-year-old daughter Yulia nearly lost their lives in the attack by Russian assassins in Salisbury on March 4, 2018.

The Skripals, who were poisoned after the deadly nerve agent Novichok was sprayed on the doorknob of Mr Skripal's home, spent three weeks in comas and endured a long and painful recovery. They have been in hiding ever since.

The doorknob of Mr Skripal's home, where the Novichok was smeared on 

Now, their account of the Salisbury Poisoning, as it became known, has been revealed in statements issued to the official inquiry into the poisonings.

They reveal their symptoms began as they were eating lunch at the Italian restaurant chain Zizzi in Salisbury.

Ms Skripal, who had flown into Britain from Russia the previous day, recounts how the pair initially found it 'funny' when their eyes began to twitch.

But their symptoms rapidly worsened and led to increasing breathlessness, vivid hallucinations and vomiting. 

Ms Skripal says that, as the deadly poison took hold after leaving the restaurant, 'everything in the street was swinging around, really, really bad' and that she had to 'hold hands with my dad'.

Sergei Skripal with his daughter. Yulia's symptoms began as they were eating lunch at the Italian restaurant chain Zizzi in Salisbury

Yulia Skripal speaks to a journalist on May 23, 2018 in London

After walking for a few minutes towards the Sainsbury's car park where Mr Skripal had parked his red BMW, they had to take a break.

Ms Skripal says: 'We sat on the bench to catch some breath. When I sat down it was a very strange and scary feeling almost everything was blurred and colours were changing….you see it's pink, red, blue, so it's like being on LSD or amphetamines.'

She says she fell unconscious within seconds. She believes she could have choked on her own vomit had she not been helped by members of the public, who dialled 999.

In his statement, Mr Skripal said: 'I remember hallucinating and seeing Arabic men and women. I tried to punch one of them. I knew it was a hallucination because there are not a lot of Arabic people in Salisbury.'

CCTV cameras showed Ms Skripal leaning on her father's shoulder. She did not appear to be moving 'other than making circle motions with her left hand'. 

Mr Skripal, 74, recalls the moment he woke from his coma: 'When I stopped dreaming I thought it had been one day, but really it had been 21 days.'

The incident sparked a huge investigation by counter-terror police, which involved 180 military experts in chemical warfare defence and decontamination.

The Dawn Sturgess inquiry, which is being led by Justice Lord Hughes of Ombersley, is named after the 44-year-old who was the only person who died as a result of the poisonings.

The mother-of-three inadvertently sprayed herself with Novichok after her boyfriend found the discarded nerve agent in a perfume bottle. She died three weeks later.

Suspicion focused on Russia when testing on what appeared to be a 'military grade nerve agent' revealed it had been developed by the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Novichok is a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union and Russia between 1971 and 1993.

Scientists claim is the deadliest nerve agent ever made.

Investigators in protective gear  are seen in England in 2018 following the Salisbury poisonings

Police believe the poison was administered by two men who flew into Britain a day before Ms Skripal under the fake names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov (pictured)

Lord Hughes ordered that the Skripals should not give evidence in person or remotely in case it gave away their location. The inquiry will deliver its verdict next month.

Mr Skripal a former colonel in Russian spy agency GRU, was arrested in Russia in 2004 and was serving a 15-year jail term for passing information to MI6 during the 1990s and 2000s when he was released in 2010 during a spy swap. But the Kremlin's position is that double agents will ultimately 'meet their fate'.

Police believe the poison was administered by two men who flew into Britain a day before Ms Skripal under the fake names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. That July, the spies were identified by the Foreign Office as Ivan Yermakov and Aleksey Lukashev.

They sparked ridicule after claiming they were in Salisbury to see the 'famous 123m spire' of the city's cathedral.

The British Government also accuses the pair of hacking Ms Skripal's emails since 2013, using a malware called X-Agent. The men are also on the FBI's most-wanted list for their alleged role in interfering in the US presidential elections in 2016.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15294993/Novichok-Russian-spy-daughter-Putin-Salisbury-poisonings.html

DS Nick Bailey fought back the tears as he recalled nearly dying after arriving on the scene of the infamous Salisbury poisonings

He was sick within hours of attending the home of victims Sergei and Yulia Skripal and suffered a horrendous night's sleep.

He recalled: 'They were like nightmares or hallucinations, like pure heat and flames like light in front of my eyes, if you were able to get close enough to the surface of the sun.

'It's like a tsunami or pure heat and fire. It was terrifying.'

He took himself to A and E where a consultant told him he had been poisoned with a nerve agent.

Mr Bailey spent a fortnight critically ill in hospital.

Novichok victim Charlie Rowley (pictured) was making noises 'like a cow' and acting 'grossly abnormal' after he was poisoned by the Russian nerve agent, an inquiry heard

Novichok victim Charlie Rowley was making noises 'like a cow' and acting 'grossly abnormal' after he was poisoned by the Russian nerve agent, an inquiry heard.

Mr Rowley and his partner Dawn Sturgess were unknowingly exposed to the chemical agent, which was hidden inside a perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Paramedic Ben Channon told the inquiry on Friday he was sent to 'a gentleman that was reported as behaving strangely and hallucinating'.

Mr Channon said he found Mr Rowley 'up against a wall' with his hands 'almost as if he was climbing down the wall' and 'making noises very much like a cow and making mooing noises essentially'. 

The paramedic also noticed 'profuse amounts of saliva coming from his mouth'.

He added that he remembered he and his ambulance colleague 'looking at each other and being very concerned that this behaviour was grossly abnormal in comparison to anything that we perhaps encountered before'.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after she was exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire

She died after spraying it on her wrist.

Rowley told the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry of his horror at finding her 'convulsing and foaming at the mouth' at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

He said that she had described feeling 'very, very strange' and went to lie in the bath before falling ill.

He then went into the bathroom and found her in a desperate state, prompting him to call 999 in a panic, even forgetting where he lived.

Dawn began feeling unwell about 10 to 15 minutes after she sprayed the perfume on her wrist. 

She said that she felt 'very, very strange' and that she had to go and lie in the bath, which I thought was a bit strange.

'After a minute I went into the bathroom to see what she was doing and I found her lying in the bath with her clothes on, just lying in the bath, convulsing and foaming at the mouth and I panicked, I didn't know what to do. 

'Thoughts were running through my head and I didn't know what to do, I was thinking 'what do I do, what do I do'. The only thing I could think was to call 999, I did that and had a complete memory blank.'

Mr Rowley said he forgot where he lived and ran around his flat looking for some paperwork with his address on.

'I would like to clarify that I'd taken Dawn out of the bath before I called 999. The bath had not contained any water, Dawn was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.'

Police investigating Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury, where Dawn Sturgess had been before she fell ill after coming into contact with Novichok,

Wrong drug given

Paramedic Karl Bullpitt, who attended to Mr Skripal at the scene, described in writing how he had initially picked up naloxone - a drug used to treat opioid overdose - intending to administer it to the former spy.

However Mr Skripal vomited before he could give him the drug, and in a rush to clear his airways the paramedic knocked over the drugs bag inside the ambulance.

Once he had finished clearing his airway he picked up the vials he believed to be naloxone and administered it with a "good effect" Mr Bullpitt said, with Mr Skripal becoming "slightly more responsive".

This impact, he added, "bolstered" suspicions Mr Skripal had suffered an overdose.

But when Mr Bullpitt returned to the ambulance station later that day and went to restock the drugs bag, he realised there was no naloxone missing - meaning he must have administered a different drug.

He realised then he had instead given Mr Skripal atropine, which is carried to treat the symptoms of a low heart rate.

'Excellent' error

Discussing this in his evidence, FT49 said: "The inadvertent administration of atropine, yes, that was an excellent drug dosing error to make, and that was again clinically beneficial in maintaining Sergei’s heart rate.