Inquiry Reveals Child’s Illness Following Contact with Former Spy

It has been disclosed that a boy became unwell after an interaction with Sergei Skripal on the same day he and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with Novichok. On Monday, the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry was presented with CCTV footage depicting Mr. Skripal engaging with the child, giving him bread for feeding ducks in Salisbury. The boy, along with two other individuals, was subsequently identified during the investigation and reported feeling ill for approximately one to two days following this interaction. Nevertheless, the inquiry was informed that no traces of the chemical weapon were detected on them when they underwent testing. Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, assisted the inquiry in reconstructing the movements of Sergei and Yulia Skripal on March 4, 2018. This involved presenting footage of them driving into Salisbury, providing bread to a boy for feeding ducks, having a beverage at The Mill pub, and proceeding to Zizzi restaurant. Mr. Murphy informed the inquiry that this data enabled detectives to establish the “time parameters of when the Novichok is likely to have been applied to that door as 6pm on the Saturday and 1.30pm on the Sunday, when (the Skripals) then left.” The inquiry into Ms. Sturgess’s death has recommenced in London, having initially opened in Salisbury’s Guildhall earlier this month. Ms. Sturgess, aged 44, passed away in July 2018 after exposure to Novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire. She had sprayed herself with a “significant amount” of the nerve agent, which was contained within a perfume bottle discovered in a charity collection bin by her partner, Charlie Rowley. The inquiry is currently receiving evidence concerning potential connections between her demise and the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter in March 2018. The UK security services attributed responsibility for the attack to Russia. On Tuesday, off-duty medical personnel who provided initial aid to Mr. Skripal and Yulia in Salisbury town centre presented their testimonies to the public inquiry. The inquiry learned that Alison McCourt, who was then the chief nurse of the British Army, was one of two individuals to first respond to the incident on March 4, 2018. During the inquiry, Ms. McCourt, who departed from the army in 2022, addressed a document issued by the Russian Embassy, which claimed there had been “no attempt to explain” the “extraordinary coincidence” of her being in the vicinity at that time. She characterized any implications that her involvement was linked to the incident as “malicious,” asserting that her presence in Salisbury with her family was coincidental, driven by her children’s desire to visit a Nando’s restaurant. Ms. McCourt maintained in her witness statement, read by counsel to the inquiry Francesca Whitelaw KC, that her role was that of a “first responder member of the public.” She further stated that she would not have subjected herself or her daughter to the danger of Novichok exposure if she had known the Skripals had been poisoned with the nerve agent. One week following the incident, Ms. McCourt’s family vehicle was confiscated by the army and the police “under full bio-hazard conditions.” The second off-duty medic was Dr. Helen Ord, a paediatric intensive care doctor at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Upon approaching the Skripals after observing them on a bench, she stated she “instantly thought they weren’t well.” In her testimony, she informed the inquiry that her initial suspicion was food poisoning. She elaborated, “What I found particularly odd, which is what made me notice them, was the position of the two of them.” Dr. Ord continued, “Sergei was sat bolt upright, appeared to be staring into space. I could see he was moving his mouth but he wasn’t talking to anybody… that struck me as odd.” She added, “The lady next to him was also in an odd position.” Dr. Ord recalled telling her then-partner, “‘they don’t look well’.” In a written statement, Dr. Ord recounted that a police officer instructed her to discard her clothes on the same day.