Skripal home search 'still haunts me’ says officer

A detective inspector said the decision to search the home of two people poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok “still haunts" him, after a fellow officer became contaminated.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury in 2018.

Former police officer Nick Bailey was contaminated after the nerve agent was smeared on the door handle of the Skripals' home.

Giving evidence at the inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, Det Insp Ben Mant of Wiltshire Police said he had been concerned there may be other people in the property.

The poisoning of Mr Bailey followed the attempted murder of former spy Mr Skripal and his daughter and came a few months before Ms Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to Novichok left in a discarded perfume bottle in nearby Amesbury.

Det Insp Mant said he had been given a briefing on the Skripals' symptoms after they became unwell.

He said it was his decision to search their house, on Christie Miller Road, as his overriding concern was there could be another person inside who was “injured or potentially dying”.

“It’s something that still haunts me, as clearly Sergeant Bailey became very ill as a result of our actions that night,” he said.

Det Insp Mant travelled to the Skripals’ home with Mr Bailey and another officer, referred to as VN005, and told the inquiry they dressed in personal protective equipment including white suits, boot covers, gloves, goggles and surgical masks.

Det Insp Mant also said in a witness statement that all three of the officers inside the house raised their goggles at different times as they had “steamed up”.

“it clearly risks the potential for any contaminant on the outside of the gloves to be transferred to the skin," he said.

It was later brought to his attention that an officer outside the property had one pupil which was “the size of a pinprick” and the other “very dilated”.

“That was the moment of course it occurred to me that whatever it was we were dealing with is likely to have been at Christie Miller Road,” Mr Mant added.

The inquiry continues.

• Who was Dawn Sturgess and how was she poisoned?
• Justice for Novichok victims 'unlikely', says Theresa May

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