Skripal Novichok poisoning police sergeant back at work

A police officer poisoned in the Salisbury Novichok attack has returned to active duty.

Det Sgt Nick Bailey was contaminated with the nerve agent in March at the home of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, where it had been sprayed on the door handle, and needed hospital treatment.

Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Angus Macpherson confirmed the officer had now returned to work.

"He's doing very well and we look forward to working with him," he said.

"He's making a good recovery - but I suspect the mental recovery will be longer, as it would for any of us who were exposed to something as horrific as that.

"He will be given all the support he needs."

Speaking to the BBC in November, Det Sgt Bailey described being "petrified" when doctors broke the news to him he had been poisoned with Novichok.

He and two colleagues were sent to the Skripals' home, after the former Russian spy and his daughter were found seriously ill on a bench in Salisbury on the afternoon of Sunday 4 March.

The Skripals survived the attack, which Prime Minister Theresa May said had "almost certainly" been approved by the Russian state.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill in Amesbury months after the incident and died in hospital in July after coming into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the attack on the Skripals and then discarded.

Her partner, Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the same nerve agent but was treated and discharged.

Two Russian nationals were accused of travelling to the UK to try to murder Mr Skripal with Novichok.

The two men - known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - were caught on CCTV in Salisbury the day before the attack.