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LAST UPDATE | 9 Jul 2018
BRITISH POLICE HAVE launched a murder investigation after a woman died following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok, four months after the same toxin nearly killed a former Russian spy in an attack that Britain blamed on Moscow.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked” by the death of Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three who had been living in a homeless hostel in Salisbury in southwest England.
Sturgess and Charlie Rowley (45) fell ill last weekend in the town of Amesbury, near Salisbury, the city where former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with Novichok in March. They have since recovered.
London’s Metropolitan Police has confirmed that it has launched a murder investigation into the death of Sturgess.
The British government has called a meeting of its COBRA emergencies committee for 1pm.
The Kremlin said it would be “absurd” to suggest Russia was involved in the death of Sturgess.
“We don’t know that Russia has been mentioned or associated with this,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We consider that in any case it would be quite absurd.”
Russia is “deeply concerned by the continuing appearance of these poisonous substances on British territory,” which “present a danger not just for the British but for all Europeans,” Peskov added.
Britain and its allies accused Russia of trying to kill the Skripals, prompting angry denials and sparking an international diplomatic crisis.
‘No guarantees’
Police said they could not yet say whether the nerve agent in the Amesbury case was linked to the Salisbury attack – but it was their main line of inquiry.
The head of Britain’s counter-terror police, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, said: “At this stage, they are unable to say whether or not the nerve agent found in this incident is linked to the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal. However, this remains our main line of enquiry.
The investigation must be led by the evidence available and the facts alone.
Our focus and priority at this time is to identify and locate any container that we believe may be the source of the contamination.
He added that he could not rule out further contaminations.
“I simply cannot offer any guarantees,” said Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who is leading the investigation.
He said people in Salisbury should not pick up strange items such as needles, syringes or unusual containers.
Whilst 21 other people have come forward with health concerns, they have been screened and “all been given the all-clear”, he said.
Police and public health officials insist the risk to the wider public remains low.
‘Contaminated item’
Police said that given the deadly dose, the British couple were believed to have become exposed to Novichok by handling a “contaminated item”, with speculation that it could have been the container used to administer the nerve agent to the Skripals.
“In the four months since the Skripals and Nick Bailey were poisoned, no other people besides Dawn and Charlie have presented with symptoms,” Basu said.
“Their reaction was so severe, it resulted in Dawn’s death and Charlie being critically ill. This means that they must have got a high dose and our hypothesis is that they must have handled a container we are now seeking.”
Christine Blanshard, medical director at Salisbury District Hospital, where Sturgess and Rowley were being treated and where the Skripals were hospitalised, told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that staff had “worked tirelessly to save Dawn”.
“This latest, horrendous turn of events has only served to strengthen the resolve of our investigation team as we work to identify those responsible for this outrageous, reckless and barbaric act,” said Basu.
He said Rowley remained critically ill in hospital.
‘Praying for Charlie’
Residents of the homeless hostel in Salisbury where Sturgess lived, which was evacuated after the couple fell ill, expressed their devastation at the news of her death.
“It could easily have happened to anyone, to me or my partner,” 27-year-old Ben Jordan told AFP. “We are really, really sad. I am praying for Charlie.”
In a statement this afternoon, Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said: “I wish to pass on our sincere condolences to Dawn’s children, her wider family and friends at this terrible time.
I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering they must be feeling, coupled with all the questions they clearly need answers to.
“I know this news will affect more people than just those who knew Dawn. In addition to her family and friends, I appreciate it is highly likely this will send a huge shockwave across our communities.”
Around 100 counter-terrorism officers are helping in the investigation, which police said on Friday could take “weeks and months”.
So far, there is no evidence that the couple visited any of the sites involved in the Skripal case.
In his statement, Basu said: “As I’ve said before, there is no evidence that either Dawn or Charlie visited any of the sites that were decontaminated following the attempted murders of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.”
Sturgess collapsed on the morning of 30 June and was taken to hospital. That afternoon, Rowley fell ill at the same address in Amesbury and was also hospitalised.
On Wednesday, the government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down confirmed their exposure to Novichok.
Police said yesterday they were not yet able to say whether the nerve agent was from the same batch that the Skripals were exposed to.
The Skripals have been released from hospital but the investigation into the attack on them continues. No arrests have been made.
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Does the propaganda warhorse keep trotting on or is this just sheer negligence on the part of the police? There’s been no one there for 3 weeks so the animals clearly starved
@Skinnerbot: ha ha ha ha.. cue Big Boris racing to euthanize the pets..
@Skinnerbot: That’s pretty clearly implied by the article, and it’s stated that there’s no evidence the nerve agent played a part at all.
@Skinnerbot: how did the Russians know about the pets….. Intriguing
@JustOneScoop: Wouldn’t the mans family know about them ffs. They must have assumed the intensive investigation would have dicovered them.
@Skinnerbot: the cat they could find was euthanised and other cat hasn’t been recovered, it’s only the guinea pigs that starved/died from dehydration
@Skinnerbot: Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey collapsed with nerve agent poisoning after entering Sergei Skirpal’s house on the day Yulia and Sergei Skripal were poisoned. Obviously, for safety reasons, they then sealed the house with the pets inside.
And where did you get the idea the cat was abandoned without water for 3 weeks? Cat’s die after 4-5 days without water, so obviously the cat was rescued before then, maybe after 2 or 3 days in the house alone.
@Karen Wellington: the cat was euthanised because of malnutrition.
@Skinnerbot: If the 8th is repealed animals will have rights than humans
@cormac o neill: Reporting this account to twitter for spreading false information.
@JustOneScoop:
Apparently they also knew that the Skripals had been away from their mobile phones for four hours. Maybe I missed it but I don’t remember this being reported.
@Guy Incognito: Don’t worry that will be the next bit of BS that comes from the british propaganda camp.
@David Jordan: think that cop colllapsed near the bench in town
Dead of malnutrition and abandonment after the po po left them there. Not dead from any nerve agent. Interesting. It’s always the tiny details that mess up a seemingly good lie.
@Joe Mc mahon: The House was sealed after a Police Officer collapsed from poison. I doubt very much that the Police priority thinking was the welfare of the Guinea pigs or a cat.
@Joe Mc mahon: The highest concentrations of nerve agent was found on the door handle of the front door. There was no nerve agent in the house.
@David Jordan: look at the two Jordan brothers, gobbling up all the tripe that the beeb feeds you.
@Mick Jordan: mick, i will keep referring to the pictures of policemen in short sleeves standing right beside this heavily contaminated doorhandle for days on end. Even you at this stage must admit this whole story is a flase flag event. If even one english hooligan is injured during the world cup, there is luttle doubt the brits will use it as an excuse to sell heavy weapons to ukraine on the grounds of self defense against the big bad russians.
@Mick Jordan: Just hope the Police make a priority of the truth and are able to withstand the enevitable pressure to come up with the ‘right’ result. John Stalker comes to mind among others.
@Cal Mooney: So it’s all a conspiracy? And hundreds of people are in on it? Even the Russians and Putin himself accept that a nerve agent was used!! You really want to check back with Moscow as to what the Official line is today. The Samples of which are with the OPCW who in turn have confirmed that the chain of custody from the samples they took is secure.
@Cal Mooney:
Have you got any photos of the policemen touching the door handle with bare hands? Thought not.
@Walt Jabsco: It gets confusining for poor Cal, with Russia pumping out so many different stories (24 at the last count), it’s hard for him to keep up on what the Official Russian line is at any given moment.
@Ixion99: So you agree the Russian Government is lying!! Good to read.
@Cal Mooney: Policeman in short sleeves in March. Interesting.
The UK government and their rotten controlled MSM are pathetic at this stage…….egg on the face to the western governments and shame on this republics government Simon Coveney and the like.
@noBankAccBertie: are you a bit of a bot or just bitter?
This makes zero sense – on the other Journal Skripal article this morning, all the Russian accounts posting comments told us that the pets were fine and that therefore it wasn’t beautiful, superior Russia who did this and the real issue was that Britain wouldn’t answer mother Russia’s legitimate questions…
Seriously, every news site is filled with pro russian, Britain skeptical accounts flooding every article.
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin: I think they’re just typical conspiracy theorists. I doubt there’s a Russian plot to influence the comments section of the journal.
@Toomasu Sumitsu: Then why the sudden influx of new accounts that as soon as they have gained access to the Journal just to write on subjects Russian, have been deleted? Suspicious No?
@Ixion99: Why would you feel the need to delete the FB or Twitter accounts as soon as you opened the Journal account unless you wished to hide something, such as the account only being generated for the single purpose of getting access to the Journal.
@Toomasu Sumitsu: The voting patterns on the comments, particularly the speed of upvotes early on looks outright suspicious to me. Those voting anomalies e.g. rapid early upvotes, followed by complete stagnation while upvotes on responses challenging or other comments continues for hours, are not restricted to Russia articles. It happens on certain articles for Trump too, foreign policy ones mostly. It’s interesting… God I miss red thumbs! They were the only thing that made the journal comments worth reading because they gave people a voice – most of the time, it’s not worth replying or challenging, so that site has gone malignant.
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin:
Agreed – a chart of voting patterns over time on various stories would be very interesting and possibly revealing. It would be easy enough for the Journal techies to do. Maybe they should take a serious look at this – it would make for an interesting article in itself.
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin: Actually the removal of down thumbs in itself was a strong indicator of troll farming. Before their removal, an automated checking system had been written to down vote left leaning western comments and up thumb pro Russian right wing comments. After their removal, the code was redundant and for 6 or 7 weeks pro Russian and right leaning comments were rooted to the bottom after which point, the auto like code had been rewritten and bang, right to the top again, imagine that :)
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin: If say the Journal was to switch to rating each comment out of 5, my money would be that the same pattern would repeat itself. Pro Russian comments would get no support for a few weeks until a new code is written, compatible with the function change. For anyone questioning why would Russia even bother, the Journal has over a million installs. All it takes is one talented programmer to be paid €10,000 a year to completely muddle comments and public perception for up to 1 million people. Outstanding return on investment and hard to track.
@Tom Cullen: I guess there are any number of ways the Journal could discourage such behaviour – use of captcha, not allowing account under a certain age comment, not allowing the use of facebook/twitter to login instead sending an auto generated password to new registrants which they have to reset etc. etc. Problem is, each one of those punishes genuine contributors too. I guess there is a balance to be struck, however I would see this getting to the point where they withdraw the comment facility completely given the proliferation of sock puppets and also the more litigious tendencies of the subjects of articles.
@Darragh Murray: You can start now making a list of posters to be banned, what do you want totalitarianism?
@Mick Jordan: Your logic is on par with your age most likely. Some people do not use twitter or facebook. It is only predictable that in order to comment here one can create an account and delete it afterward. Some people simply do not want to be tracked by fb and twitter for eternity.
My fb account I do use to comment here is as bare as central bank coffers.
Only fools would be posting everything they do on a platform which is used to monetize everything you do.
This is getting petty, so am I to believe that the Russian government is concerned about 2 cats & 2 Guinea pigs?
@paddlingAlong:
Deflect, Distract, Deny….
He was not Russian Spy…. He was caught spying for the British
These supposed Russian ‘deadly’ nerve agents used on the Skripals doesn’t seem to be as deadly as made out.
So far no one is dead despite being told there is no cure for novichok poisoning, and then the authorities allowed the pets to suffer from simple neglect.
The British Science Laboratory has confirmed it is not possible to determine where the poison came from. The death and disappearance of pets adds to suspicions. Let’s hope the survivors can throw light on the real culprits.
Quick…….more sanctions
So damn Russians killed pets is the latest installment, dastardly villains!
You couldn’t make this shite up!
Or could you?
Insensitive Brits kill Skripals pets…headline for Pravda or whatever they read in Russia today
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