Dawn Sturgess inquest: Russia investigation is welcomed

On Tuesday (March 30), a senior coroner ruled that the role played by the Russian state in the Salisbury poisonings of March 2018 will be included in the scope of the 44-year-old's inquest.

Baroness Hallett told a pre-inquest review at the Royal Courts of Justice in London that shying away from the issue of Russian state responsibility would result in an "incomplete and potentially misleading investigation".

Read more: How and why Novichok came to Salisbury to be part of Dawn inquest

Ms Sturgess, a mum-of-three, died on July 8, 2018 after spraying herself with the nerve agent Novichok, which had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4.

The substance was contained in a perfume bottle given to her by her then partner Charlie Rowley at his Amesbury flat on June 30.

Both fell ill shortly afterwards and were taken to Salisbury District Hospital but while Mr Rowley later recovered, Ms Sturgess never regained consciousness.

Dawn Sturgess. Picture by Metropolitan Police

'A good thing'

Liz Sirman, leader of Salisbury City Council, has welcomed the coroner’s ruling to carry out a full investigation into the events of 2018, especially following Russia’s attempts to deny any involvement.

She said widening the scope was "a good thing".

“The thought that somebody can come to Salisbury, or anywhere else for that matter, and cause havoc is just not acceptable,” she said.

“We don’t live in such a society, our society is peaceful and we certainly wouldn’t dream of doing something like that on the streets of Moscow. It has to be thoroughly investigated.”

“Probably at the end it will still be unsolved but that doesn’t mean that our authorities should give up, not only for Dawn but for all of us and the whole of Great Britain,” she added.

Talking about the threat posed by the unleashing of a deadly nerve agent on British soil, Cllr Sirman said: “It’s like carrying a bottle of Covid around and letting it loose – because you can’t see it, it’s a real threat. The fact anyone could fly into our country, come to our city pretending to be tourists and do this is unbelievable and the [Russian] state will never own up to it.”

'We owe it to Dawn'

Mike Osment, who was mayor of Salisbury at the time of Ms Sturgess’ death, echoed Cllr Sirman’s feelings, arguing “the wider the inquiry, the better”. 

“We had a situation where we had the first incident, things were starting to improve and then we had the second incident.

“For Dawn and her family there needs to be a proper inquiry to establish what did happen. When you get incidents like this, there’s always a security blanket around it and the public doesn’t get to hear all the facts.

“I understand issues with national security but the public need to know, we owe it to Dawn because she lost her life and there’s no changing that fact.”

Although residents of Salisbury and Amesbury have been keen to move on from the tragic incidents of three years ago, Cllr Osment says there’s “a genuine interest about knowing as much as possible”.

He hopes all the parties involved in the process will cooperate to the best of their abilities so the inquest doesn’t end up being “a token exercise”.

He added: “Hopefully it will be meaningful and as wide-ranging as possible.”

Get more Salisbury news and nominate your local heroes for the South Wiltshire Hero Awards.

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date.

If you want online news with fewer ads, unlimited access and reader rewards - plus a chance to support our local journalism - find out more about registering or a digital subscription.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.