PARAMEDICS who responded to Charlie Rowley when he fell ill due to nerve agent poisoning said they were shocked by the police's 'dismissive' response.

The Dawn Sturgess inquiry entered its final day in Salisbury on Friday, October 18, and has heard that paramedics were 'scared' they were dealing with a nerve agent poisoning when attending to Mr Rowley. 

On Saturday, June 30, paramedics Ben Channon and Lee Martin were called to Mr Rowley's address at Muggleton Road, due to reports of a man who was suffering 'hallucinations, making weird noises and not responding'.

This was just hours after his partner, Dawn Sturgess, had been taken to hospital suffering similar symptoms which later led to her death.

Mr Channon told the inquiry that Sam Hobson, who was in the house with Charlie, was 'panicked' when speaking to the paramedics, saying he suspected there had been a gas leak.

Mr Channon said: "I recall finding Mr Rowley up against a wall. I remember Mr Martin and I looking at each other and being very concerned that this was behaviour that was grossly abnormal in comparison to anything that we had perhaps encountered before and, apologies for the terms, Mr Rowley was making noises very much like a cow - and was making mooing noises essentially."

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After carrying out various tests, Mr Channon called control to send police, fire, clinical backup and hazardous area response team.

Mr Channon said: "We were both particularly scared, I recall asking for these things but I don't recall what the response was and clearly I certainly never left the property in the duration of care, so wasn't sure whether that had arrived but certainly no one had come into the property.

'We were both particularly scared'Charlie Rowley (left) with stock of police (Image: NQ)

"The behaviour we noted was vastly different to anything we had ever seen."

At that point, Mr Martin had said "This is very similar to what we have learnt about following the Salisbury incident."

At this point, they were concerned (despite no diagnosis) that they were dealing with nerve agent poisoning, and 'thankfully' they were still wearing PPE.

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Mr Martin and Mr Channon felt 'pressure' from people on their radio to search the house for evidence of a drug overdose. They found syringes in a cupboard, but the paramedics were sure the symptoms were not that of a drug overdose.

Recalling his conversation with the police, Mr Channon said: "I remember distinctly saying, quite frightened at the time, 'What in your knowledge is making you think that this is something other than the nerve agent that we are using as our initial working diagnosis?'"

Mr Channon can't recall the conversation with the officers, but described it as 'heated but not rude'.

On the way to the hospital, they were asked to 'stand down', as police said it was drugs-related.

READ MORE: Salisbury poisonings: Skripals' footsteps on day of poisoning

He said he was "particularly concerned [and] frustrated.”

Mr Channon continued: "It didn't change the way - we were still very certain that this patient needed to have the same treatment that we were giving.

"At this point, he was stable and we didn't give additional drugs en route to hospital, but we were quite firm in our minds to advocate for this gentleman that we felt that this was the cause and that our treatment and working diagnosis was going to be the same."

On arrival, they were only met by one nurse and security guards, a consultant and a doctor. The doctor, Dr Russell, told him to take his mask off as he thought it was drugs-related but Mr Channon kept them on.

It was later confirmed that Mr Rowley, as well as his partner Ms Sturgess, had been poisoned by Novichok.

Mr Channon confirmed that deputy chief inspector Mills has apologised over the last few days in the context of the inquiry.

He added: "Certainly in the last six years, I have seen a better joint working amongst all emergency services, not specifically as a result of my involvement in this case, but certainly those principles are very much more embedded than perhaps they were six years ago."

Ian McKerlie, a retired police constable, attended Mr Rowley's address on June 30, and gave evidence after Mr Channon.

Addressing concerns that the paramedics were dismissed, he said: "I’m sorry it was perceived that way, I didn’t mean to be dismissive and I’m sorry they’ve taken it that way.

"But I was only asking the question whether they thought it might be drug related, but when they answered ‘no’, they were quite insistent that it wasn’t, it was as per the Salisbury incident then that was it."

Speaking to the inquiry on Thursday, Wiltshire Police’s deputy chief constable Paul Mills, said: "I don’t believe it was wrong for them to have a hypothesis based upon the recent intelligence they were aware of through the single lens of the police service 

“However, applying JESIP if we look back to the principles, the blue light huddle, they needed to communicate with their fellow first responders to understand what the other information and intelligence that was available.”