Novichok victim found 'blue and gurgling' by paramedics after spraying nerve agent on herself - thinking it was perfume

18 October 2024, 08:45 | Updated: 18 October 2024, 09:23

A paramedic has described finding Dawn Sturgess lying on the floor, blue and not breathing, after she was poisoned with Novichok, the inquiry into the circumstances of her death heard.

The 44-year-old died after she was exposed to the chemical weapon, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.

It followed the attempted murders of former spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and then-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury in March that year.

All three survived, as did Ms Sturgess's boyfriend Mr Rowley, who had unwittingly given her the bottle containing the killer nerve agent.

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Paramedic Mark Marriott said: "I collected my equipment, as I arrived at the door, the door was open, I shouted hello.

"I heard a male voice say 'up here'. I walked up the stairs, I turned to the right, I didn't smell anything in the air."

He said he saw a female patient lying on her back on the floor of the bathroom and said to the male in the house "what happened?", and he replied "she collapsed".

Mr Marriott said he noticed Ms Sturgess's skin was "very blue", adding "that would indicate a lack of, or no, blood flow", and that she was not breathing.

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He said he would have bent down or knelt down to feel for a pulse and his initial assessment was that she was in cardiopulmonary arrest, so started basic life support.

Mr Marriott said Mr Rowley told him Ms Sturgess was complaining of a headache and was going to have a bath when he heard a noise, "like she was gurgling", so went in and found her collapsed in the bathroom.

Mr Marriott told the inquiry: "So, while doing the compressions, I said to the male partner, 'are you the partner?' and he replied, 'yes'.

"I said 'what happened?', he replied, 'she was complaining of a headache and she was going to have a bath, I heard a noise that sounded like she was gurgling, I went in and found her collapsed in the bathroom, she was foaming at the mouth'.

"I asked the male partner 'when did she collapse?' and he replied '10 to 15 minutes ago'. He was quite flustered and he seemed a bit jittery, quite muddled in himself."

The paramedic said at this point he thought it was a cerebral incident, possibly a stroke.

He turned on a portable defibrillator and attached it to Ms Sturgess, which gave him "a verbal indication of no shock indicated", so he carried on with compressions, which is when his colleagues from the ambulance service arrived.

The paramedics continued life support on Ms Sturgess and at one point the defibrillator indicated she was "shockable", and it was delivered, then he could see a pulse.

The critical care paramedics later arrived, the inquiry heard.

Advanced technician Keith Coomber told the inquiry he administered naloxone to Ms Sturgess - in case she was suffering from an opiate overdose, but said he did not notice if it had any effect on her as he was busy.

He added that if the patient had not had an opiate overdose "it's not going to do anything bad but it'll help reverse ... if it was".

The inquiry continues.

Salisbury poisonings: Third man faces charges for Novichok attack

The Novichok poisoning caused the UK to expel 23 Russian diplomats, calling the incident an "unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK".

The UK, US, Germany and France issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the attack.

Then, Russia expelled 23 UK diplomats.

The US then expelled 60 Russian diplomats.Russian President Vladimir Putin said there is "nothing criminal" about Petrov and Boshirov - the two accused of perpetrating the attack.

'Justice is unlikely'

Former Prime Minister Theresa May previously said "justice is unlikely" for the victims of the attacks.

Baroness May also told the BBC's Crime Next Door: Salisbury Poisonings podcast, that the Russians accused of executing the attack acted with "utter recklessness". "You felt they just didn't care about anything," she said.