The family of Dawn Sturgess have said they will finally be able to lay her to rest seven years after she was killed in the Wiltshire nerve agent poisonings, after an inquiry concluded she was the innocent victim of an attack by Vladimir Putin.
Stan Sturgess, Dawn’s father, said he was pleased the inquiry into her death had made it clear she was blameless but expressed concern that lessons may not have been learned that could stop such a tragedy happening again. Describing his daughter as a “daddy’s girl”, he said: “She has been public property for the last seven years. We’ve got her back now.”
Sturgess, 44, died after spraying novichok, stored in a fake perfume bottle, over herself at the home of her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, in Amesbury, Wiltshire, on 30 June 2018. Rowley is believed to have found the bottle in a bin after it was discarded by the Russian agents who had targeted the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal three months before.
The chair of the inquiry, Lord Hughes, concluded Putin must have authorised the attack on Skripal and he was “morally responsible” for Sturgess’s death. He called the attack a “public demonstration of Russian state power for both international and domestic impact”.
Stan Sturgess said there was no evidence that lessons had been learned. “The times we’re living in now mean changes need to be made. The world’s gone crazy. Someone like Skripal might come to the UK again. Would things be done differently?” he said. He also criticised Wiltshire police for initially falsely characterising Sturgess as a drug user, calling it “very hurtful”.
After publication of the report, the UK government announced new sanctions against Russia and summoned the Russian ambassador. Keir Starmer said: “The Salisbury poisonings shocked the nation and today’s findings are a grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives.”
