Novichok inquiry: Who was Dawn Sturgess and how was she poisoned?

The final report into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018, said that Russian president Vladimir Putin was "morally responsible" for her death.

In late 2024, an inquiry heard six weeks of public evidence about links between her death and the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

These open hearings were followed by private sessions in January 2025 during which highly classified information from the UK security services was presented.

A murder inquiry was launched after Dawn Sturgess died from Novichok poisoning in Salisbury Hospital on 8 July 2018.

The 44-year-old mother-of-three was fatally poisoned after spraying herself with the contents of a perfume bottle which contained a "significant amount" of the nerve agent. The inquiry heard there was enough Novichok to "kill thousands".

Her partner Charlie Rowley told police he had found the perfume in a charity collection bin on 27 June.

Ms Sturgess collapsed at Mr Rowley's house in Amesbury, about seven miles from Salisbury, shortly after opening the perfume on 30 June.

He also became ill but was discharged from hospital on 20 July.

Nerve agents are highly toxic chemicals that prevent the nervous system from working properly and can be fatal.

They can take different forms - including powder and gas - but tend to be a liquid, which can seep through the skin.

"Novichok" means "newcomer" in Russian and refers to a group of advanced nerve agents which were developed by the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.

The chemicals are extremely effective in very small quantities and need to be transported in tightly sealed containers by someone wearing protective clothing.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned on 4 March 2018.

Mr Skripal had been accused by Russia of spying for Britain's MI6 and jailed in 2006. He was later pardoned and allowed to settle in the UK in 2010.

His wife, son and older brother had all died in the two years before the 2018 attack.

Yulia Skripal had arrived in the UK from Moscow on 3 March.

The pair had gone for lunch in Salisbury before they were both found collapsed "in a serious condition" on a bench in a shopping centre.

It was subsequently discovered that they were suffering from the effects of a chemical which had been left on the doorknob of Mr Skripal's home.

That was later identified as Novichok by experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at nearby Porton Down in Wiltshire.

Ms Skripal was released from hospital on 9 April and her father was discharged on 18 May. Both are believed to have made a full recovery.

However, their movements since the attack have remained secret for their own protection.

Police officer Det Sgt Nick Bailey, who was the first person to enter the Skripal house, spent nearly three weeks in hospital.

It also emerged in the inquiry that a boy, who Mr Skripal gave bread to so he could feed ducks, also became unwell.

Given Mr Skripal's identity, the UK government quickly blamed Russia for his attempted murder.

Then Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May said the two suspects had arrived at Gatwick Airport from Moscow on 2 March, travelling as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov.

The pair - later identified as Russian intelligence officers Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin - were spotted on CCTV in Salisbury the day before the attack.

The two men returned to Moscow on the evening of 4 March.

At the time, President Putin denied any involvement and the two accused men appeared on Russian TV, where they insisted they had visited Salisbury as tourists who wanted to see the cathedral spire.

Downing Street dismissed the Russian response.

Another Russian agent, Denis Sergeev, who had been in London under the alias Sergey Fedotov, was later named as a third suspect.

Speaking after the publication of his report in December 2025, external, inquiry chair Lord Anthony Hughes said that the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess' death were "clear but also quite extraordinary".

He described the care she received from ambulance and hospital staff as "entirely appropriate", but said her condition was "unsurvivable".

"I am sure that no medical treatment could in fact have saved her life," he added.

He said her death was collateral damage from the "astonishingly reckless" plot to attack Sergei and Yulia Skripal, which was intended to be "a public demonstration of Russian power".

Everyone involved in the attempt to assassinate the Skripals - including Putin who authorised the attack "at the highest level" - was "morally responsible" for Ms Sturgess' death, the report concluded.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the case was a "grave reminder of the Kremlin's disregard for innocent lives", and "reckless aggression".