A “minuscule” amount of the nerve agent used in the assassination attempt Sergei Skripal – as small as a sixth of a grain of salt – could have been enough to be fatal, a government scientist told a query.
The scientist, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, said “very lethal doses” of novichok were spotted on the handle of the former Russian spy’s front door in Salisbury and were so pure they must have been produced by a sophisticated laboratory .
Members of the public were not allowed into the hearing room for the testimony of the scientist, who can only be identified by the number MK26. An order is in place that prohibits even the scientist’s gender from being reported.
Skripal, his daughter, Yulia, and a Wiltshire woman, Dawn Sturgesswas infected by novichok in 2018. The Skripals survived, but Sturgess died after spraying novichok, contained in a fake perfume bottle, over herself in nearby Amesbury.
MK26 was the chief adviser to the police’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), based at Porton Down in Wiltshire, during both investigations.
The scientist said “many hundreds” of DSTL staff were involved. “I have not seen this level of activity before or since. I hope I never do it again,” the witness said.
“It felt very personal. It was very close to Porton Down. Many of our staff lived around Salisbury and Amesbury. When Dawn Sturgess sadly passed away, it highlighted for us how horrible it was.”
MK26 said “many lethal doses” were applied to the door handle of Skripal’s home. The witness said the agent was “very persistent”. It was 12 days before the handle was tested and it rained and snowed, but there were still “very high” levels of the dust on it. There were also high levels on the door under the handle and at the base of the door.
The witness said the perfume bottle contained “thousands of lethal doses” and an amount as small as a sixth of a grain of salt could kill.
MK26 said the novichok was “a very high level of purity”, adding: “It indicates whoever made it was very sophisticated. It was an almost pure compound with very small amounts of contaminating chemicals.”
The witness was questioned demands of the Russian Embassy that any modern chemical laboratory was capable of making novichok.
MK26 assumed that a modern laboratory would be able to synthesize it – but not safely. The scientist said they did not believe that a “non-state actor” – such as a terrorist group – would be able to make and deliver such pure novichok. But the witness said they would be able to go into more detail when closed sessions are held next year.
MK26 was asked about claims made in a book by journalist Mark Urban that in the 1990s the UK obtained chemical agents developed in the Soviet Union, and Porton Down was given the chance to study and synthesize them.
The scientist was asked whether DSTL was capable of producing novichok, whether it did so and, if so, in what quantities – and also whether it was possible that novichok produced at Porton Down could have been involved in the Wiltshire poisonings be. MK26 said there is nothing they can say about this in the public part of the investigation.
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MK26 also said they could not address in the public hearing whether novichok could be detected by UK airport detection equipment.
The scientist was also questioned about extremely faint traces of novichok found in a toilet in a park, the Queen Elizabeth Gardens, in Salisbury. The park is close to where the two Russian agents believed to have carried out the attack on Skripal disappeared from CCTV cameras during what was described as a “missing half hour”.
MK26 said one “scenario” was that the agents were in the area after applying novichok to Skripal’s door handle. But the witness said the rail was so low that it could also have been carried in by a member of the public unknowingly.
MK26 said the “same specific novichok agent” was believed to have poisoned the Skripals and Sturgess – from one batch, prepared at the same time with the same precursor chemicals. The witness said it was “highly likely” that Sturgess had been exposed to “very lethal doses”.
The scientist also said it was a “realistic possibility” that the fake perfume bottle containing the novichok that Sturgess sprayed on her skin was also used to apply nerve agent to Skripal’s door handle. But MK26 could not rule out the possibility that there was a second container, which was not found.
MK26 was asked about claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Skripals would have died “on the spot” if they had been targeted by a military-grade nerve agent.
The witness said they expected the Skripals to die. “The recovery of the Skripals was beyond what any of us expected. We…believed they would die.”
The investigation continues.
