Protection of Skripal and public was 'abject failure', inquiry told

There was an "abject failure" by the UK government to put in basic security measures to protect the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and to keep the wider public safe, the family of a woman who died in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings has said.

- Steven Morris

Lawyers for Dawn Sturgess's relatives argued the UK authorities should have anticipated Skripal would have been a target, especially as he appeared to have continued to work with western security agencies after he was pardoned by Russia, but instead they left him a "sitting duck".

On the final day of public hearings into Sturgess's death, her family's legal team criticised public health experts for not issuing public warnings about picking up containers that may have contained nerve agent after the attack on Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018.

They also strongly criticised Wiltshire police for "arrogantly" stereotyping Sturgess as a drug user - which she was not - when she fell critically ill in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in June 2018 after spraying herself with novichok contained in a fake perfume bottle.