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The nerve agent left Charlie Rowley in intensive care for 20 days. He has also suffered strokes, contracted meningitis and sight problems
Novichok poison victim Charlie Rowley has called for the independent inquiry into his partner Dawn Sturgess’ death to get justice for her.
Charlie doesn’t believe the long-awaited hearing, which is set to start on Monday, will bring him closure, but he hopes it will help her family.
He told us: “The inquiry must honour Dawn – it’s important she gets justice because she was a wonderful woman. I think about her all the time. I still struggle with sleep over what happened. Justice will only come when the people who did this are brought to account. I fear they never will be.”
Charlie added: “I hope the inquiry helps Dawn’s family. I hope it gets closure all round, but I’m pretty sure it won’t. Until they’re caught, I don’t think it’ll make any difference. Until then it’s just another thing, isn’t it?”.
Charlie, now aged 51, was left in a coma and Dawn, 44, was killed after they both handled novichok discarded by Russian government agents in Salisbury in July 2018. Charlie unwittingly found the nerve agent, disguised as Premier Jour perfume, in a charity bin in the Wiltshire city and gave it to Dawn as a present.
It was four months after the Russian hitmen swooped on the city to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 34, who both survived, by smearing the same deadly nerve agent on the doorknob of their front door. Police believe the two GRU officers had thrown it away near the Skripals’ house, before Charlie unwittingly picked it up.
Charlie and Dawn’s family, including her two sons and daughter, had urged the inquiry’s judge to order the Skripals, who are living under police protection, to give evidence in person as they had questions to direct to them. But Lord Hughes of Ombersley has ordered that the Skripals must not give evidence in person or remotely at Salisbury Guildhall as Putin’s agents could work out their location.
He has also ordered that video and audio of the Skripals being interviewed by police must not be played as the footage could be used to identify them now. And, in an unprecedented move, documents containing sensitive information will be redacted before they are entered into the inquiry’s IT system over fears the Kremlin could otherwise hack the files to create a hit-list of MI5 and MI6 officers and counter-terrorism detectives.
In September 2018, Scotland Yard charged the two GRU spies, who travelled under the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with the attempted murder of the Skripals and the poisoning of two Wiltshire Police officers, but not over the death of Dawn. A third Russian, Sergey Fedotov, also a suspected GRU spy, was charged three years later in connection with the poisoning.
A global arrest warrant was issued, but President Vladimir Putin’s government denies involvement and refuses to extradite the suspects.
Speaking about them, Charlie said: “I want them caught and brought to justice, but as long as they’re in Russia they’re safe aren’t they? I’m sure they could get hold of a fake ID to travel if they really wanted to, but they would be stupid to come back here.”
Novichok left Charlie in intensive care for 20 days. He had strokes, contracted meningitis and has sight problems. He has also had awful flashbacks and struggles to sleep while still coming to terms with the psychological guilt of unwittingly giving the poison to Dawn.
He bravely met Russia’s ambassador Alexander Yakovenko to demand answers over Dawn’s death inside the Russian Embassy in London in April 2019. He says he would like to attend the inquiry, but now fears he won’t be able to after suffering a broken arm earlier this week.
He said: “I would like to go, but I really don’t know if I will at this moment in time. Two days ago I fell over and broke my arm while hoovering up. I’ve spoken to the solicitors and told them I’m in a lot of pain. It’s too painful at the moment and I can’t even dress myself properly.
“Putting on a shirt is near impossible and I don’t want to go to the court in a dressing gown.”
Speaking in a new BBC podcast released on Friday, Theresa May, who was Prime Minister at the time of the attack, said: “I would hope by the end of it [the inquiry] the family and friends of Dawn feel it has got to the truth.”
