Novichok poisoned police officer tells Salisbury inquiry of day of hell from 'drug overdose' call before through Googling victims, to 'fire in front of my eyes' during near death in hospital

A police officer held back tears as he recalled being nearly killed in the Salisbury poisonings .

Former detective sergeant Nick Bailey agreed the incident had 'a very significant mental and physical impact' on him.

And he told a public inquiry into the 2018 tragedy that he was sick within hours of attending the home of victims Sergei and Yulia Skripal and suffered a horrendous night's sleep.

He recalled: 'They were like nightmares or hallucinations, like pure heat and flames like light in front of my eyes, if you were able to get close enough to the surface of the sun.

'It's like a tsunami or pure heat and fire. It was terrifying.'

He was so ill that he took himself to A and E but was given the all-clear, before returning the next day where a consultant told him he had been poisoned with a nerve agent.

Father-of-two Mr Bailey spent a fortnight critically ill in hospital after being among the first on the scene in Salisbury City Centre on March 4 2018 when former Russian spy Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned after coming into contact with the deadly nerve agent novichok.

They survived, although the discarded perfume bottle containing the chemical was discovered several weeks later by member of the public Charlie Rowley, who gave it to his partner Dawn Sturgess . She subsequently died in hospital after spraying herself with the military-grade chemical, although Mr Rowley survived.

The Metropolitan Police said Russian military agents were responsible, though they will likely never be brought to justice.

Mr Bailey was later forced to quit Wiltshire Police - who he subsequently sued, before reaching an out of court settlement.

Giving evidence to Dawn Sturgess public inquiry in London today [thurs], Mr Bailey said he could barely recall any of what happened, and even forgot some of the initialisms used day to day by police during his long career.

He told the inquiry: My recollection of the events in March 2018 are hazy at best.

'I spent a lot of time obviously dealing with it when it happened, dealing with the aftermath of it, processing it and I got to a point where the only way for me to kind of move on from it was to stop thinking about it and to close it off. My memory of the incident isn't the best.'

Mr Bailey had just started a 2pm until 11pm shift in the city centre when a call came in about two unconscious people which 'piqued' his interest.

It was only when a colleague Googled victim Mr Skripal's name that they began to realise 'a Russian spy has been poisoned.'

Mr Bailey said: 'It's not something that I had heard before and it's not something I had thought I would hear again.'

He and two colleagues then went to Mr Skripal's home nearby, looking for any clues about what happened, and wore full protective clothing.

Mr Bailey began to feel ill at around 4am, after returning to the police station, and then again after arriving home at 7am.

He said: 'I did not feel right and cannot recall leaving Bourne Hill (police station) or driving home in my own car.'

Referring to his statement repeatedly to help with his memory, Mr Bailey said he had a 'cold sweaty forehead, I put that down to being tired and it being quite a stressful shift.'

But he still felt ill later that day, so went to A and E - but he was sent home because everything seemed 'normal'.

He said: 'Overnight I would describe it as getting a lot worse. I was incredibly hot, I was sweating and my statement says I went down around 5 in the morning because I was freaking out a little bit.

'My vision was impaired in that once I turned the lights on - it is difficult to describe it, but everything was crystal clear and it was juddering as opposed to being smooth motion.

'It was a bizarre night. I felt on edge, not sure if I slept at all. I felt really weird, absolutely dripping with sweat and then eventually the alarm went off for my wife and I told her I wasn't feeling well, I felt like I had been awake all night.'

Mr Bailey returned to hospital where he was told he had been poisoned.

He was discharged on March 22, and subsequently retired from the service.

Francesca Whitelaw KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: 'I'm not going to go into any more details with you but is it fair to say the poisoning had a very significant mental and physical impact on you?'

Mr Bailey, clearly emotional, simply looked up and nodded.

Lord Hughes, inquiry chairman, added: 'Mr Bailey, I am very conscious that you have had to relive a very nasty experience but it was necessary and thank you for doing it.'

Mr Bailey who served in the police for 18 years left the force in October 2020 because he 'could no longer do the job'.

He previously said he made three attempts to go back to work, but left because he said he 'couldn't deal with being in a police environment'.

Mr Bailey also previously said he felt 'overwhelming guilt' after his family were forced to leave their home because he had contaminated it with the nerve agent.

The inquiry has already heard mother-of-three Ms Sturgess, 44, was the only one of potentially 'thousands' of people killed in the botched Skripal assassination attempt.

Her family's lawyer Adam Straw KC said leaving what appeared to be a genuine perfume bottle that contained enough Novichok to kill many thousands of people 'was a game of Russian roulette that put the UK public at grave risk'.

He said: 'Dawn's death is a tragedy for her family, her partner and her friends.

'Living a quiet life in rural Salisbury they were stunned to be the collateral damage of global spy wars.

'It felt like James Bond meets the Archers. But the consequences could have been even more disastrous. It was capable of causing a massacre.'

In September 2018, Scotland Yard charged the two GRU (Russian military intelligence) spies - who travelled under the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - with the attempted murder of the Skripals.

Chillingly, CCTV evidence suggested the pair may have crossed paths with the Skripals, not far from the former spy's home as the alleged target and his daughter drove to the city centre for some food.

The Skripals later fell ill on a park bench, prompting police to originally consider whether the pair had suffered a drug overdose. They both survived and are living at a secret location.

Neither Sergei, 73, nor Yulia, 39, will be called to give evidence to the inquiry amid extraordinary measures to protect them from possible further harm.

But in a witness statement, Mr Skripal said he was convinced his attempted assassination was ordered by the Russian president.

Mr Skripal was a former GRU agent who was jailed in Russia in 2004 for espionage before being released in 2010 and moving to the UK as part of a prisoner swap.

The inquiry heard there was evidence he was supplying evidence to UK intelligence shortly before he was attacked, raising concerns about whether the authorities did enough to protect him.

Mr Skripal said: 'I never thought the Russian regime would try to murder me in Great Britain. They could have killed me easily if they wanted to when I was in prison.

'I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me. Any GRU commander taking a decision like this without Putin's permission would have been severely punished.

'I think Yulia was right in principle when she said: 'If [the Russian government] want to kill you they will find a way, anywhere.'

'Nobody can be protected 100 per cent from an assassin, especially one who plans carefully or is prepared to die.'

A third Russian, Sergey Fedotov, also a suspected GRU spy, was charged three years later in connection with the poisoning. He was listed among several Russians in a new list of sanctions by the UK government today (Thursday).

An international arrest warrant was issued for the trio, although Russia does not allow the extradition of its citizens meaning it is unlikely they will ever face trial in the UK.

The two main suspects later gave a much-derided interview to Russian state television denying involvement, claiming that they travelled to the UK to visit Salisbury cathedral and Stonehenge.

Evidence suggests, however, that the pair carried out at least four trips to Mr Skripal's home over two days, travelling from their hotel in east London, before flying out of the UK the day the Skripals fell ill.

The inquiry will look into who was responsible for the poisoning, the extent of Russian state responsibility, and whether UK authorities took appropriate precautions to protect Mr Skripal from being attacked.