The ‘Dawn Sturgess Enquiry’ https://www.dawnsturgess.independent-inquiry.uk/
Six years after a drug-addict OD’s in Amesbury, the British government is still trying to re-hash its credulity-straining ‘Novichok’ story – with a solid week in London of testimonies being given, in front of about thirty legal types.
To remind you: at Amesbury, no coroner could be found to testify that Dawn Sturgess had died of ‘Novichok.’ But they needed one real death (after Sergei & Julia Skripal and Sgt Bailey had all recovered). It therefor moved to the Royal Courts of Justice as the ‘Inquest.’ Lady Justice Hallett was presiding, but she soon resigned and it then morphed into an ‘Enquiry.’ An inquest is to determine the cause of death: that was supposedly achieved (yep, it was ’Novichok’) and it then morphed into an Enquiry, the purpose of which is not very clear. it’s a huge, ongoing, let’s-blame-Russia affair.
No country has done more and is doing more to push Europe towards WW3 with Russia than the UK, cooking up its Reasons for War. The great trio of fabricated poisoning stories have played a major role in this regard; the Litvinenko-Polonium affair of 2006, the Skripals – Novichok of 2018 and Navalny – Novichok of 2020. They create the hate, that’s what they are there for. Any anti-war movement therefore needs to deconstruct them.
Starting on 28 October, this Enquiry plans to re-tell the Skripal story in immense detail – for which I guess we have to be grateful, after all it is a most extraordinary tale. To start with, Ross Cassidy, Sergei Skripal’s old pal, told us how Sergei and Julia used to live next door. As a double agent Sergei was paid $100k by MI6 to betray his colleagues, as reported by The Guardian. Ross Cassidy was not asked the important question, as to how come he was not allowed to visit the Skripals in hospital after the event?
The Met Police Commander Whitelaw came next. His ‘Counter Terror Command’ took over from Wiltshire police on the 5th March. He alluded to various interviews by the Skripals which we had never heard of before:
30 March hospital interview of Yulia.
16 April Yulia interview
23 and 24 May 2018 Sergei recalls what happened to him on 3-4 March
27 August 2024, Sergei talks to the Dawn Sturgess Enquiry
This was quite startling, implying that both Skripals were perfectly compos mentis a couple of months after whatever had hit them. It meant that ‘Novichok’ was not lethal. Ditto for Sgt Bailey, who if you remember somehow got himself contaminated and was dizzy and out of action for a while. So all those Russian diplomats who had been expelled in April, right across Europe – for what?
There could be a problem with police credibility. We’re given by the police a report of the Scripal interview. To give evidence in a court of Justice, the person must turn up, and swear on oath that they are who they say they are. All the world has been wondering what happened to the two Skripals, and are they still alive? Now the police claim to have been interviewing them over all these years. Are not the police generating evidence in this huge, ongoing investigation? They continually hide behind ‘national security.’ But, let’s assume for now that we believe them. For example, 24 May Sergei tells us how he takes his insulin medication for diabetes via an injection.
The top army nurse Alison McCourt ‘Chief Medical Nurse of the British Army’ just happened to be passing by on March 4th at 4.15 pm in Salisbury, and so she tended to the unconscious pair. So did another medic Dr Helen Ord, ‘pediatrician intensive care officer’ and they both looked after the couple for an hour or so. Both insisted that they just happened to be out with their families, off-duty, when they saw the event. So, odd coincidences going on. Both testified as to the extraordinary condition of the couple who were catatonic, with Sergei mumbling and muttering with pinpoint pupils suggesting some drug OD and Yulia with muscle spasms having urinated into her jeans, her eyeballs being rolled up ‘into the back of her head’ so Helen Ord could not see her eyes. It was frightening and bizarre – no-one had ever seen a couple looking like this! A crowd soon gathered. (or, so we’re told – no-one took any photos!)
Exactly four hours elapse between them allegedly getting poisoned from their own door-handle (!) and the two falling sick, into catatonic unconsciousness, vomiting etc, on the park bench, in exact synchrony at the same instant. The timing was:
Arrive Sainsbury’s car-park in town centre (‘the Maltings’) 1.38
Feed ducks by the river 1.41
Drinks at The Mill pub for half an hour 1.45
Enter Zizzi’s restaurant 2.19
Leave Zizzi’s, go on Market Walk, thru Maltings 3.34
Sit down on bench 3.36
Both Seize up 4.10-4.15
The police then said they had detected Novichok at the Skripals house, at the Mill pub (at Table 37 where they sat) and at the Zizzi’s restaurant. There is a temporal anomaly here, whereby one must accuse them of mendacity.
Nobody had a concept of ‘Novichok at this time, it was not on the OPCW list of toxins, it did not have a molecular formula. It was just part of a spy-drama story. How could anyone look for it? The tables at the pub and restaurant are cleaned each day. Can the police please tell us when they took samples and what it was they were looking for? We understand that they were looking for a nerve agent. The existence of ’Novichok’ was first announced to the world on 12th of March, by PM Theresa May in the House of Commons.
The day after the event, March 5th, The Salisbury Journal noted: ‘Emergency services at the scene suspected the substance may have been a powerful drug called fentanyl, …’ They may have got this story from UK Clinical Services Journal website which also put up such a story on the 5th (archived here). Also, Salisbury District Hospital declared a ‘major incident’ after ‘two patients were exposed to an opioid’ – Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which makes people drowsy, it has a reputation as a ‘date-rape’ drug.
We’d like the police to tell us when they identified these two locations? Sifting though the town’s CCTV must have taken a while. A couple of days perhaps?
As regards the finally-favoured spot for this deadly poison, on the door-handle of Sergei Skripal’s home, Commander Whitelaw told the Enquiry that the Novichok must have been applied sometime between 8 pm on March 3rd and 1 pm on the 4th. But, if the two Russians are going to be accused (as they are) then it can’t be applied any earlier than noon on the 4th, because of the train on which they arrived in Salisbury. They would have to be walking down that cul-de-sac road with the window of Sergei Skripal’s office facing that road, just as he was getting ready to leave and drive his daughter into town. Does that sound credible? Let’s quote Ross Cassidy (9 September interview) –
It would have been far too brazen for them [the two alleged perpetrators] to have walked down a dead end cul-de-sac in broad daylight on a Sunday lunchtime … Sergei’s house faces up the cul-de-sac. He had a converted garage that he used as his office – this gives a full view of the street… Almost always, Sergei used to open the door to us before we had chance to knock.
It gets worse. Various police officers were coming and going from the Skripal’s house on March 4th, from 5 pm onwards. No-one had yet told them about the deadly nerve poison on the door-handle. And were they harmed? Nope. This police story will never make sense.
day 3: Paramedic Ian Parsons was called out to see the paralysed couple, and at first assumed (as did most) a drug OD, maybe Fentanyl. The couple were foaming at the mouth, vomiting, with slow heart rate, poor breathing and both were unconscious. He himself experienced no after-effects of treating the patients. The two ambulances left around 5.10 taking the couple to Salisbury Hospital.
It was raining that day, he remarked. Surely this is rather crucial – who would put a water-soluble poison on a door-handle to kill someone on a rainy day? But no-one at this enquiry seemed interested.
He was then asked about Charlie Rowley whom he also treated, on Monday, 30th of June (at 9, Muggleton Road). Earlier, Dawn Sturgess had been taken away. He orderedput a cordon in place around the house. Then along came Sgt McKenlie, and said ‘he had intelligence that it was a drug overdose’ – which it was, IMO! He crossed over the cordon. Paramedic Ian Parsons was reckoning it might have been a nerve agent, as seemed to have been the case for the Skripals, so was annoyed when Sgt McKenlie took no notice of his ‘cordon’ around the house. Before the present hearing, there had been a hearing in Salisbury, where the Wiltshire police Sgt. had explained why he had treated the event as a drug OD. the Salisbury hospital was likewise treating the event, ie the death, as a drug OD. Parsons – whose view would eventually prevail – told the hospital he did not agree.
He was grilled by Michael Mansfield, who is acting on behalf of the Sturgess family, enquired whether any documents distinguished between the effects of an OD and nerve agents? At was not easy to distinguish these.
Another ambulance service paramedic turned, up Lisa Woods. There were a lot of bystanders she said – as one would expect on a Sunday afternoon. I asked people why none of them took a picture of the couple for the hour – or an hour and a half – for which they were on the bench? Maybe one would not, for people in such distress I was told. Some reckoned the incident was caused by food poisoning from sea-food they had eaten at the Zizzi’s restaurant, but no she said, that could not send anyone into a catatonic state. She suffered no ill-effects from managing the couple and puttting them into an ambulance.
Dr Haslam, an anaesthesia consultant for an intensive Care Unit, took care of the Skripals once they had arrived in the hospital. NB this is the first time in 6 years anyone has told us anything about the hospital treatment of the couple. On arriving Julia was not breathing so that had to be managed, ‘they had to be fully ventilated’. Also they needed support for low blood pressure. Both were hypothermic, even when given warm blankets They had blood tests, brain scans etc. they had no reflexes. They were given ‘Noloxone’ which counteracts Fentanyl, but it had no effect. He gave Atropine which nocked up Julia’s heart-rate from 40 to 140 per minute! the autonomic nervous system was disturbed he explained.
at 5 pm on Monday he sent a blood sample to Birmingham hospital toxicology dept. After a while, Haslam reckoned it was ‘no longer feeling like an opioid poison or overdose .. i wondered about organophosphates.’
At this rather crucial point there was a security blackout! Only the two dozen or so lawyers were allowed to listen, in the main room, while me and various journalists were in another room to which the hearing was relayed: its screen was switched off. Fifteen minutes later it came back and, surprise surprise, Haslam was talking about Novichok and Porton Down. ‘Were you aware that Novichok may have been used?’ Haslam was being asked. Sergei Skripal had stayed ‘a couple of months’ in the hospital, he reckoned.