Salisbury Novichok poisonings experts reflect on the crisis

Key figures have been reflecting on what happened when Sergei and Yulia Skripal were discovered unwell on a bench in The Maltings on March 4, 2018.

The three year anniversary this week will see the world once again remember when a chemical weapons attack took place right here in Wiltshire.

But while others across the globe will only look back fleetingly, in Salisbury locals are still dealing with the impacts of what happened.

The community has been celebrated for its strength and resilience but those dramatic months left scars which run deep - for businesses, families and emergency workers.

Here's how those involved with the investigation have reflected on their roles and the impact the deadly nerve agent has caused, speaking to the Press Association:

'Losing Dawn was absolutely devastating'

The public health chief charged with containing the Salisbury Novichok attack, Tracy Daszkiewicz, became the focus of a BBC drama in 2020 about the crisis.

This week she has recalled her “total disbelief” after the deadly nerve agent resurfaced in Amesbury, months after the original poisonings in March 2018.

Following the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia using the nerve agent, Mrs Daszkiewicz was a key player as officials worked to protect residents from any traces of Novichok.

But she has revealed the worst moment for her came later, when Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fell ill in Amesbury.

She said the death of Dawn in July of that year, who unwittingly sprayed herself with the lethal chemical disguised inside a perfume bottle, “absolutely floored” her and was “the most awful part” of what happened.

The public health expert had met Dawn at a community event around four years previously, and said she recognised her from a picture.

Mrs Daszkiewicz said: “The most awful part of all of it was when we knew how poorly Dawn was.

"Losing Dawn was absolutely devastating.

“I remember getting the phone call and us regrouping.

"I can’t even describe it, just absolute disbelief, total disbelief, and that whole realisation that you’re almost starting again.

“Major incidents are usually denoted by mass casualties, mass impact and, in worst-case scenarios, mass fatalities.

"This incident did teach me that one is too high a number.

“Everybody’s name matters, the fact we’ve only got one name, that name is as important as any other.

"Of course it could have been higher numbers but one is too many for me.”

Undated handout file photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Dawn Sturgess

'My blood really went cold' - The first discovery

Professor Tim Atkins, a senior scientific adviser to emergency services dealing with chemical and biological materials, was another crucial figure in March 2018, as officials realised they were dealing with something unusual and potentially hazardous.

He said he had to step outside for air while he tried to comprehend the nerve agent discovery made by his colleagues at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down.

Professor Atkins was at Devizes police station when his team called to relay the findings.

He said: “My blood really went cold.

"And the reason for that is, while I suspected that a chemical at this stage had been involved – and clearly a toxic one – I don’t think I ever predicted that it would be something so hazardous as Novichok.

“Obviously my mind turned to how am I going to explain to Wiltshire Police what’s being used and what the likely consequences of such a hazardous material being released in a city are likely to be.”

Even when the initial interest in an international incident died down, Salisbury faced months of deep cleans and checks to make sure popular public areas could reopen safely.

Professor Atkins said this was a huge task and he had never experienced anything like it in a long career.

He added: “The scale of the clean-up was enormous.

"We have not seen anything like that here at Dstl in my time here.

"And I think there were a large number of challenges associated with understanding where the material was within a given scene.”

Professor Tim Atkins OBE, Senior Technical Fellow, inside the high containment lab building at Dstl, Porton Down. Picture: Ben Birchall / PA Images

'A huge contradiction'

Looking back on the major incident, Mrs Daszkiewicz said “as induction programmes go, it was fairly unique”.

The mother-of-four said: “At the time I don’t think anything could’ve been done differently.

"It was such a one-off extraordinary event.

“For me, professionally you learn so much and you’re sort of glad you were involved, but always wish it had never happened.

"It’s a huge contradiction.

"Particularly when a life was lost and the extended trauma that people involved have experienced.

“I don’t know whether I look back and think ‘I wish that had been done differently or I wish I’d made a different decision’, but I have taken an awful lot of learning and experience from it.

“Nobody had dealt with anything like this.”

Tracy Daszkiewicz of Public Health England, former director of public health and safety for Wiltshire

Three years on - looking ahead

Mrs Daszkiewicz, now working in population health and wellbeing at Public Health England, added that, three years on from the incident, some Salisbury residents, particularly those living behind cordons for months, are only now coming to terms with the gravity of the event.

She said: “Coming out of major incidents there’s a lot of emphasis on getting services and buildings back to where they were but the personal impacts take longer.

“There’s a recovery curve that happens on the personal level.

"You can often be two to five years post incident before people start to really reflect and feel the impacts and the trauma of what they’ve been through.

“The impacts of it are significant and are still being felt today, that hasn’t gone away for a lot of people.”

While Professor Atkins said future threats like a Novichok attack in the UK cannot be ruled out. The Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, also issued a similar warning recently.

Professor Atkins said: “The country faces new threats, and it will continue to face threats and those threats evolve, and they change, as this organisation [Dstl] will evolve and change to meet those threats.

“I think this organisation is a national asset, it is there to deal with the most hazardous materials there are, and unfortunately, those materials do sometimes get used nefariously.

“And we will continue to prepare for those events, hoping that they don’t happen but making sure we take prudent preparations if they do.”

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