Cops think poison hidden in gift to Skripal daughter

Police believe Yulia Skripal accidentally brought the nerve agent from Russia.

Theresa May fist bumps in Salisbury yesterday after visiting policeman Nick Bailey in hospital. Picture: Getty Images

British counter-terrorism police have returned to one of their first theories about how the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were attacked with deadly novichok poison as police revealed 131 people could have come in contact with the nerve agent.

Police are scrutinising the suitcase brought by 33-year-old Yulia on her trip to Salisbury to visit her father, who was still grieving the loss of son Alexander who died mysteriously while in Russia the previous year.

They believe the poison may have been in a gift, perhaps offered to the family to commemorate ­Alexander’s birthday, that was carried into the UK by Yulia when she arrived the day before she and her father fell sick.

Investigators have been baffled as to how the two were poisoned. Their initial belief, that they were sprayed with a substance while walking through Salisbury on March 4, has been discounted.

Police then looked at the flowers laid at the cemetery, the graves of Alexander and of Mr Skripal’s wife Liudmila and the red car Mr Skripal drove to the multi-storey carpark in the city centre.

They were already poisoned when Mr Skripal argued with staff in the Zizzi restaurant the couple visited at 2.40pm, as traces of novichok were found at their table.

British Prime Minister Theresa May visited seriously ill policeman Nick Bailey in hospital yesterday and told Salisbury businesses and residents that “this happened in the UK but it could have happened anywhere and we take a united stance against it’’.

Meanwhile, Britain’s allies, France and Germany, firmed up their supportive response and joined the US in a collective statement condemning Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to be elected tomorrow for a fourth term and has yet to formally announce a response to Britain’s expulsion of 23 diplomats identified as spies.

Britain has threatened economic pressure on UK-based ­oligarchs who are close to Mr Putin if there is further provocation, and regulators are reviewing the broadcast licence of the Russian broadcaster RT.

At a public meeting in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills said the health of 131 people was being monitored daily as they may have come in contact with novichok. Of the 131, 46 had gone to hospital but had been discharged. The meeting was told the 24 cordons in the city may be in place for months.

British military officers have sealed off the home of Detective Sergeant Bailey, who lives 20 minutes drive away in Alderholt, and removed both his cars, fearing he may have carried traces of the nerve agent home before he fell extremely ill. The army removed from Gillingham a vehicle belonging to the driver who towed away the Skripals’ red BMW.

The Skripals are in critical condition and Russian relatives and friends fear they will not recover.

Mr Skripal’s niece Victoria, 45, of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, told Russian television she believed the target was Yulia because she and her boyfriend wanted to start a family. Yulia’s prospective mother-in-law, identified as a high-ranking Russian security officer, was not happy about Yulia being the daughter of a traitor.

“My opinion is that it was done not against Uncle Sergei, but against his daughter,’’ said Victoria. “The mother didn’t accept Yulia and thought that, if she was a traitor’s daughter, then she herself would betray her country.”

Mr Skripal was traded to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap.