Nerve agent took 15 minutes to poison partner, survivor says

LONDON: British Novichok victim Charlie Rowley says the deadly nerve agent took just 15 minutes to poison his partner, who later died, after she sprayed the ‘‘oily’’ substance on to her wrists believing it was perfume.

Rowley (45) believes he may have had the bottle in his Amesbury home for a couple of days before giving it to 44yearold Dawn Sturgess as a present.

He said the glass bottle and plastic dispenser were in a cardboard box with plastic moulding, and that Sturgess had recognised the brand.

Sturgess died on July 8. The pair became unwell on June 30, having been exposed to the nerve agent that was found in a bottle that was later found in Rowley’s home.

‘‘I do have a memory of her spraying it on her wrists and rubbing them together,’’ Rowley told British TV network ITV.

‘‘I guess that’s how she applied it and became ill. I guess how I got in contact with it is when I put the spray part to the bottle . . . I ended tipping some on my hands, but I washed it off under the tap.

‘‘It had an oily substance and I smelled it and it didn’t smell of perfume. It felt oily. I washed it off and I didn’t think anything of it. It all happened so quick.’’

Rowley said within 15 minutes Sturgess said she had a headache and needed to lie down in the bath.

‘‘I went into the bathroom and found her in the bath, fully clothed, in a very ill state,’’ he said.

Mr Rowley said he could not remember where he found the perfume box but believed it ‘‘looked expensive’’.

‘‘Unfortunately it turned out to be . . . to be a bad find,’’ he told the broadcaster.

He described Sturgess as a ‘‘lovely lady’’ and a ‘‘wonderful woman’’, and said she had planned to move to Amesbury from John Baker House, her sheltered accommodation in Salisbury, within two weeks.

Rowley and Sturgess were victims of the second nerve agent incident in four months following the case of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

They were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March.

Police are believed to have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack on Russian former spy Mr Skripal and his daughter.