Wolf ring that he kissed’

animal on it, a wolf I think, and would kiss the ring and ask if you wanted to kiss it.

“Then he would look each way, as if joking, and say, ‘I’m a Russian spy’. He would say it to all the drivers and nobody ever believed him.

“I would often see him standing around town in doorways too, looking around suspiciously as if he was really trying to portray the spy image.”

A picture emerged of Skripal as a colourful character who enjoyed a drink. He went to the Mill pub before they were poisoned. His daughter Yulia told staff her father was a retired local government planning officer.

He had suffered tragedy recently, losing his wife Liudmila to cancer and a son to liver failure.

Every Sunday afternoon since November. Skripal would pop to the Railway Social Club, a 15-minute walk from his home, where he was called “a nice bloke”.