He was well travelled and now I know why
HAPPILY chatting and laughing with his local shopkeeper, Sergei Skripal is caught on CCTV just days before he and his daughter were poisoned.
A regular at Bargain Stop close to his home, he is captured beaming as he hands over a £4 winning Lotto scratchcard.
He buys essentials including milk and sausages and asks for another £50 of scratchcards, just as he did most weeks.
Shopkeeper Ebru Ozturk said: “He would come in a couple of times a week and he always bought his scratchcards.
“He would always come in with a smile on his face and we would have a little chat.
“He was a lovely, friendly man, you would not guess he was a spy.
“We would joke about food from around the world and things we had done in our lives, places we had been. He was a very well-travelled man, and now I know why.
“I just hope he pulls through.”
The CCTV footage was recorded five days before Skripal was found slumped on a bench beside his daughter Yulia.
She flew into the UK last week and was picked up from the airport by a former neighbour, Ross Cassidy, 61.
Later the same day she bought flowers and visited the nearby grave of her brother Alexander, who died on holiday last year, with her father. They left the daffodils on what would have been his 44th birthday.
The pair also went to the nearby grave of wife and mum Lyudmila, who died from cancer aged 59 in 2012.
A cemetery worker said: “I recognised him. He regularly came to visit the grave and also his wife’s grave. It’s so sad.”
Ross Cassidy vouched for Skripal when he applied to join the local railway social club in Salisbury last October.
He has refused to comment, but another drinker at the club said: “We had a few beers with him when he joined. He was just trying to make friends.
“It was very surreal when we found out it was him. I had been sat with him not long ago and then you hear this.
“I think he was happy here – but even if he does survive, I doubt we’ll see him again.”