Google search alerted police to grave nature of Skripal case

SALISBURY police only realised the significance of the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal when they Googled his name, an officer in the investigation has revealed.

Sgt Tracey Holloway was one of the first on the scene of the Novichok attack against Col Skripal and daughter.

Her comments came ahead of the first anniversary of the incident today. She told BBC News that while the police knew “relatively early” that both victims would be sent to intensive care, police initially thought their collapse was caused by a drug overdose and it was only after searching for Col Skripal’s name online that they realised “it could be something bigger”.

Sgt Holloway said: “The paramedics said they weren’t sure what it was and we didn’t know what they were suffering with,” she said.

“They weren’t dressed in the way I would expect a drug user to be, so I wasn’t really sure what we had. Another CID officer Googled his name.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister paid tribute today to the “strength, resilience and fortitude” of the victims, their friends and families and the city, and said that: “The fact Salisbury… has fought back so well from such a devastating and reckless incident is testament to the resolve, forbearance and positivity of the community.”

Her comments come after the son of Dawn Sturgess, who died in July last year after she was exposed to Novichok in a fake perfume bottle discarded by the Russian hit men, said he felt “let down” by the Government because they had not provided any support to his family following his mother’s death.

In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, 20-year-old Ewan Hope said the family had not received “a phone call, a letter, or anything” from the Government or their local MP.

One group of locals who seem to be embodying the spirit of “resolve” referred to by Theresa May – though in defiance of official advice – are the Whiteparish Women’s Institute.

The group, based seven miles from Salisbury, defied a litter-picking ban put in place in July by Public Health England to protect the public from the deadly nerve agent.

Jenny Finch, president of the WI in Whiteparish, said: “Everybody agreed [the risk] was ridiculously over emphasised.”