Police swab items at Skripal home for clues to nerve agent attack

Door handles and computer keyboards are among the items at the home of Sergei Skripal that are being examined by investigators as they work to establish where and how the nerve agent attack on the Russian former spy took place.

Skripal’s red-brick house in Salisbury remains cordoned off almost three weeks after he and his daughter, Yulia, collapsed in the city centre.

An investigator was seen at the house on Friday with a list headed “swabs”. It appeared to indicate that spots the Skripals were likely to have touched were being looked at in particular. The front door, patio door and keyboards were all listed.

Counter-terrorism officials have given no details of how the Skripals may have come into contact with the nerve agent, which has been identified as a novichok.

There was speculation it could have been placed on the door handles of Skripal’s BMW or in the car’s ventilation system. Another suggestion is that Yulia Skripal, who arrived in the UK on a flight from Russia the day before she and her father collapsed, may have brought it into the country.

The chief constable of Wiltshire, Kier Pritchard, said on Thursday that the investigation was complex and no end was in sight.

He said: “The investigation is highly likely to take many months and where it is operationally possible, updates will be issued to the media. We thank the public for their continued support.”

Earlier he told a Wiltshire police and crime panel that the operation was still focused on gathering evidence and had not yet entered the recovery stage.

On Friday DS Nick Bailey, the police officer who has been released from hospital after being taken ill in the attack, said: “We are just taking each day as it comes at the moment. I recognise that normal life for me will probably never be the same, and Sarah [his wife] and I now need to focus on finding a new normal for us and for our children.”

Describing the experience as “surreal”, Bailey said: “I want people to focus on the investigation – not the police officer who was unfortunate enough to be caught up in it.”

His wife said: “Nick doesn’t like the term hero, but he has always been a hero to me and our children.”

Also on Friday, police said a man had been charged in connection with an incident at the police cordon at Salisbury cemetery, where the remains of Skripal’s wife and son rest.

Daniel Daley, 53, of Salisbury, was charged with assaulting a police officer, racially aggravated public order and being drunk and disorderly.

On Tuesday another man, Kim Rogerson, 56, from Salisbury, was charged in connection with an incident in which police officers manning a cordon in the city centre were allegedly assaulted. Both will appear before magistrates next month.

Jamie Knight, 30, from Wilton, near Salisbury, was jailed after breaching a cordon around the bench where the Skripals collapsed, putting officers at risk of contamination as they tried to restrain him.