It was “pure chance” that Dawn Sturgess’s daughter was not killed along with her mother when Novichok was discarded by a Kremlin hit squad, a public inquiry has been told.Ms Sturgess had been planning to pick up the 11-year-old from her mother’s home shortly after she inadvertently sprayed herself with the nerve agent.

They were poisoned when members of a Russian military intelligence squad are believed to have smeared Novichok on Mr Skripal’s door handle. The inquiry will examine evidence of what led to the later poisoning of Ms Sturgess and her death. Dawn Sturgess, 44, died from Novichok poisoning in Salisbury Hospital on 8 July 2018.

A public inquiry is to begin later in Salisbury, to examine how a woman from Wiltshire was killed by a 2018 poisoning blamed on Russian agents. Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after coming into contact with Novichok - the same chemical weapon used to target a former Russian spy four months earlier.