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Spy poisoning: police focusing on Skripals' movements Spy poisoning: police say investigation could last until summer
(about 7 hours later)
Detectives hunting the people who carried out the Salisbury nerve agent attack are focusing on the movements of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief has said. Police have moved steel barriers into place at one of the crime scenes in Salisbury as they said the investigation into the nerve agent attack could last until the summer.
On Tuesday, Neil Basu praised the bravery of the officers and scientists working on the ground and the people of Salisbury for their help and support. Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief, Neil Basu, said he was confident that the culprits who left the Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, critically ill would be found but that the inquiry would be prolonged.
More than two weeks after the attack on the Skripals, the assistant Metropolitan police commissioner said the inquiry would take weeks or months, but he was optimistic the culprits would be found. Asked if the focus was on Skripal’s BMW, following speculation that it may have been sabotaged, Basu said: “Our focus is on the movements of the Skripals. We are open minded and will follow that evidence wherever it takes us.”
Asked on the BBC’s Today programme if the focus was on Skripal’s BMW, following claims that it may have been sabotaged, Basu said: “Our focus is on the movements of the Skripals; we are open-minded and will follow that evidence wherever it takes us. The notion that the investigation could last until the summer at least was supported by the arrival of steel barriers behind the Mill pub, one of the places the Skripals visited before they fell ill.
“It’s frustrating, I know, its painstaking work and I would like to pay tribute to the people who are working day and night and also to the people of Salisbury, who have been remarkably stoic and very supportive to Wiltshire [police] and my officers while they go about their business.” Elsewhere, the lingering concern about the risk to public health was illustrated by the refusal of an Oxfam shop in Salisbury to take donations.
He also drew attention to how perilous the work was. “There are some very brave scientists and forensic officers painstakingly looking through the scene to determine answers, but it will take time,” Basu said. A spokesperson for Oxfam said: “Some of our volunteers in Salisbury were concerned that donated clothes could potentially be contaminated. We respect their concerns and so have suspended donations. We hope to accept donations again soon when more advice and information about the case is available.”
At the weekend, police released the first image connected to the investigation, of Skripal’s car, and gave more details about what they knew of the pair’s movements in the hours leading up to the attack. Public Health England is expected to update its advice to people who were in the Mill and the Zizzi restaurant that the Skripals visited on 4 March within the next few days.
“I’m really pleased to say our witness appeals have resulted in the public coming forward,” Basu said. Scientists are still trying to work out the best way for people to deal with clothes that need to be dry-cleaned. It is thought there are concerns about how any trace of the nerve agent might interact with chemicals used in dry-cleaning.
“I’m ever the optimist and our job is to find the people responsible for a despicable and heinous activity on UK soil. We’ll find those people responsible and we’ll seek to prosecute them.” The authorities have contacted 131 people who could have been exposed to the nerve agent.
About 4,000 hours of CCTV footage is being examined for clues alongside nearly 800 seized items, and 400 witness statements have been recorded so far. A woman who was in the Zizzi restaurant with her boyfriend and newborn baby a few hours after the Skripals were taken ill has said she was surprised it took nearly two weeks for her to be approached by the police.
On Monday, attention turned to the vehicle that brought Yulia to Salisbury the day before the attempted murder. She said: “We were spoken to on the 15th, which was 11 days later. Responding to people’s worries and getting information out there was really crap, really slow.
Officers and troops sealed off a street in the village of Durrington, 10 miles north of Salisbury and close to Stonehenge, where they are believed to have seized a pickup truck belonging to a family friend of the Skripals. “I was told [by the police] that we should have no worries about our health, as if we were affected we would have seen something by now. I was really worried because I have a small baby.”
Yulia is understood to have been collected by the friend, Ross Cassidy, from Heathrow airport after flying in from Moscow on Saturday 3 March, 24 hours before she and her father were taken critically ill in Salisbury. A man has been charged in connection with an incident in which police officers manning the cordons in Salisbury were allegedly abused and assaulted.
The development came as experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrived in the UK to begin an independent investigation into the attack. The team is expected to visit scenes connected to the investigation and the defence science and technology laboratory at Porton Down, near Salisbury, where items connected to the incident are being analysed. Kim Rogerson, 56, of Salisbury, was arrested on Monday afternoon in Castle Street, the location of Zizzi. He has been charged with assaulting a police officer, assaulting a police staff member, being drunk and disorderly in a public place and a racially aggravated public order offence. He will appear before magistrates next month.
More than 20 cordons have been set up or remain in place across Wiltshire and Dorset. Police have contacted 131 people who could have been exposed to the nerve agent.
Sergei SkripalSergei Skripal
UK security and counter-terrorismUK security and counter-terrorism
Metropolitan policeMetropolitan police
PolicePolice
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