Novichok poisoning victim Dawn Sturgess was “intelligent, funny and kind,” her mother says

Zimmer “visibly moved” by the mother’s statementpublished at 10:54 a.m. British Summer Time

10:54 BST

Dan O’Brien
At Salisbury Guildhall

image source, Crown Copyright

Despite all the international intrigue and espionage activity in the background, this morning was a powerful reminder that at the center of this public inquiry is a local woman who was clearly deeply loved and who had nothing to do with the previous events.

It’s hard to imagine what it must be like for a mother to make such a statement before a public inquiry.

The Chairman, Lord Hughes, seemed visibly moved by what he heard and clearly recognized that others were too, and so announced a break of a few minutes to allow people to collect their thoughts.

For all the powerful tributes, Caroline Sturgess also had an important message here, which the family’s legal team alluded to yesterday: Contrary to some press reports and assumptions at the start of the investigation at the time, Dawn was not a drug user.

It was obviously very distressing for the family that she was ever portrayed as such.

Part of the statement was read on behalf of Dawn’s daughter, who is still of school age and therefore not named. We learned that she almost saw her mother the day she got sick. If Dawn had sprayed the perfume at a slightly different time, her daughter might have gotten sick too.

She never got to say goodbye to her mother.