The house in Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok is now on the market. A 30% shared ownership of the property on Christie Miller Road is being offered for £114,000, with the remaining share held by Wiltshire Council.
Background of the Property
The local authority purchased the house after the 2018 poisoning to prevent any exploitation of its history, such as turning it into a macabre tourist attraction. The estate agent Carter & May does not mention Skripal in the listing details for the three-bedroom house. Instead, the listing highlights its proximity to schools, shops, and transport links, as well as a good-sized garden, describing it as an 'ideal family home'.
The Poisoning Incident
In March 2018, Russian agents applied novichok to the door handle of the redbrick detached house on the outskirts of Salisbury. Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting, fell seriously ill but survived. Four months later, Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old Wiltshire woman, died after her partner Charlie Rowley found a fake perfume bottle containing novichok. The flat in Amesbury where Sturgess fell ill has since been demolished.
Investigation and Inquiry
During an inquiry into the poisonings, Dominic Murphy, former head of the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command, described how hundreds of investigators and scientists worked to trace 'ground zero'—the point where the Skripals were poisoned. A restaurant, a pub, and a car were initially suspected before the door handle was identified as the source nearly two weeks after the Skripals fell ill. The inquiry chair, Lord Hughes, concluded that Vladimir Putin must have authorised the attack and was 'morally responsible' for Sturgess's death, calling it a 'public demonstration of Russian state power for both international and domestic impact'. Hughes made limited criticism of the security services' protection of Skripal, who was living openly under his own name on Christie Miller Road.
