Group Captain Jason 'Chez' Davies has revealed how his troops discovered a heart-wrenching note from the child of Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, pleading with them not to destroy their home during the decontamination process following the 2018 Salisbury poisonings.
The Discovery
Davies, who led the massive cleanup operation after the Russian attack, described finding the note in the bedroom of Bailey's child. The message asked if the military could "leave the house as we found it." Bailey, a police officer, was nearly killed after coming into contact with the deadly nerve agent Novichok while investigating the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror ahead of the Channel 4 documentary Salisbury Poisonings: The Untold Story, Davies said: "That's something that I was not prepared for. It's when you go home, it's when you look afterwards at what contamination could have been like in that room."
Impact on Family
Davies' team removed the roof and stripped the walls back to the brickwork to ensure no Novichok remained. The Bailey family lost all their possessions as the RAF unit specialising in chemical warfare defence was deployed to Wiltshire. Davies reflected on the emotional toll: "Nick went to work that day and never would he have thought that he could have had that effect on his family... That's how it reaches out and impacts on families and children."
The Salisbury Poisonings
The three-part Channel 4 series recounts the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia using Novichok, one of the most toxic substances ever created. Bailey and two colleagues were sent to the Skripal home in March 2018 after the pair were found seriously ill on a bench in Salisbury. Bailey was contaminated when he touched the door handle.
Months later, Dawn Sturgess, a British mother of three, tragically died after accidentally coming into contact with the same poison. Davies headed 1,200 troops from the Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Task Force, spending nearly a year decontaminating locations around Salisbury, including a pub, restaurant, and police station.
Military Response
Davies explained the scale of the operation: "Because of the sheer size and scale of the task in question we brought in military from across the United Kingdom. We need to find the Novichok, stop it from spreading and decontaminate to protect the civilian population."
Detective Inspector Ben Mant of Wiltshire Police told the programme he still feels "a responsibility for what happened" after asking Bailey to check the door handle. Mant said: "As the day went on Nick became increasingly poorly and started to hallucinate and ended up in intensive care. We didn't know whether or not he was going to survive." Bailey later reached a financial settlement with Wiltshire Police after suing them over the incident.
Salisbury Poisonings: The Untold Story airs Wednesday April 29 at 9pm on Channel 4.
