Dawn Sturgess: Novichok death inquiry begins next week

Ms Sturgess died in July 2018 after coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok

A public inquiry into how a British woman was fatally poisoned after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok will begin next week.

Dawn Sturgess died in 2018 after coming into contact with the solution on a perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

A public inquiry was ordered by Home Secretary Priti Patel to establish the extent of Russian involvement in Ms Sturgess' death.

It will be chaired by former Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes of Ombersley.

The inquiry will start on 17 March and the current inquest will be suspended, the home secretary wrote in a ministerial statement.

"This is an important step in ensuring that the family of Dawn Sturgess get the answers they need," she added.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived the poisoning attempt

Ms Sturgess' family has waited four years for answers about how she died and the inquiry hearings are expected to be held in Salisbury and London.

She and her partner Charlie Rowley came into contact with Novichok through the discarded bottle, which, it is believed, was used by members of a Russian military intelligence unit in an assassination attempt against former spy Sergei Skripal.

The substance was smeared on Mr Skripal's door handle on 4 March 2018, at his home in Salisbury, eight miles from Amesbury.

The council said it planned to buy the Skripals' former home

Mr Rowley then found the bottle and gave it to Ms Sturgess as a gift, exposing both of them to the toxins.

• The Salisbury poisoning: What happened next?

• Skripal suspects: 'We were just tourists'

• Russian spy: What happened to the Skripals?

While Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and Mr Rowley survived, Ms Sturgess died in hospital on 8 July.

The Metropolitan Police have identified three suspects wanted in connection with the poisonings: Denis Sergeev, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, who used the aliases Sergey Fedotov, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov respectively while in the UK.