I lost my partner, my health and my home in Salisbury poisonings – now I want to sue Russia, says victim Charlie Rowley

FIVE years after becoming an unintended victim of a devastating poison attack by Russian agents on British soil, Charlie Rowley is still waiting for justice.

Now, the 49-year-old builder, who lost his partner Dawn Sturgess after they were both exposed to military-grade nerve agent Novichok, has revealed he wants to sue Russia.

It comes after the long-awaited public hearing into Dawn’s death in Amesbury, Wilts, is set to be pushed back until next year.

Charlie, who suffered multiple strokes and nerve damage after the attack, lost everything when his home had to be destroyed due to the contamination. He has not received a penny in compensation.

Sitting in front of a photo montage of Dawn in the front room of his new home, he said: “I live in hope that justice will be done.

“We’ve waited for five years and I want the truth to finally be told. I will dig my heels in until the day there will be an outcome.

“‘Collateral’ is a word people used to describe me and Dawn but we were people with feelings.

“I would like to have proper closure with a real result.”

Dawn, 44, Charlie’s girlfriend of 18 months, died in hospital in July 2018 after being exposed to Novichok via a fake Nina Ricci perfume bottle that Charlie gave her as a gift after finding it discarded in a charity shop bin.

It is believed the nerve agent had been used in an attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who was found unconscious alongside his daughter Yulia on a park bench in Salisbury three months before.

What happened to the bottle, which contained enough Novichok to kill thousands of people, during those intervening months will form part of the delayed inquiry.

The Government believes three Russian agents launched the attack on former Russian GRU intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, 71, by rubbing Novichok on the door handle of his home.

Detectives have named Russian intelligence officers Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin as suspects, who are believed to be have been working under commander Denis Sergeev.

Sensitive information in documents has delayed the start of a public hearing into Dawn’s death, with inquiry head Lord Hughes expected to confirm a start date this week.

‘Trail of destruction’

However, that is now likely to be next autumn, because lawyers have argued that redactions to documents are necessary to stop intelligence falling into the hands of “the hostile state that is Russia”.

For Charlie, it is further heartbreak while he waits for answers.

He said: “I’d like to know about the three Russians who came to Salisbury. I’d like to find a way of bringing them to account. I feel they probably had a huge pay-off as they did something and are reaping the rewards for it, yet they’ve left a trail of destruction behind them.”

Charlie has a team of lawyers looking at who he can sue after the Russian attack killed his partner, wrecked his health and saw him lose his home.

He said: “I’m waiting. I want compensation for the suffering. I haven’t had anything for the loss of belongings. There were 450 items in my house — all gone.

“My phone that contained all my photos and memories and even the £400 in my wallet when I was in hospital all had to be destroyed.

“The housing association that owned the house where I lived tore it down. I have a solicitor but who is the case against?

“Is it aimed at the Russians, who aren’t taking any blame, or is it someone else? Who is to blame?”

Charlie, who lives with his 15-year-old fox terrier Gypsy in a one- bedroom flat in Wiltshire, says the attack has taken a terrible toll on his physical and mental health.

He said: “My hands have cramps, I’ve suffered from depression. If you were to stick a pin in my toe I wouldn’t be able to tell you are doing it.” He has also suffered from flashbacks, nightmares and sleeplessness.

Charlie, who is fearful of another attack, said: “When I was in hospital and still wired into a machine I had a number of strokes and that has affected my eyesight.

“I have nerve damage in my eye so I see everything on a slant.

“I could hardly move one arm for over 18 months, I couldn’t even get dressed without help at one point.”

Every day Charlie carries guilt over the death of his “soulmate” Dawn.

He said: “When I found out what had happened I wished it’d been me.

“I could never have imagined in my darkest nightmares what was in that bottle. I thought I had a lucky find.

“I gave Dawn the perfume, she applied it on her wrists

“After she sprayed it she said, ‘That’s funny, it doesn’t smell’.”

Within 15 minutes of spraying the perfume, Dawn became unwell.

Charlie recalled: “She complained of a headache, I was looking for headache tablets to give her.

“When I went into the bathroom to give her them, that’s when I realised something was seriously wrong.

“In seconds she was fine and talking, the next minute that was it.”

Within hours Charlie also fell ill, suffering terrifying hallucinations as the toxin took hold in his brain.

He said: “I was with a good friend of mine and I went through a state of sudden, extreme paranoia and I became deranged.

“I thought he was telling me he had done harm to me and my Dawny. It must have been terrifying.

“He called 999 and he saved my life. Just like I had tried to save Dawn’s life. I have no recollection of any of it.”

Charlie also struggles with false memories as his mind tries to bridge the gaps.

He said: “One that is really clear is I thought I was in an ambulance and a doctor was pouring gallons of water down my throat to flush me through. But clearly that didn’t happen. It was probably someone sticking a tube down my throat to make me breathe.”

When he came round from ten days in a coma, a nurse told him they had found poison.

‘I loved her deeply’

Charlie remembered: “I said, ‘Don’t be silly, that was just perfume. I gave it to Dawn. That wasn’t what happened’. But it turned out it 100 per cent was.

“My world crashed at that point.”

In the aftermath he admits he has turned to drink at times.

He confessed: “It’s the guilt. I am numbing myself.”

As the fifth anniversary of Dawn’s death looms, Charlie spoke about how he misses her every day,

He added: “I still stay in touch with Dawn’s family. That’s very important to me. I loved her deeply.”

Charlie managed to salvage some messages that Dawn sent him via Facebook Messenger and often plays them to connect with her.

He said: “I went through a phase of listening to them all the time. I just wish she had said more. There’s ten seconds left of her on her messages — that’s all I have.”

Charlie revealed he has tried to get hold of Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, the first person to enter the Skripals’ home after they were poisoned, who also fell seriously ill.

Det Sgt Bailey reached a confidential financial settlement with Wiltshire Police after launching a personal injury claim against the force.

Charlie said: “He was poisoned too. No one can understand what we have been through.

“I don’t know what I can learn from his trauma, but it would be nice to speak to him. There’s not many people who have gone through this and are able to talk. I want to fill in some blanks and it will make me feel I’m not in the dark.”

His trauma has been made worse by trolls who even accused him of being a spy because only a handful of people are known to have come into contact with Novichok.

Charlie said: “There were rumours I had some connection with spies by people that didn’t know me as it was so bizarre that I had a bottle of Novichok.”

On the anniversary of Dawn’s death this July Charlie will visit a memorial bench dedicated to her in Salisbury — as he has done every year.

He said: “I will go there and have a quiet thought to myself. I’ve accepted the fact that she’s gone and there isn’t anything in the world that’s going to bring her back.

“At the same time I’m cross, angry, frustrated that nothing has been done. At times it feels like nothing will actually come of it. I really fear that. But this could have happened to anyone’s parents or children. If it wasn’t us it would have been someone else.

“I try my hardest to deal with it, but it is something I will always feel guilty for.”

Barrister Rob Rinder told The Sun: “It would be almost impossible to sue the Russian state at this point in time. There is no remedy in international law.

“But thinking of a world after Putin, Britain could seek to extract compensation from the Russian government for what is, in any view, an extra-judicial assassination. There is a precedent with the Libyan government paying out to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing.

“Charlie is a victim and should be entitled to compensation.

“However, it will likely be solved through the political sphere rather than the legal one.”