A police officer who was left critically ill after the Salisbury novichok attack has returned to active duty after 10 months of recuperation.
DS Nick Bailey came into contact with the nerve agent when he and two colleagues searched the Salisbury home of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in March last year.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left fighting for their lives after they collapsed on a bench in Salisbury on 5 March 2018 while Bailey was also taken to hospital, where he was treated for more than a fortnight.
Wiltshire police confirmed on Tuesday that he had returned to work. Angus Macpherson, the Wiltshire police and crime commissioner, said: “He’s doing very well and we look forward to working with him. He’s making a good recovery – but I suspect the mental recovery will be longer, as it would for any of us who were exposed to something as horrific as that. He will be given all the support he needs.”
In November, Bailey said he had suffered an “emotional battering” after the ordeal. Recalling the moment he was told he had been poisoned with novichok, he said: “Knowing how the other two [the Skripals] were … I was petrified.”
He added: “Physically, I think I bounced back pretty well”, but of his emotional wellbeing, he said: “That’s a different kettle of fish. That’s taken longer. I describe it as emotional battering and psychological impact. It’s taken longer to deal with just because of everything that has happened to us.”
Bailey’s return to work came as Sergei Skripal’s home in Christie Miller Road was to be dismantled as decontamination work continues.
Scaffolding has been put up and workers could be seen erecting metal beams around the semi-detached house on Tuesday afternoon. A police officer stood watch at a cordon in the quiet cul-de-sac.
Two Russian nationals – known by their aliases Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – have been accused of travelling to the UK to try to murder Skripal with novichok.
Evidence gathered by intelligence agencies led the government to conclude that the men were officers from the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU.
