Novichok nerve agent victim Charlie Rowley has ‘briefly’ spoken to police as officers try to discover what poisoned him and his partner Dawn Sturgess.
Medics at Salisbury District Hospital said last night there has been a small but significant improvement in his condition and he has now spoken to detectives.
The 45-year-old was poisoned along with Ms Sturgess, who died on Sunday, by the same nerve agent used in the attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March.
In a statement, Scotland Yard said this morning: Officers from the investigation team have spoken briefly to Charlie and will be looking to further speak with him in the coming days as they continue to try and establish how he and Dawn came to be contaminated with the nerve agent.
Any contact officers have with Charlie will be done in close consultation with the hospital and his doctors. We will not be providing further commentary around our contact with Charlie.
Mr Rowley, 45, collapsed at his home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, with his girlfriend Dawn.
It is believed the pair may have come into contact with a contaminated container of some kind – and police have admitted they may never find it.
Local residents have since been warned not to pick up anything off the floor.
Their poisoning is being linked to the attempted assassination of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
According to information given by scientists to Scotland Yard’s counter terror chief Neil Basu, the nerve agent used in Salisbury could last for five decades.
He also told two hundred people at a meeting on Tuesday night you know it’s murder and admitted cops are no closer to finding the assassins nor finding the source of the contamination which killed Dawn.