The house in Salisbury where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned with the nerve agent novichok is now on the market. A 30% shared ownership of the three-bedroom property on Christie Miller Road is being offered for £114,000, with the remaining 70% held by Wiltshire Council.
Council bought property to prevent macabre tourism
The local authority purchased the house after the March 2018 poisoning to prevent any exploitation of its history, such as becoming a morbid tourist attraction. The estate agent Carter & May does not mention Skripal in the listing, instead highlighting proximity to schools, shops, and transport links, along with a good-sized garden, describing it as an “ideal family home”.
Novichok attack details
Russian agents applied novichok to the door handle of the redbrick detached house on the outskirts of Salisbury. Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting, fell seriously ill but survived. Four months later, Dawn Sturgess died after her partner Charlie Rowley found a fake perfume bottle containing novichok. During the inquiry, former Metropolitan police counter-terrorism head Dominic Murphy described how investigators traced “ground zero” to the door handle almost two weeks after the poisoning. Lord Hughes, chair of the inquiry, concluded Vladimir Putin authorized the attack and was “morally responsible” for Sturgess’s death, calling it a “public demonstration of Russian state power”. Hughes made limited criticism of security services for allowing Skripal to live openly under his own name. The flat in Amesbury where Sturgess fell ill has been demolished.
