As Ms Sturgess’ parents Stan and Caroline followed the proceedings from the front row of the inquiry’s public gallery, the hearing heard how their daughter had managed to turn her life around before she was cruelly struck down by the poison.
Ms Sturgess had struggled with drink while Mr Rowley had problems with substance abuse, but their relationship appeared to have given them the strength to overcome their dependency.
Mr O’Connor said: “Her family recall that, in the months and weeks before her death, Dawn was showing signs of improvement in her health and wellbeing.”
CCTV images shown to the public inquiry captured the two Russian agents walking towards the Skripals’ home on the edge of Salisbury on March 4 2018.
The cameras did not capture their movements past the house, but it showed them emerging on to a nearby main road and returning towards the city centre.
At one stage the pair again disappeared from camera range, after entering Water Lane and before emerging 30 minutes later and making their way towards the rail station.
The inquiry will be required to consider highly confidential material which Lord Hughes of Ombersley, the inquiry chairman and former Supreme Court judge, has deemed will impact on national security and can only be examined in closed hearings, on grounds of national security.
A member of the GRU – Russian military intelligence – Col Skripal was convicted by a Russian court in 2004 of spying for Britain.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but was given a presidential pardon in 2010 and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange.
