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By Yuliya Talmazan
LONDON – A British police officer at the center of the spy Sergei Skripal's saga said his family had "lost everything" because he had inadvertently contaminated their home with a toxic nerve agent, novichok agent.
In his first interview since the poisoning, Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey recounted that he was the first officer to have entered Skripal's home in Salisbury, England, after the double agent and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench on March 4th.
Although he was wearing a combination of a medical examiner at the time, Bailey began to feel bad soon after.
"My students were like pin bites. And I was very sweaty and hot, "Bailey told the BBC's" Panorama "program.
Unaware that a deadly nervous agent was at stake, Bailey went home, assuming that he was feeling sick because he was tired and trying to sleep.
Bailey was rushed to hospital the next day, where he spent weeks fighting for his life.
"It was horrible," Bailey recalls. "I was confused, I did not know what was going on and it was really scary."
Authorities subsequently determined that the Skripals had been poisoned in Novichok, one of the world's deadliest nerve agents. Police believe the substance has been sprayed on the door handle of Skripal's house.
Since the poisoning, Bailey's family has not been able to return to her contaminated home.
"Not only did we lose the house, we also lost all our belongings, including everything the children owned," he said. We lost all that, cars … we lost everything. And yes, it was very difficult to deal with that. "
"Panorama" reported that the officer in charge of the investigation on Skripal had stated that the nerve agent remaining in the counterfeit perfume container used to poison the former spy and that his daughter would have could kill thousands of people.
A bottle containing Novichok was found after another poisoning in the UK became fatal in July.
"When we found it, there was a significant amount of Novichok in the bottle," said depty deputy commissioner Dean Haydon, the main national coordinator of counterterrorism policing. "The amount that was in the bottle and the way it was applied to Skripal's personal address was completely reckless."
Following the incident, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack – an allegation that Moscow strongly denied.
In September, the British authorities charged two men in absentia. Both are believed to be Russian spies.
A few days later, the duo went on and granted an interview to RT, a state-funded reporter, claiming to be tourists interested in seeing Salisbury Cathedral and its historic clock.
"Our friends have long been proposing to visit this wonderful city," said one of the suspects at the question of what investigators said was a 60-hour visit to the UK.
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