THE Wiltshire police officer poisoned with Novichok in the Salisbury incident has spoken of his ordeal for the first time.

Father of two Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey was left critically ill when a Russian hit squad was sent to the cathedral city to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal last March. His daughter Yulia was visiting him from Moscow.

Nick and two colleagues searched the Skripals home on the night of the attack that left the Skripals fighting for their lives. Wearing full forensic suits, Nick entered the property firs.

He told the BBC's Panorama: “I was the first person into the house… We had to make sure that there was no other casualties in the house. It was vital for us to find out what had actually happened to them…The house was in darkness. It just looked normal. There was nothing untoward. Came out of the house, secured it again, took our forensic suits off, which we then bagged up and then went back to the station.”

Shortly afterwards, Nick began to feel unwell: “My pupils were like pin pricks. And I was quite sweaty and hot. At that time I put it down to being tired and stressed.”

He went to bed at the end of his shift, hoping he’d sleep it off, but by Tuesday he was feeling even worse so his family rushed him to hospital. He said, “Everything was juddering, I was very unsteady on my feet. The sweating had gone from my forehead down my back. My whole body was dripping with sweat.”

Recalling the moment Nick was told blood tests revealed he had the deadly nerve agent Novichok in his system, he said: “I didn’t understand how it had happened, scared because it’s the fear of the unknown because it’s such a dangerous thing to have in your system. Knowing how the other two [Yulia and Sergei Skripal] were or how badly they’d been affected by it, I was petrified.”

It wasn’t until 15 days after the attack, that the investigation discovered how the Skripals and Nick Bailey had come into contact with the Novichok. It had been sprayed on the door handle of the Skripals home. DS Bailey told the programme, “I don’t know whether, if it’s gone through the gloves, I don’t know whether, I mean I, I could have adjusted my face mask and my goggles whilst I was in the house with it being on my hand…..It’s such an outrageous, dangerous way of doing something that it angered me as well because any number of people could have been affected by that.”

Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Nick were treated in intensive care at Salisbury District Hospital, after being poisoned with one of the deadliest nerve agents known to man.

While the former spy and his daughter were in a coma, Nick remained conscious.

He said, “I was conscious, throughout the whole time. It was painful at the beginning. I had lots of injections. I had five or six infusions at any one time in my arms. One of the Skripals was in the room right next to me. It was all guarded by the police.”

The Novichok, which is fatal in the tiniest of doses, had been smuggled into the UK in a fake perfume bottle. It was found in Salisbury three months after the Skripals and Nick Bailey had been poisoned, by local man Charlie Rowley, who gave it to his partner Dawn Sturgess.

Friend of the couple, Sam Hobson told the programme: “He said he’d found a perfume bottle and he gave it to Dawn. Dawn recognised the brand and said it was a good one. She sprayed it onto her wrists and like smelled it and like obviously Charlie got a bit on his hands and it was like an oily substance he said and so he washed it off.”

Dawn and Charlie both succumbed to Novichok poisoning. Mr Rowley survived but Dawn died nine days later.

Nick Bailey told the programme: “I was in absolute shock when I heard about what happened to these two people and my heart goes out to Dawn and her family because I was able to walk out of hospital and sadly she wasn’t.”

When Nick came off duty after the attack he went first to Bourne Hill police station and then to his home, unwittingly contaminating both. He and his family can no longer live in their house.

He said: “Physically I think I bounced back pretty well thanks to the hospital.”

When asked about his emotional well being 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. Not only did we lose the house, we lost all of our possessions, including everything the kids owned, we lost all that, the cars. We lost everything. And yeah it’s been very difficult to kind of come to terms with that.”

Nick left Salisbury District Hospital after two and a half weeks on March 22, thanking staff for saving his life but knowing he may face long-term health issues. He said: “I have passing moments where I think about how it could affect me. But I can’t control that, it’s happened now and we just have to take each day as it comes. The public reaction has been overwhelming actually and I wish I could thank everybody.”

When asked if Nick should have been better protected when he was deployed to the Skripals home, Wiltshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Paul Mills told the programme: “I guess hindsight’s a wonderful thing. The emergency services, they will respond to what’s in front of them, unless there’s something obvious which would indicate that actually they should be wearing personal protective equipment which gives them that higher level of protection, then we take things as we find them.”

Professor Tim, government scientist

The scientist in charge of dealing with chemical threats at the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down has also spoken exclusively to Panorama. Professor Tim, whose surname cannot be revealed for security reasons, describes the moment he identified the deadly nerve agent, Novichok that had struck down the Skripals and Nick Bailey. “It was a jaw dropping moment. I went through a number of emotions from disbelief to anger. It’s one of the most dangerous substances known. It’s quite unique in its ability to poison individuals at very low concentrations.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon

The programme also speaks exclusively to the detective leading the Salisbury investigation. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dean Haydon said: “We started off with not knowing anything at all so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but actually at that stage we didn’t even have a haystack so we had to build the data from literally the start.”

The investigation discovered that the Salisbury assassins travelled to the UK on false passports. They were later identified as officers with Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. DAC Haydon told the programme: “We had seized over 11,000 hours of CCTV, that was a massive task. We were sifting through the CCTV and we had a kind of gotcha moment of we identified the attackers. We were now onto them…I don’t think they expected to be captured on CCTV in the way that they were.”

DAC Haydon told the programme the amount of Novichok in the bottle could have resulted in mass casualties.

He said: “When we found it there was a significant amount of Novichok contained within the bottle.” When asked how many people it could have killed he said: “It’s difficult to say, you know, possibly into the thousands. The amount that was in the bottle and the way it was applied to the Skripals' home address was completely reckless.”

The investigation into the Salisbury attack continues. Asked if there is anyone else involved, a third man, DAC Dean Haydon told the programme: “Who else is involved is still very much subject to a live line of inquiry. My ambition remains to bring these two individuals and anyone else involved in this attack plot to justice, you know through the British criminal justice system. I will not give up.”

Former Head of MI6 – Sir John Sawers

Sergei and Yulia Skripal eventually left hospital after weeks of treatment. Their whereabouts is a closely guarded secret. Sergei Skripal had been a double agent spying for both the Russians and the British. He was relocated to Salisbury after being pardoned in Russia as part of a spy swap in 2010.

When asked by Panorama if Mr Skripal should have been better protected, former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers said: “I think this question of what level of protection you provide for people who have been released and swapped in this way, it varies from individual to individual. Now clearly we got that calculation wrong, that the threat against Sergei Skripal was much higher than we had expected, because we hadn’t expected the Russians to go back on a Presidential pardon.”

The British Government has accused Russia, specifically it’s military intelligence agency, the GRU of responsibility for the attack. Russia denies any involvement in the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Panorama: Salisbury Nerve Agent Attack – The Inside Story is on tonight at 8pm, BBC One.