Stephen Cockroft said he was ‘quite sure’ she had suffered ‘catastrophic’ brain damage

A hospital consultant who treated the Skripals after they were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok was “gobsmacked” when Yulia Skripal woke and began trying to get out of bed four days after the attack.

Dr Stephen Cockroft said he tried to reassure Yulia, who was “crying and terrified”, that she was safe and also asked her if anyone had attacked her and her father or sprayed anything over them.