London: Yulia Skripal travelled to Britain to comfort her father in Salisbury at her late brother's graveside on the week that would have marked his 44th birthday.

Yulia Skripal, 33, and her father, Sergei Skripal, 66, were still raw with grief after Alexander died suddenly aged 43 in St Petersburg seven months earlier.

The father had insisted his son's remains be interred near the grave of his mother, Liudmila, who died in 2012.

It remains a mystery how Alexander, described by family friends as "healthy", fell ill so quickly with liver failure. It is believed Alexander had been travelling with a 49-year-old woman known only as Anna from Chita, a town in Russia's Far East.