In the first eyewitness account of the moment the former Russian spy was consigned to death, Norberto Andrade describes how, as he tried to serve drinks to Mr Litvinenko and the former KGB agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, he was deliberately distracted in order, he claims, to allow the killer to add radioactive polonium to a pot of green tea.
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"It was the only moment when the situation seemed unfriendly and something went on at that point. I think the polonium was sprayed into the teapot. There was contamination found on the picture above where Mr Litvinenko had been sitting and all over the table, chair and floor, so it must have been a spray."
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"When I poured the remains of the teapot into the sink, the tea looked more yellow than usual and was thicker - it looked gooey," he recalled. "I scooped it out of the sink and threw it into the bin. I was so lucky I didn't put my fingers into my mouth, or scratch my eye as I could have got this poison inside me.
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The murder of Mr Litvinenko, who on his deathbed accused the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of ordering his assassination, sparked a massive police inquiry.
Incidentally, the waiter also used to serve James Bond movie producer Albert R. Broccoli, plus 007 portrayors Sean Connery and George Lazenby... imagine doing that, and later actually being an innocent-bystander bit player in a real-life Russian/KGB poisoning of a defector...
And new Brit PM Brown is reportedly expected to retaliate against the Russkies with sanctions of some sort for the assassination...
