The Star of British Television Murdered on Her Doorstep.

Who killed Jill Dando

The job of a newscaster is to tell the news. They rarely become the news themselves. That was what happened to the BBC news team in 1999 when the rising star Jill Dando was gunned down on her doorstep.

Most of the British population tuned in at 6 o'clock to see the country news read by Jill Dando to discover she actually was the news.

It is a story that affected the nation. Most people had heard of her, and for some, me included, she was my daily dose of information. Before social media, when we tuned in to get the latest updates, Jill Dando was the person we relied on. The late Queen even commented on her death.

Twenty-five years on, the case is unsolved; a mixture of minimal evidence and police incompetence has meant that no one knows what happened or why.

Who Was Jill Dando

Jill Dando was a news presenter and journalist. She was born on 9 November 1961 in Weston-super-Mare, England. Dando's career began in journalism, working for various newspapers before moving on to television.

At one point in her career, she appeared to be on every program. The first presenting job which made her a household name was the BBC program Holiday. She had a warm on-screen presence, and people loved watching her.

She was also the nightly presenter for the 6 p.m. news when much of the country sat down to discover what was happening worldwide. In 1995, she was offered to present one of the BBC's most iconic programs, Crimewatch. 

Crimewatch was a program dedicated to solving crimes and appealing to the public for information on unsolved cases. Dando's involvement helped raise the show's profile and contributed to the resolution of numerous criminal investigations.

She was a rising star until her career was tragically cut short.

Murdered

The murder happened at 1130 on 26 April 1999. Dando had been staying with her fiancée, Alan Farthing, in his house in Chiswick. On the way to a wedding dress fitting, she popped back to her flat in Fulham to put some fax paper in the machine; she was expecting a document. 

The postman who delivered her mail at 1030 remembered seeing a dark-haired man in a suit in the area. A blue Range Rover was also seen illegally parked and later speeding away from the area.

The visit back to her flat was spontaneous; it had not been planned, and this would be an important detail later. She parked her car a couple of houses up and walked to her front door. As she approached the door, an unknown assailant pushed her to the floor, placed a gun behind her ear and shot her dead. The keys to her BMW were still in her hand.

Some say they heard a scream but thought nothing of it. The unknown person left the crime scene, leaving a bullet cartridge and nothing else. It was the middle of the morning on a relatively busy street.

Dando was pronounced dead at 13.03, and the media were informed of the name of the celebrity that had been shot. It was then up to her colleagues at BBC News to break the news to the nation. 

The gun used to kill her was identified as a semi-automatic handgun. The bruising around the wound showed that a silencer had not been used in the attack. Handguns had been made illegal two years previously in the UK. 

Theories

Theories came fast on who was responsible for the murder. Early in the investigation, the police stated they had over two thousand suspects. Everyone wanted to help solve the case. 

The fact that no one knew Dando was going home that day led to two theories: the first, that she had been followed home and then killed, and the second, that the murder was completely spontaneous and random. Had she been followed home, was the killing a contract by a professional? However, would a professional leave a gun cartridge behind?

Was Dando killed because of a case that she had covered on Crimewatch? Could a member of organised crime have put a contract out on her? 

Did the Serbian government order Dando to be killed in retaliation for their television studio that was bombed the previous day? Dando had fronted a BBC appeal for aid for the crisis, bringing her to the attention of Serb Leaders.

Tony Hall, the head of BBC News, received a death threat from a Serbian man on the phone stating he had killed Dando and Hall was next. This could have easily been a copycat. The bullet used also had crimping, something that Serbian ammunition commonly had.

The timeline for the Serbian killing would suggest not; it would have been difficult for anyone to organise a contract killing in twenty-four hours. Not impossible, but extremely unlikely. It is also unlikely as no one took credit for the assassination, which is common in politically linked killings. 

The link to organised crime was never investigated. Mark Williams, responsible for bringing Jimmy Saville to justice, stated that he had been contacted by a hitman who said he knew who had killed Dando but was too frightened to release the name. If this was true, had one of the cases she covered on Crimewatch been the reason?

We examined all the cases that Jill was involved in which cases she broadcast…there was simply no evidence for it. - Hamish Campbell.

The most recent theory mentioned is that Dando was about to reveal a paedophile ring within the BBC, and she was killed for this reason. Members of the BBC are quick to condemn this theory but reluctant to consider it. 

The last theory that the police worked on at the time was that it was a lone person who had been stalking Dando and ultimately took the opportunity to kill her when she returned home. 

Under pressure to solve the murder, this was the theory the police were so convinced was the explanation. From this moment on, they have been accused of manipulating the evidence to fit the suspect. 

Barry George

Hamish Campbell was the police officer in charge of the murder case. He has been accused of finding a suspect and then pursuing that suspect, disregarding the others. Evidence shows that many leads were not investigated once the police had their man. 

Armed with a profile of the killer, Campbell took part in Crimewatch to ask for the public's help to find their suspect. Mark Williams states that Campbell designed the profile to implicate their main suspect, Barry George. 

Barry George was a loner who had some worrying behaviours. He had previously been to prison for attempted rape and had been charged with impersonating a police officer. He was arrested one year after Dando's death

Looking at the police interviews, several things strike you. George is a strange man who clearly has a severe learning disability. He has been tested and has an IQ of 75, putting him in the lowest five per cent of the population. The video will show that he was interviewed without an appropriate adult.

Appropriate adults are used with the young and those not deemed mentally able to know what is happening to them. There is no doubt George would qualify for this support. 

Throughout the interview, it is also clear that George denies the murder at every opportunity. The police believed they had enough evidence on George to execute a search warrant.

The Case Against George

George lived close to the murder site; the police searched his house for evidence. They found a holster without a gun and several business cards for gun shops. They also found a photo of George holding a gun similar to the murder weapon. 

There were several rolls of undeveloped film. When developed, they were photos of various women in and around his area, including where Dando lived. 

They found a couple of cuttings of Dando taken from a magazine. But that was the only link to her that they found. The evidence was entirely circumstantial.  

When forensics examined his coat, however, they found the evidence they felt was essential—one particle of gunshot residue similar to that found at the crime scene. 

George was charged, and his trial started on 26 February 2001. He was convicted by the jury and sent to prison. 

Friends and family of Dando stated they always felt the conviction was not right. Most argued that George did not have the intelligence to commit the murder and escape. 

Scientific Evidence

One year after his conviction, George appealed his sentence; the decision was upheld, and he returned to jail. 

Angela Shaw was a forensic scientist who specialised in gunshot residue evidence. In 2008, she wrote a policy that significantly changed the use of a single residue particle. 

When interviewed, she stated that one particle airborne and could be transferred from various sources, such as public transport. We could all sit at home now with a single particle on us. 

1-100 people might pick up a particle unknowingly - Angela Shaw

For this reason, the policy stated that a single particle could no longer be used as evidence of a crime. Barry George's conviction rested on a single piece of inadmissible evidence.

At the retrial on 1 August 2008, he was released from prison. In contrast to other cases I have covered, the friends and family of Dando believe it is the correct decision. 

Jill Dando Institute 

Hamish Campbell remains resolute that George was the murderer. The case has never been thoroughly re-examined, and twenty-five years on, it remains unsolved. 

Vital information was not investigated because the police were convinced they had their man, or were they? Was George a convenient man to pin a murderer on and escape the scrutiny they were under for not solving the case?

The family believe that the case will never be solved now. They all have one wish, though whether anyone is convicted or not, their main question is why rather than who. 

Jill Dando lives on in her colleagues and the UK's hearts. The Jill Dando Institute was established in 2001. It is a research centre dedicated to studying crime science and its implications for crime prevention and justice. 

The institute is affiliated with University College London (UCL) and operates at the forefront of interdisciplinary research. Its mission is to advance knowledge in crime and security by bringing together experts in criminology, psychology, sociology, and various other disciplines. 

It is a fitting tribute to a woman who brought so many crimes to their conclusion through presenting Crimewatch. 

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