UK UK - Jill Dando, 37, Fulham, London, 26 Apr 1999

[Novosti]

Very useful, thanks. The two things that stand out for me are: first, the repeated, insistent calls from HAFAD staff to the police, where it's obvious that multiple people were quite disturbed by George’s behaviour and the motivations for it; and second, the terrible nine month delay in the police following up.

Sorry it’s taken so long, this is the stuff re HAFAD from Brian Cathcart’s book Jill Dando: Her Life and Death.

Pages 222-225:



Pages 263-266:

 

[Marantz4250b]

The Met's firearms expert identified the weapon BG was holding in the photograph as illegally modified, because it didn't look how that model of blank-firing gun would normally look. Instead it had components--such as a large spring--which were known to be used during modification to live-firing. At this point, the evidence that BG's gun was illegally modified (and therefore illegal to own and dispose of) is stronger than the entirely non-existent evidence that it wasn't.

It's a very long time since I've looked into this case - I actually remember where I was when I heard the news.

With respect to the gun BG had - has anyone definitively identified it as to make and model, etc? Anyone got a link to a good picture of it?

Also, the calibre she was shot with - I recall it being either .32ACP or .380 Auto. The former, I think?

 

[rvlvr]

Very useful, thanks. The two things that stand out for me are: first, the repeated, insistent calls from HAFAD staff to the police, where it's obvious that multiple people were quite disturbed by George’s behaviour and the motivations for it; and second, the terrible nine month delay in the police following up.

I think the obvious takeaway is surely that if Bicknell and Hutton’s recollections were correct then George almost certainly had an alibi.

Cathcart is quite generous to the prosecution with his noon cut off time, imo. If Richard Hughes did hear Jill’s scream after making a short phone call at 11.33 (see post #1,149) then the murder must’ve taken place around 11.35 rather than 11.30. Cathcart suggests a 30 minute trip time from Gowan Avenue to Crookham Road then on to Greswell Street - Google suggests 32 minutes, but of course we need to factor in time to change outfits and so on. 35, even 40 minutes could’ve elapsed in this scenario, which pushes the cut off back to 12.10, maybe 12.15.

Bicknell was adamant the time was 11.50 when she went to speak with George (who’d already been in the building some time prior to that). Hutton’s statement would suggest an arrival time of between 11.40 and noon, though I think one can understand her reticence to commit conclusively to that on the stand.

It certainly would’ve been better for all concerned if police had investigated these tips sooner but I think Cathcart’s explanation for their inaction makes some sense. I don’t believe HAFAD had CCTV, nor any sort of signing in book. Perhaps putting George on an ID parade earlier would’ve yielded more conclusive results one way or another. As time went by George could’ve been sensibly disposing of evidence, of course - although he also supposedly left the murder coat hanging casually on his kitchen door, so this seems unlikely imo.

 

[rvlvr]

It's a very long time since I've looked into this case - I actually remember where I was when I heard the news.

With respect to the gun BG had - has anyone definitively identified it as to make and model, etc? Anyone got a link to a good picture of it?

Also, the calibre she was shot with - I recall it being either .32ACP or .380 Auto. The former, I think?

The gun was a 9mm semi-automatic.

On George and his weapons, again quoting from Brian Cathcart’s book, this time from a chapter looking at one of the first searches of George’s flat (page 238):

Among the firearms documents, however, one would turn out to be of special interest: a notebook with the name 'Steve Majors' on the cover. Inside it were handwritten details of three guns, a Heckler & Koch submachine gun, an 8mm blank firing 'government automatic' and a Browning pistol. The first two were familiar to detectives, since they were the makes of gun that featured in the two photographs already taken from the flat. The man in the outdoor photograph was holding what appeared to be a Heckler & Koch, while the gun in the indoor photograph matched the second gun on the list - the 8mm Bruni blank firer is a copy of a Colt weapon known as a 'government automatic' or 'government pistol'. Perhaps this list was a confirmation that George had owned these two guns, and if so it suggested that he might also have owned a third. (Although the Browning on the list was a 9mm pistol, it should be noted that it was not a 'short' model of the kind used to kill Dando.)

The first two weapons were stolen from George in the 1980s. What became of the third, if it existed, is uncertain. One could argue it must’ve existed for why else would George write it down, though as was discussed at trial, George made a multitude of lists, some of which seemed to suggest he owned amongst other things a music studio and a rocket propelled grenade launcher, and also that he’d served in the SAS in Cambodia, Malaya and Borneo. Which, obviously, he didn’t.

 

[rvlvr]

Nov 27, 2025 #TheMirror #News #JillDando
'Detectives are probing a Serbian assassin over Jill Dando's unsolved murder, the Daily Mirror can reveal. The Metropolitan Police said in a statement today that it is assessing evidence published during our investigation into Jill's 1999 shooting. This includes a newly unearthed picture of convicted double-killer Milorad Ulemek wearing an unusual tie that matches one worn by a man caught on CCTV who is still wanted. The Met said: "No unsolved murder is ever closed and detectives are assessing this information to understand whether it’s a new and realistic line of enquiry.” Cold case officers are set to examine the raw footage of the unidentified man, who was caught on camera on the gunman's likely escape route around 20 minutes after the Crimewatch presenter, 37, was shot.'

Assassin pictured wearing tie matching one worn by Jill Dando wanted man

A newly unearthed photograph show smiling Milorad "Legija" Ulemek wearing a distinctive navy blue striped tie that just like one worn by an unidentified person who was caught on camera and is still wanted for questioning

www.mirror.co.uk

''Certified forensic video analyst Emi Polito has compiled a report for the Daily Mirror comparing the two garments. Mr Polito found the most "significant" similarity between them is a number of dark tones in the light stripes of Man X's tie which appear to mirror Ulemek's.
View attachment 627235
Other similarities were the "general form and style", the appearance of it under the knot and three dark stripes which are "broadly similar size and tone". Mr Polito said his detailed examination "lends moderate support" to the contention that they are the same "type and design".

View attachment 627234

Don’t really want to go too far down any rabbit holes in this case but looking at this again it’s not just the tie that stands out, it’s the suit.

The 11.29am witness - described by BC (page 140) as “a domestic cleaner walking between jobs” - saw an agitated man wearing glasses standing on the corner of Gowan Avenue and Munster Road. This man was said to be wearing a dark blue pinstriped suit. (Moments later or perhaps even moments before, Jill would’ve driven in to Gowan Avenue from the Munster Road end.)

There were a couple of other sightings in this area, around this time, that tie in with the cleaner’s. Around 11am a motorist saw a man standing between two parked cars at the same Gowan Avenue and Munster Road junction - the motorist also noticed a dark blue Range Rover parked on the corner. And not long after a different witness sees a man, said to be wearing a blue suit, standing similarly, between parked cars further along Gowan Avenue.

Of course the big stumbling block to all of this is that the gunman, as described by Richard Hughes and Geoffrey Upfill-Brown, was said to be wearing a jacket. Could the two neighbours have mistaken a dark jacket for a dark blue suit? I’m not convinced. But then, none of the witnesses who gave ‘partial identifications’ and were relied on at trial mentioned a coat, either, and that didn’t seem to matter to anyone in the end, so perhaps we can gloss over this discrepancy too!

 

[Novosti]

Don’t really want to go too far down any rabbit holes in this case but looking at this again it’s not just the tie that stands out, it’s the suit.

The 11.29am witness - described by BC (page 140) as “a domestic cleaner walking between jobs” - saw an agitated man wearing glasses standing on the corner of Gowan Avenue and Munster Road. This man was said to be wearing a dark blue pinstriped suit. (Moments later or perhaps even moments before, Jill would’ve driven in to Gowan Avenue from the Munster Road end.)

There were a couple of other sightings in this area, around this time, that tie in with the cleaner’s. Around 11am a motorist saw a man standing between two parked cars at the same Gowan Avenue and Munster Road junction - the motorist also noticed a dark blue Range Rover parked on the corner. And not long after a different witness sees a man, said to be wearing a blue suit, standing similarly, between parked cars further along Gowan Avenue.

Of course the big stumbling block to all of this is that the gunman, as described by Richard Hughes and Geoffrey Upfill-Brown, was said to be wearing a jacket. Could the two neighbours have mistaken a dark jacket for a dark blue suit? I’m not convinced. But then, none of the witnesses who gave ‘partial identifications’ and were relied on at trial mentioned a coat, either, and that didn’t seem to matter to anyone in the end, so perhaps we can gloss over this discrepancy too!

Yeah. I'm not sure those accounts are useful evidentially in either direction. They are either faulty descriptions of George , where a long dark smart overcoat could conceivably be mistaken for a suit, or just sightings of other people with no connection to the crime.