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

[TheRockingRev]

She was "close" to her next door neighbour wasn't she? That's not me revealing some unknown rumour as it was revealed in court her DNA was on Richard Hughes's bedsheets was it not? Or maybe I'm over exaggerating an innocent coffee meet up!

I assume she wasn't doing any of this when she was with Alan Farthing but there was certainly a significant period between her splitting up with Bob Wheaton (and it seemed that relationship had already fizzled out in 1996) and then meeting Farthing in late 1997.

So potentially lots of male suitors she met on top of the rumours from fronting the Holiday programme.

So in terms of motive of attack you can split this case into three scenarios. First is she was incredibly unlucky to get out of her car as a random/stalker walked towards here with a gun (BG/unknown). I always think to that day would she have been killed if she was with someone else? No idea how often Alan Farthing came back with her to Gowan Avenue but he must've done on occasions and can't believe the killer knew his work rota.

Or the two other scenarios is someone was triggered by her wedding and being unavailable so decided to stop that event happening. Or someone with Serbian connections decided she was easy target after Kosovo appeal three weeks before her death.

Beyond that what else is there to consider?

JMO the idea she had stumbled onto something bigger, regarding C.A shouldn't be ruled out IMO. She worked at the BBC, look at the floodgates that opened afterwards. If you think that this is far-fetched, listen to the excellent 'In Dark Corners' BBC (ironically) Podcast - series 2. If you see how far-rooted organised abuse is you'll see how far it reaches up. Look at the case of Sir Peter Hayman and how Margaret Thatcher had the certain things shut down by special branch etc. This isn't/wasn't a couple of weirdos hanging around the park - this was very, very influential people who had a lot to lose.

 

[Inspector Evans]

TBF - he was generally odd. The other thing is he was an attention seeker - the whole alibi thing could easily be him trying to make himself out to be more important and relevant than he was. And yes, I know it seems strange with a murder but a). he had a history of drawing attention to himself and b). this kind of behaviour is not unusual, dozens of people try and admit to crimes they haven't done for a bit of attention - knowing that 99% of the time nothing will happen other than a slap on the wrist for wasting police time as they're innocent.

Barry George is a very dangerous man, especially to females.

We will see what the latest court outing brings but previously he's been arrested on the grounds of Buckingham Palace trying to attack Diana, stalked women on streets and now in court for a long standing rape accusation.

Could he have killed Jill Dando? Absolutely but I'm less convinced he was there in the actual circumstances. Could he really have just faded into the background in the minutes after without people walking past him on streets noting he was very close to her house at that time? Or be hanging around on the street corner for hours? Especially with his image in all the media outlets when he was arrested in May 2000?

I think given he seems someone who gets quite agitated in public spaces someone would've spotted him in Gowan Avenue after 11am that morning. In the first Crimewatch appeal there was someone driving past who saw a male standing on the corner of the road at 11.29am so that has to be the killer surely as he was 50 yards from her house.

This is different to say a hitman being deployed and they are never located so there is no real image and so memories fade on what people see on the day over time.

Also he did go somewhere else that day, HAFAD. Just saw a reddit forum and they're convinced on there he was at the centre by 12pm which would've made it near impossible if he'd just gone back home to have a change of clothes.

However I don't think the timings were ever proved conclusively in the July 2001 trial as the clock had stopped or something so timings weren't recorded when he turned up. If it was after 1pm then his alibi is less secure and then he went to a taxi firm and caused a scene unnecessarily.

If his alibi was rock solid that day and it was proved by HAFAD staff he was at the centre at midday I don't think it would pass CPS threshold for a trial in the first place.

 

[Inspector Evans]

JMO the idea she had stumbled onto something bigger, regarding C.A shouldn't be ruled out IMO. She worked at the BBC, look at the floodgates that opened afterwards. If you think that this is far-fetched, listen to the excellent 'In Dark Corners' BBC (ironically) Podcast - series 2. If you see how far-rooted organised abuse is you'll see how far it reaches up. Look at the case of Sir Peter Hayman and how Margaret Thatcher had the certain things shut down by special branch etc. This isn't/wasn't a couple of weirdos hanging around the park - this was very, very influential people who had a lot to lose.

Don't really want to go down that rabbit hole, plenty of that theory on any YT of her case in the comments below.

Maybe later in Jill's career in 2000s she would've graduated to hard hitting documentary maker but she wasn't at that level yet. I put that as remote with the Crimewatch retribution theory.

Wasn't there an offbeat theory a few years back she was shot in mistaken identity as Lisa Brinksworth was working for Panorama on the BBC and exposed abuse in fashion industry in Paris.

She was female, blonde and I presume she also lived somewhere around the Fulham area so the claim was Jill Dando was shot in mistaken identity.

That Panorama episode came out in 1998 so again feasible timeline but surely you wouldn't confuse addresses if it was reasonably competent hitman assigned to the task?

 

[TheRockingRev]

Don't really want to go down that rabbit hole, plenty of that theory on any YT of her case in the comments below.

Maybe later in Jill's career in 2000s she would've graduated to hard hitting documentary maker but she wasn't at that level yet. I put that as remote with the Crimewatch retribution theory.

Wasn't there an offbeat theory a few years back she was shot in mistaken identity as Lisa Brinksworth was working for Panorama on the BBC and exposed abuse in fashion industry in Paris.

She was female, blonde and I presume she also lived somewhere around the Fulham area so the claim was Jill Dando was shot in mistaken identity.

That Panorama episode came out in 1998 so again feasible timeline but surely you wouldn't confuse addresses if it was reasonably competent hitman assigned to the task?

I think people believe she was going to produce and star in a hard-hitting documentary about it. I don't think that for a second but I do believe she may have heard /stumbled onto something that she may have wanted (or did) go to the authorities about.
Jimmy Savile got away with abuse at the BBC for years, as did others I'm sure, it was a huge open secret. It's been alleged, and is in various findings, that higher-ups laughed it off. It was a big boys-club mentality. If she had found something out then they would know that she would be taken more seriously because of who she was.
I don't think for a second that she was a Woodward or Bernstein - but if she heard or even saw something, which is logical considering she was seen as one of the upper level of presenters at the BBC, then she had the opportunity to go to the police.

 

[TheRockingRev]

Barry George is a very dangerous man, especially to females.

We will see what the latest court outing brings but previously he's been arrested on the grounds of Buckingham Palace trying to attack Diana, stalked women on streets and now in court for a long standing rape accusation.

Could he have killed Jill Dando? Absolutely but I'm less convinced he was there in the actual circumstances. Could he really have just faded into the background in the minutes after without people walking past him on streets noting he was very close to her house at that time? Or be hanging around on the street corner for hours? Especially with his image in all the media outlets when he was arrested in May 2000?

I think given he seems someone who gets quite agitated in public spaces someone would've spotted him in Gowan Avenue after 11am that morning. In the first Crimewatch appeal there was someone driving past who saw a male standing on the corner of the road at 11.29am so that has to be the killer surely as he was 50 yards from her house.

This is different to say a hitman being deployed and they are never located so there is no real image and so memories fade on what people see on the day over time.

Also he did go somewhere else that day, HAFAD. Just saw a reddit forum and they're convinced on there he was at the centre by 12pm which would've made it near impossible if he'd just gone back home to have a change of clothes.

However I don't think the timings were ever proved conclusively in the July 2001 trial as the clock had stopped or something so timings weren't recorded when he turned up. If it was after 1pm then his alibi is less secure and then he went to a taxi firm and caused a scene unnecessarily.

If his alibi was rock solid that day and it was proved by HAFAD staff he was at the centre at midday I don't think it would pass CPS threshold for a trial in the first place.

I have no doubt he was very, very dangerous as you said - but to go from physical attacks, no matter how serious, to murder is quite a leap.
We have to bear in mind - if it was him wanting to murder someone, then why Jill Dando? Although there were a few random links in the all the crap they found in his house, there is no sign that he was obsessed just with her. If he had wanted to murder her specifically, IMO, they would've found more about her.

 

[rvlvr]

TBF - he was generally odd. The other thing is he was an attention seeker - the whole alibi thing could easily be him trying to make himself out to be more important and relevant than he was. And yes, I know it seems strange with a murder but a). he had a history of drawing attention to himself and b). this kind of behaviour is not unusual, dozens of people try and admit to crimes they haven't done for a bit of attention - knowing that 99% of the time nothing will happen other than a slap on the wrist for wasting police time as they're innocent.

Re the ‘alibi construction’ stuff - yes, if Barry George was a normal guy then you wouldn’t hesitate to say that his behaviour after Jill Dando’s murder was deeply suspicious. But Barry George wasn’t a normal guy. His behaviour was strange, certainly, but crucially not unusual *by his standards*.

Eg, around an hour after the murder George was on the street chatting to a woman he’d only just met about the helicopters circling overhead, and the Territorial Army. When this woman walked away he followed her and attempted to continue the conversation. Later, he denied being the man that this woman had spoken to. All very odd, for sure. But perfectly consistent with what we know about George’s typically odd behaviour.

His histrionic performance at the disability centre that day was far from unusual either. To quote again from Brian Cathcart’s book (chapter 13, page 214):

Another way he filled his time - an unconscious strategy, perhaps - was by becoming a complainer, a person with grievances. At the council housing office he was a frequent visitor, calling in with a complaint once a week or once a fortnight. His rent was often in arrears but he was reluctant to take responsibility for that and interested instead in grumbling about neighbours or about repairs that were needed. At times he became angry and had to be ejected. His health, too, was often on his mind, for he came to believe very strongly that he suffered from a number of complaints which were either not being diagnosed or not being taken sufficiently seriously. Chief among these was scoliosis, a spinal condition, but there were others. He consulted medical reference works in the library and argued with successive local doctors about his symptoms, until by the late 1990s most of the practices in Fulham refused to have him on their books. In several west London hospitals, too, he was a well-known but less than welcome visitor. A third area of grievance was the police, who he felt at times victimized him. He himself was occasionally the subject of complaints and he believed the police did not give him a fair hearing, perhaps because he had a criminal record. In the early 1990s he was questioned in connection with the Rachel Nickell murder in Wimbledon - he was never a serious suspect and was soon ruled out - and no doubt this stoked his sense of injustice. It amounts to a pattern: whether it was welfare, health or the police, Barry George usually had some problem that preoccupied him, that required him to conduct research in the library and latterly on the Internet, and to consult experts - doctors, solicitors and so forth - seeking their opinions and giving them the benefit of his. It also gave him something he could talk about to other people he met.

And of course, in the end he was absolutely *right* to think he’d need an alibi. I don’t believe he was fitted up, it made sense to investigate him. But just as police had good reason to suspect him, he had good reason to fear their suspicion. His interpretation of the situation actually proved to be incredibly prescient, imo.

 

[davidt]

For me the circumstances of the shooting are still very difficult to comprehend. According to Jill's agent she was only going to the property to pick up bits he'd sent her. The Netflix documentary says she'd only told two or three people she was going there. The police are adamant she wasn't followed. She had been away filming in recent weeks. To all intents and purposes it appears to have been a random visit to a property she no longer lived at as far as anyone else was concerned.

I tend to agree with those who believe murder was always the motive here. There doesn't seem to be any time for anything else. The way she was shot suggests to me a deliberate act and not an accidental misfiring.

There seems to be two possible scenarios here. Either someone just happened to be right next to her property at the precise moment she arrived or someone was waiting for her. Either scenario is difficult but somebody shot Jill. It's said the entire incident may have taken less than 30 seconds from beginning to end. There was no time for anyone to observe from a distance as they'd never been able to get to her in time. If it was someone who did just happen to be passing at that precise moment they had no time to think about anything and carried that act out without any hesitation at all. It's seems unlikely that Jill could be so staggeringly unlucky but it's possible. Basically seeing Jill get out of her car and instantly deciding to kill her. She was desperately unlucky if that was the case.

If someone was waiting for her, why ? They could be there hours or it might be days or even weeks before she visited. Looking at pictures of the area it doesn't seem an easy place to conceal yourself for any length of time near the property without being seen. Makes more sense if they knew she was coming and when. But apparently that wasn't the case either. So for me neither scenario is without its difficulties. That's why I'm on the fence in this case.

 

[TheRockingRev]

If someone was waiting for her, why ? They could be there hours or it might be days or even weeks before she visited. Looking at pictures of the area it doesn't seem an easy place to conceal yourself for any length of time near the property without being seen. Makes more sense if they knew she was coming and when. But apparently that wasn't the case either. So for me neither scenario is without its difficulties. That's why I'm on the fence in this case.

I agree with what you say - but this last part is key. Apparently no-one knew she was going back to the house, but we don't know this for sure. Who knows who she may have told (and bear in mind that there has been talk about phone hacking). With this in mind it could well be that someone was positioned on her route to the house (I don't know the exact location, but there is a very strong possibility that she may have driven the exact same way that she always did - if so then a couple of people working together could've quite easily have co-ordinated it with mobile phones).

Of course this opens up a whole host of other possibilities - the fact that someone knew she would be at the house that day, not just the time (although this information is more than likely to have been given in passing conversation than the exact time), and that we're dealing with more than oner person - however none of it is out of the realms of possibility, and could all easily work together. And, JMO, far more likely than a random, deranged gunman who just happened to be passing.

 

[forensicswannabe]

The fact she wasn't followed though makes the likely idea of a deranged gunman passing more likely imo maybe we are all wrong and the reason this case hasn't been solved is because there is no connection or even logical motive behind the killing maybe some deranged person felt like shooting someone and Jill was there anything is possible.

 

[davidt]

The fact she wasn't followed though makes the likely idea of a deranged gunman passing more likely imo maybe we are all wrong and the reason this case hasn't been solved is because there is no connection or even logical motive behind the killing maybe some deranged person felt like shooting someone and Jill was there anything is possible.

It has crossed my mind that just possibly BG or someone else went out that day with the intention of shooting someone. Perhaps Jill was just the unfortunate victim of a random killing and wasn't targeted at all specifically. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We do tend to think she aas killed because she was targeted and well known but just possibly she was just a random victim.

 

[kemo]

It has crossed my mind that just possibly BG or someone else went out that day with the intention of shooting someone. Perhaps Jill was just the unfortunate victim of a random killing and wasn't targeted at all specifically. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We do tend to think she aas killed because she was targeted and well known but just possibly she was just a random victim.

Exactly. Whoever killed her had no way of knowing she would be there. The odds that someone wanted to kill Jill and decided to go by her house with his improvised gun “on the chance” she would be there, are so slim, they must be discounted. True, something “extremely improbable” is still possible but to make sense of an event, it must not be considered. I am inclined to believe that someone got a hold of a home made firearm and set out on the streets of London to kill somebody. Perhaps he had specific “type” in mind but Jill was just an unlucky random citizen. Barry George was a viable suspect but legitimate evidence is pretty thin.

 

[rvlvr]

Police could only say she wasn’t followed based on their analysis of CCTV, which obviously was far less extensive in 1999. The last time she was picked up on camera was around 11.10am, so a good 20 minutes before she was killed. We can sketch out her movements on her way back to Gowan Avenue during this period based on various witness sightings but we’ve no idea if anyone was shadowing her or not.

We know now the full extent of the dark arts that were being practiced by ‘private investigators’ at the time, and Jill almost certainly was having her phone hacked, though I’m unsure that a hitman or jilted ex could’ve known how to do this off their own bat.

 

[Inspector Evans]

For me the circumstances of the shooting are still very difficult to comprehend. According to Jill's agent she was only going to the property to pick up bits he'd sent her. The Netflix documentary says she'd only told two or three people she was going there. The police are adamant she wasn't followed. She had been away filming in recent weeks. To all intents and purposes it appears to have been a random visit to a property she no longer lived at as far as anyone else was concerned.

I tend to agree with those who believe murder was always the motive here. There doesn't seem to be any time for anything else. The way she was shot suggests to me a deliberate act and not an accidental misfiring.

There seems to be two possible scenarios here. Either someone just happened to be right next to her property at the precise moment she arrived or someone was waiting for her. Either scenario is difficult but somebody shot Jill. It's said the entire incident may have taken less than 30 seconds from beginning to end. There was no time for anyone to observe from a distance as they'd never been able to get to her in time. If it was someone who did just happen to be passing at that precise moment they had no time to think about anything and carried that act out without any hesitation at all. It's seems unlikely that Jill could be so staggeringly unlucky but it's possible. Basically seeing Jill get out of her car and instantly deciding to kill her. She was desperately unlucky if that was the case.

If someone was waiting for her, why ? They could be there hours or it might be days or even weeks before she visited. Looking at pictures of the area it doesn't seem an easy place to conceal yourself for any length of time near the property without being seen. Makes more sense if they knew she was coming and when. But apparently that wasn't the case either. So for me neither scenario is without its difficulties. That's why I'm on the fence in this case.

Again (and I actually have internet proof for this!) Richard Hughes said in court in July 2001 that Jill came back regularly to Gowan Ave. on a Monday to check post/admin.

As much as she was travelling for work and more regularly in Chiswick with Alan Farthing she couldn't just leave her house unoccupied for months as she need to keep it up to standard to complete the sale with it on the market before the year was out.

So Richard Hughes knew, probably some other neighbours on her street knew on account of seeing her car parked, her agent knew, Alan Farthing knew and that was her inner circle who knew more than likely she'd be home at some point that Monday. Who else knew as if you crack that it would lead to a credible suspect.

Or perhaps it was one of the inner circle for whatever reason wanted her dead. I did get an excitable PM from a poster on here years ago who was adamant it was one of those individuals listed above who killed her which was interesting theory to read and to keep an open mind on.

Edit; I absolutely think at least one person was waiting for her as I think some of the sightings around Gowan Avenue that morning were credible. Problem is joining the dots as to who actually did the killing as they weren't all just hanging around for minutes on end to admire the road.

Somehow they knew she was probably coming back so I reckon it was a case of stalking out property in previous weeks and finding the car she drove and then noting a couple of Mondays it was outside the property. This could've been done in the March for instance as she was away filming Holiday for most of April I think.

Just to repeat her property was not in some enclosed cul-de-sac. You could walk up and down Gowan Avenue freely every single day in March/ April 1999 if the perps had the time so you could build up a pattern of which day and which time of day she was back and that would be then the period of day/week you then turn up to commit the crime.

 

[Inspector Evans]

Police could only say she wasn’t followed based on their analysis of CCTV, which obviously was far less extensive in 1999. The last time she was picked up on camera was around 11.10am, so a good 20 minutes before she was killed. We can sketch out her movements on her way back to Gowan Avenue during this period based on various witness sightings but we’ve no idea if anyone was shadowing her or not.

We know now the full extent of the dark arts that were being practiced by ‘private investigators’ at the time, and Jill almost certainly was having her phone hacked, though I’m unsure that a hitman or jilted ex could’ve known how to do this off their own bat.

One of the articles since has said around the time she was in the Fishmongers half a mile up the road at around 11.20am someone smartly dressed on a mobile phone came into the shop and hung around but didn't actually buy anything and then just walked out again.

Again I will need to re-read the article for context but that possibly suggests she could've been followed locally once she left Hammersmith shopping centre to make sure she was actually going back home rather than somewhere else and that information could've been relayed to the shooter on location.

I don't think it's beyond the realms at all there were two individuals involved on the day but obviously one of them wasn't just standing around Gowan Avenue all the time, they'd have been on foot or in a car checking local area and then probably also the exit strategy in another side street.

After the shooting the killer basically had a minute to get out of the porch area, close the gate without arousing any suspicion with a dead body lying on the ground and then get down the street without anyone noticing them and then disappearing into the London morning.

Whether they're a pro or just got ridiculously lucky what is undeniable is they did that part of the task very successfully indeed.

 

[CSIAngus]

Barry George is a not nice person, His criminal convictions are testament to that. That he has been recently questioned in respect of an historical sexual assault is hardly a shocker. That does not make him the killer of Jill Dando. Her killing has all the hallmarks of an intentional, planned murder, not a happenstance.

 

[Klclevi]

Hello
New to the thread but not to the case itself. I have not started at the beginning (but i will tonight)

Would anyone be able to give a short sharp summary please of RH (the neighbour) and what is known about him and his relatives?

From what i know Jills house was for sale at the time (sorry if this has already been discussed).

thankyou, very much appreciated.

 

[Hexe]

Exactly. Whoever killed her had no way of knowing she would be there.

Why that assumption? There were people who knew Jill was going to her flat that morning. It's not like she randomly decided to go to Gowan Avenue while drinking her morning tea. She was there on Saturday and found that her fax run out of ink, so she planned to return to her flat, replace the ink cartridge and resuppky the paper. Her agent knew that, as he was the one faxing her certain documents she could not receive due to lacking ink, her fiance knew, and it is entirely possible they passed that info to others, as it was not exactly a state secret.

I find one thing quite interesting. If I remember it well both Jill, both with her ex and with AF had a habit of exhanging love messages through the fax. In this light her decision to keep her fax machine in her old and unused flat makes me go hmmm. Certainky it could not be comfortable, having to go to other side of the city to pick up every document, right?

 

[Professor Moriarty]

Why that assumption? There were people who knew Jill was going to her flat that morning. It's not like she randomly decided to go to Gowan Avenue while drinking her morning tea. She was there on Saturday and found that her fax run out of ink, so she planned to return to her flat, replace the ink cartridge and resuppky the paper. Her agent knew that, as he was the one faxing her certain documents she could not receive due to lacking ink, her fiance knew, and it is entirely possible they passed that info to others, as it was not exactly a state secret.

I find one thing quite interesting. If I remember it well both Jill, both with her ex and with AF had a habit of exhanging love messages through the fax. In this light her decision to keep her fax machine in her old and unused flat makes me go hmmm. Certainky it could not be comfortable, having to go to other side of the city to pick up every document, right?

It wasn't going to the other side of the city. Quite an easy, short drive along the Great West Road and Fulham Palace Road.

I seem to remember that, if you only had one phone line, no one could phone out and you couldn't receive calls when a fax was coming through and a fax couldn't come through if someone was using the phone. If AF made and received faxes and used his home phone for work, the line could be tied up. Perhaps contacts had the Fulham number and it was easier to keep it for faxes. She had to go there from time to time anyway to collect post, check up on the place etc

 

[Hexe]

It wasn't going to the other side of the city. Quite an easy, short drive along the Great West Road and Fulham Palace Road.

AF's house, where Jill lived, was in Chiswick, 40 minutes from Gowan Avenue. Broadcasting House is 30 minutes from Govan Avenue AND Gowan Avenue is not on the route from Chiswick to the BBC headquarters. Very much not.

I seem to remember that, if you only had one phone line, no one could phone out and you couldn't receive calls when a fax was coming through and a fax couldn't come through if someone was using the phone. If AF made and received faxes and used his home phone for work, the line could be tied up. Perhaps contacts had the Fulham number and it was easier to keep it for faxes. She had to go there from time to time anyway to collect post, check up on the place etc

Farthing was and is a gynecologist, already renowned at that time. He did not work from home, he worked in a hospital.

 

[SteveH]

"Re the ‘alibi construction’ stuff - yes, if Barry George was a normal guy then you wouldn’t hesitate to say that his behaviour after Jill Dando’s murder was deeply suspicious. But Barry George wasn’t a normal guy. His behaviour was strange, certainly, but crucially not unusual *by his standards*...

His histrionic performance at the disability centre that day was far from unusual either....

And of course, in the end he was absolutely *right* to think he’d need an alibi. I don’t believe he was fitted up, it made sense to investigate him. But just as police had good reason to suspect him, he had good reason to fear their suspicion. His interpretation of the situation actually proved to be incredibly prescient, imo."

This makes zero sense, since if BG was innocent he couldn't possibly have known about Jill's murder at the time he arrived at the disability centre. Of course later on he might have been panicking about becoming a suspect, and been anxious to "confirm" his alibi, but at 12 noon on the day of the killing why was he trying to "establish" this alibi in the first place?

"The man accused of shooting Jill Dando entered a drop-in centre
screaming that he had mental health problems on the day she was
killed.

Barry George screamed: “I need help, I need help,” into an
intercom system at the Hammersmith and Fulham Action for Disability
centre in April 1999, the Old Bailey heard."

Man accused of Dando murder 'screamed in disability centre' - Community Care

The man accused of shooting Jill Dando entered a drop-in centre screaming that he had mental health problems on the day she was killed.

www.communitycare.co.uk

The following is from the Mail, but it's a decent enough account of what was said at the trial:

"The full extent of Barry George's apparent attempt to create a false alibi after Jill Dando's murder was outlined to a jury yesterday.

A witness told how the man accused of killing the BBC TV presenter appeared 'agitated' when he went to an advice centre half an hour after the murder.

He returned two days later demanding confirmation of his previous visit.

Miss Dando, 37, was shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, South-West London, at 11.30am on April 26, 1999.

Prosecutor Orlando Pownall claimed George, 41, pulled the trigger then went to the centre in the hope it would provide 'sanctuary and an alibi of sorts'.

Elaine Hutton, of Hammersmith and Fulham Action for Disability (HAFAD), whose HQ is five minutes' walk from the end of Gowan Avenue, told the Old Bailey that George arrived at the centre at noon that day.

She overheard a conversation between him and welfare rights worker Susan Bicknell, in which 'he was quite agitated'.

She said: 'It was Susan's first day at work and I was monitoring the situation closely because I was aware I might have to step in and help.

'He came in with a carrier bag full of papers and he was dissatisfied about services from the medical profession he had received.
'Susan was trying to stay calm and stay focused on the fact that she couldn't deal with him on that day and he needed to make an appointment.'

Mrs Bicknell eventually managed to placate George and he left 15 minutes after arriving. He made an appointment for the next day but failed to turn up.

Miss Hutton said he went back to the centre on Wednesday, April 28, instead.

He was again highly agitated, she said. 'He wanted to know exactly what time he had been at HAFAD on the Monday morning.

'I said I wasn't clear but he wasn't going to go away with that answer so I said it was about 11 o'clock.

'He made it quite clear he wasn't happy with that estimate and needed to know an exact time.

'He asked me to ring Susan Bicknell, who was not at work, but I explained I didn't have the telephone number.'

George said a description of the man wanted by police for the Jill Dando murder fitted him, 'although it could be anybody'.

He insisted he wanted to know the time of his visit on the Monday so he could give the information to his solicitor.

Miss Hutton added: 'He said he had been intimidated by the police before and falsely accused."'

George said he failed to keep the previous day's appointment because he had gone to lay flowers at Miss Dando's home on behalf of the church."

How Jill suspect 'tried to build up an alibi'

The full extent of Barry George's apparent attempt to create a false alibi after Jill Dando's murder was outlined to a jury yesterday

www.dailymail.co.uk

Assuming BG's guilt, a 2001 article in the Independent by Jacob Bennetto sums up what happened after the killing:

"Having completed his mission, George rushed back to his flat and changed – pulling on a yellow T-shirt – before dashing back out to try to establish an alibi. He first went to the Hammersmith and Fulham Action for Disability (HAFAD) centre in Greswell Street, five minutes' walk from the murder scene, arriving at about noon. He argued with staff, who knew him from previous visits, before leaving 15 minutes later. He then made his way to the Traffic Cars taxi offices in Fulham Palace Road, a short walk away, arriving just before 1pm. Then managed to get a free ride to the Colon Cancer Concern in Ricketts Street."

Dando verdict: George had prepared for murder, seeking an alibi after

The crime

www.independent.co.uk

Oh hang on. Maybe Barry was a precog or clairvoyant of some kind, That must explain his "incredible" prescience in making such a scene at HAFAD shortly after Jill's murder to establish an alibi. .He "knew" the police would try to fit him up for the killing even before any reports of it had been issued by the media! George must have been a remarkable "idiot savant."

Or then again it must have been his "usual histrionics". Bit of a coincidence though. Or perhaps he was in a perpetual lather.

I repeat. I don't know if Barry killed Jill Dando. But to say he couldn't have done it, he was too stupid, too inexperienced with weapons, he couldn't have known when Jill would come home (he used to hang about the streets of Fulham most of the livelong day). he didn't have a suitable gun etc etc is ridiculous. Am I supposed to say JMO or summat like it? JMO!