So, who REALLY killed Jill Dando?

[String]

What really bugs me about these cases is that once the Police think they have their culprit they tend to stop looking and focus most if not all the resources on this person. It's only human nature but 8 years down the line it's very difficult to re-open the case.

I don't know if Barry George did kill her, although at the time it certainly looked very professional which would tend rule George out.

[dougie]

The police thought they had the 'right man' when they locked up Stefan Kisko. He suffered 16 years in jail for a crime he could not possibly have committed. It's easy to look around and look for a 'local nutter' who fits the frame. God knows, we saw that with the Ripper investigation. Terrible crime, killer must be off his head, look for a gibbering eccentric. I thought we'd moved on a bit since 1888 though.

Nothing to do with "moving on"...its about guilt or innocence.....Im not sure if this is a case of "not proven" rather than plain innocence.There is always a n amount of evidence that is not admissable,there are always points of law that need to be argued.Remember george davis, imprisoned for a bank robbery...public outcry ..Davis was released...few weeks or month later he was involved in another bank robbery,not sure if he was arrested or shot dead at the scene of the crime. Im not sure if its been proved george couldnt possible y have been the culprit,or if there isnt enough evidence to prove his guilt conclusively..there is a difference.....maybe the verdict is technically correct in the eyes of the law,but whether he is innocent might be,and I emphasise might be a different thing.
And of course he wasnt just a "local nutter" he was a "local nutter" who had, as I understand it, been identified as a person "hanging around" the crime scene for four hours before the crime,plus of course the evidence of his fantasies and gun issues and stalking issues and attempted rape history etc etc etc

[Bob Hinton]

I really don't know. It seemed that the police thrashed around for a year and then decided they had got their man.

[Mike Covell]

An intresting theory Bob, were any family, friends or lovers ever looked at?

[Bob Hinton]

Jill Dandos house

Here's some photographs of the front of Jill Dandos flat.

The three locks can quite clearly be seen.

The distance from her gate to the front door can be seen in the second.

[Bob Hinton]

Motive

No. I believe it was personal. The one thing that has been largely overlooked over this case is opportunity.

At the time Jill Dando wasn't living at her home, she was living with her boyfriend and only visited her flat rarely. On the day she was killed she paid one of her rare visits to her flat. There was only one place in the street the killer could have hidden to wait for her and that was by some bushes across the road.

It takes eight seconds to walk across the road, through her gate and to her front door. The front door had three locks on it. The killer started walking as soon as Jill went through her gate. When he went through the gate she was unlocking her door. Three steps, grab her by the arm to force her down, gun pressed closely to the head, fire, turn and walk away.

So who knew she was going to be at her flat at that time?

[Mike Covell]

Bob, do you think the murder had something to do with her appearing on BBC's Crimewatch series?

[Bob Hinton]

Responsibility

The reason I don't think this was a political murder is as already mentioned no-one claimed responsibility for it. If you look at political murders in practically every case someone claims they did it - even if they didn't!

That's one of the many reasons I believe the Birmingham Six were actually guilty. If they were innocent the IRA would have paraded the real bombers in front of the TV cameras in some country with no extradition to show how doubly clever they had been.

Renting a flat question. Good point but he wouldn't necessarily disappear suddenly. He rents the flat for one month, murders Jill in the middle of the period, goes abroad, mails the keys back at the end of the period, nothing suspicious.

Barry George has been described as a ‘stalker’. I certainly wouldn’t use that description for him. A stalker fixates on one person and not on a crowd. His behaviour is more in keeping with a slightly weird bloke who tries to talk to strange women. (by strange I mean of course women unknown to him – not weird) I would be interested to hear Jean Ritchie’s view of this mater. Jean Ritchie wrote an excellent book about stalkers.

Look at the case against George.

1. No real forensics.
2. No witnesses
3. No motive
4. No weapon
5. No means

And all this adds up to No Case!

[String]

If the Serbs did it why did they not claim responsibility?
It would serve no purpose.

[Limehouse]

The police thought they had the 'right man' when they locked up Stefan Kisko. He suffered 16 years in jail for a crime he could not possibly have committed. It's easy to look around and look for a 'local nutter' who fits the frame. God knows, we saw that with the Ripper investigation. Terrible crime, killer must be off his head, look for a gibbering eccentric. I thought we'd moved on a bit since 1888 though.

[dougie]

Interesting statement by the head of scotland yards serious crimes command "We are disappointed by todays verdict,especially disappointed for jills family,However we respect the courts decision"So I guess the police think they had the right man..........?Who knows?

[Mike Covell]

It was a proffesional hit, simple as, the media twisted it, and an innocent, albeit strange man went down!

Cue more court cases for compo' and the real killers vanishing forever.

I just feel for Dando's poor family.

[Limehouse]

There was an article in The Daily Telegraph today describing the Serbian theory. Three days before the murder, British planes bombed a media station in Belgrade owned by Slobodan Milosevic. 16 empolyees were killed. Jill Dando also publically lent her support for an appeal to help Kosovan refugees. It is believed by some that these factors were a motive for her assassination.

[miss marple]

Bob,
If a flat was rented, did you find any evidence of that? Surely that would be a lead, local estate agents or landlords would have a record of a short term let in the area, paid up front, then tenant vanishes.
Miss Marple

[Bob Hinton]

Barry George's Trial

The reason I say that I doubt if BG would have been convicted at his first trial if hanging was an option is that the verdict was a majority one of 10-1. For a capital offence the verdict always had to be unanimous.

I think the motive was entirely personal and nothing to do with Secret Services.