Jill Dando
Jill Wendy Dando was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997. At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One programme Crimewatch with Nick Ross.
On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, south-west London, prompting the biggest murder inquiry conducted by the Metropolitan Police and the country's largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. A local man, Barry George, was convicted and imprisoned for the murder, but after eight years in prison he was acquitted following an appeal and retrial. No other suspect has been charged with Dando's murder and the case remains unsolved.
Early life
Jill Wendy Dando was born at Ashcombe House Maternity Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. She was the daughter of Jack Dando and Winifred Mary Jean Hockey, who died of leukaemia aged 57. Her only sibling, brother Nigel, worked as a journalist for BBC Radio Bristol before retiring in 2017, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s. Dando was raised as a Baptist and remained a devout follower. When she was three years old, it was discovered that she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery. She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965.Dando was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Community School, and Weston College Sixth Form, where she was head girl, and completed her A-levels. She then went on to study Journalism at the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education.
Dando was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre. She was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979.
Career
Dando's first job was as a trainee reporter for the local weekly newspaper, the Weston Mercury, where her father and brother worked. After five years as a print journalist, she started to work for the BBC, becoming a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985. That year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West. In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight in Plymouth. In early 1988, Dando moved from regional to national television in London to present BBC television news, specifically the short on-the-hour bulletins that aired on both BBC1 and BBC2 from 1986 until the mid-1990s.Dando presented the BBC television programmes Breakfast Time, Breakfast News, the BBC One O'Clock News, the Six O'Clock News, the travel programme Holiday, the crime appeal series Crimewatch and occasionally Songs of Praise. In 1994, she moved to Fulham. She was the subject of This Is Your Life on 8 November 1996. On 25 April 1999, Dando presented the first episode of Antiques Inspectors. She was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News on the evening of the following day. She was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times magazine. Dando was also booked to host the British Academy Television Awards 1999, alongside Michael Parkinson, at Grosvenor House Hotel on 9 May. On 5 September, BBC One resumed airing of Antiques Inspectors, the final series to be recorded by Dando. The series had made its debut on 25 April, with filming of the final episode completed two days before that. The programme was cancelled following her death, but it was decided later in the year that it should be aired as a tribute to Dando. The final episode aired on 24 October.
At the time of her death, Dando was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff, and had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year. Crimewatch reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. After Barry George was charged with the murder but acquitted, Crimewatch made no further appeals for information concerning the case.
Personal life
From 1989 to 1996, Dando engaged in a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton. She then had a brief relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, Dando met gynaecologist Alan Farthing, later Queen Elizabeth II's personal physician, on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. Farthing was separated from his wife at the time. A couple of months after Farthing's divorce was finalised, the couple announced that they were engaged on 31 January 1999. Their wedding was set to take place on 25 September.Murder
On the morning of 26 April 1999, 37-year-old Dando left Farthing's home in Chiswick. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned at 29 Gowan Avenue, Fulham. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. The purpose of her visit was to collect contract documents which had been faxed to her there by her agent Jon Roseman. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32 BST, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered by neighbours, who called police at 11:47. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03.Richard Hughes, her next-door neighbour, heard a scream from Dando but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer — a six-foot-tall white man aged around 40, walking away from Dando's house.
Forensic firearm examination indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9mm Short calibre semi-automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. The cartridge appeared to have been subject to workshop modification, possibly to reduce its propellent charge and thus allow it to function as subsonic ammunition. Police ballistics checks also determined that the bullet had been fired from a smooth bore barrel without any rifling, which indicated the murder weapon was almost certainly a blank firing pistol that had been illegally modified to fire live ammunition.
Investigation
After the murder, there was intense media coverage. An investigation by the Metropolitan Police, named Operation Oxborough, proved fruitless for over a year. Dando's status as a well-known public figure had brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known to millions. There was huge speculation regarding the motive for her murder.Investigating authorities quickly ruled out the work of a professional assassin due to the many amateurish aspects of the crime, such as the use of a converted blank firing pistol as the murder weapon and the fact Dando was shot in public on her doorstep rather than after first being forced inside her house where her body would not be discovered for a much longer time period. Forensic psychologists working on the case predicted that the perpetrator would instead be a loner with a severe personality disorder.
Within six months, the Murder Investigation Team had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year, the police concentrated their attention on Barry George, who lived about 500 yards from Dando's house on Crookham Road. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offences and other antisocial and attention seeking behaviour. George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May 2000 and charged with Dando's murder on 28 May. A search of his bedsit had uncovered over 4,000 photographs of hundreds of women covertly taken in public by George, along with other photos of well known female TV personalities such as Caron Keating, Anthea Turner, Fiona Foster and Emma Freud, in addition to newspaper article cuttings regarding Dando’s life and media career. Police also discovered a photo of George wearing a military gas mask while posing with a modified Bruni blank-firing handgun. When shown this image during interrogation, George admitted it was him in the photo and that he had purchased the weapon via mail order, however George denied that it had been converted to fire live ammunition.
Trial of Barry George
Opening statements
Barry George's trial for the murder of Jill Dando began at the Old Bailey in early May 2001. Opening statements from the lead prosecution lawyer Orlando Pownall Q.C. outlined how George had "an exaggerated interest" in television personalities and firearms, and that photographic evidence regarding his obsession with celebrities had been recovered from his apartment. Pownall Q.C. went on to describe how police had recovered a photo of George posing with a blank firing pistol, similar to the weapon police believed was used in Dando's murder, and how George had been picked out of an identity parade by two different neighbours of Dando as the man they had seen acting suspiciously opposite her house in Gowan Avenue on the morning of the murder. Authorities had also found several cut out newspaper articles regarding Dando's murder in George's apartment, along with handwritten lists of names and personal details of various other British celebrities. Pownall Q.C. added that forensic examination of a jacket seized from George's apartment found firearms residue inside a pocket of the same type that was detected on Dando's dead body, and was believed to have originated from the detonation of the percussion cap of the bullet that killed her.Prosecution evidence
The court heard how George had visited a disability health centre in Greswell Street, which was approximately half a mile from Gowan Avenue, without an appointment about 20 minutes after Dando was murdered. Witnesses at the scene described him as being in an agitated state and carrying a plastic bag full of complaint letters. George again turned up at the centre a couple of days later, asking staff about the exact time of his original visit, as he claimed a description of the prime suspect had been released that matched his appearance. The prosecution argued that George's motive for visiting the centre was to establish an alibi for his whereabouts around the time of the murder. The owner of a taxi company testified that George had visited his office on Fulham Palace Road at 1pm on the day in question, remarking that he appeared agitated and had no money to pay for his requested journey. George also returned to the office a couple of days later to ask about the time of his original visit and what he was wearing then. Although George would later claim in police interviews that he wanted to account for his movements after being told by other people that he matched a photofit picture of the murder suspect issued by the authorities, police records proved that the photofit was not released to the public until four days after the murder.Detective Constable John Gallagher described how he interviewed George in April 2000 so as to eliminate him from inquires, and George had stated how he remained at home on the morning of the murder before attending a disability group in Fulham around lunchtime. Six days later the police broke into George's flat to search it for evidence, taking several items away for further examination. They returned in early May 2000 to carry out further searches, before a final search was carried out after George's arrest at the end of that month. Items seized included clothing, military related books and hand written documents. Among these were lists compiled by George of the home addresses, physical descriptions and car registration numbers of almost 100 women, including Princess Diana. Detectives also processed hundreds of undeveloped camera rolls seized from his flat, which showed George had taken thousands of covert photographs of over 400 different women around Hammersmith and Fulham without their knowledge. A Cecil Gee branded overcoat was also seized as evidence, and was later found to have traces of firearms discharge residue inside one of its pockets.