All language subtitles for Who Killed Jill Dando (2023)

More of that in a moment,
but here's Jill with something else.

Struggling away, hello.

Uh…

[Jill Dando] Television in some way had
always fascinated me from the year dot.

I was about eight years old
and I'd have my four library tickets

and go to the library
and get books about television.

[female reporter] Good morning.

You're watching
the BBC's Breakfast News at 6:30.

It took me I suppose, um,
until I was about 25 to get inside.

[woman 1] Jill Dando.

[man 1] Jill was the most famous
TV presenter on British television.

[woman 2] The golden girl
of British television,

murdered on her doorstep
in broad daylight.

That just does not happen.

[woman 3] I think anyone
who has got a little bit of fame

knows that there are two sides to it.

You get a lot of unwanted attention.

Strange people. Obsessive.

You kind of look over your shoulder a bit.

People all over are joining again

to solve some of Britain's
most difficult and serious crimes.

[woman 2] Crimewatch
had a fantastic reputation

for putting information out there

and getting people to ring in
with critical pieces of evidence.

If you harbor any suspicions, do call.
So many clues and so much anguish.

Do you ever get worried about the things
you see on Crimewatch?

Oh. Yes, you do. But the crimes
that we show are so rare.

It's not something that
you walk into the street

and think, "The same thing's
going to happen to me."

[woman 3] There was reason to be scared.

[man 2] It takes a certain sort of person,

a brutal sadistic psychopath,
to shoot a gun into a head.

This was one of the largest
murder investigations

the Metropolitan Police ever had to face.

[man 1] It's been 22 years
and it's unsolved.

Whoever did it is still out there.

[theme music playing]

One of Britain's most popular television
presenters has been murdered

in what could be a professional hit.

The tributes here on the flowers echo
the overriding reaction of shock…

[man 1] Even the Queen has been moved
to comment, saying she is shocked…

[man 2] Police say there are many
possible motives for the murder.

[man 3] …responsible for
solving so many crimes

may have created enemies in the process.

[woman 1] The Crimewatch presenter
may have been assassinated in retaliation

for the NATO bombing of the Belgrade.

[man 4] Detectives confirm that Jill Dando

had claimed of being followed
by a stalker.

[woman 2] A man who has gone
on trial in London

had an obsession with celebrities
and was fascinated with firearms.

[man 5] Detectives say they're not
ruling out any line of inquiry.

Some believe the killer
may have got away with murder.

[somber music playing]

[phone ringing]

[man] Ambulance service, hello?

[woman] Hello, ambulance?
I'm walking along Gowan Avenue.

It looks like, um,
there's somebody collapsed.

And, confidentially,
it looks like it's Jill Dando.

And she's collapsed on her doorstep.
There's a lot of blood.

[man] Can you approach
and check that she's breathing?

-[woman] Doesn't look like she is.
-[man] Right.

[woman] Blood's coming
from her nose, her arms are blue.

[man] I need to find out
if she needs… if she's breathing.

Is the lady's chest going up and down?

[woman] Oh, my God.
No. I don't think she's alive.

-[man] Okay.
-I'm sorry.

[man] Don't worry. I'll get help for you.

[woman] Please.

[man] I was on call for
the central London murder group.

[phone ringing]

We had been busy, we were under-resourced.

And I was told by my detective sergeant

that there had been a stabbing
down in Fulham.

[siren wailing]

Fulham was a well-to-do, wealthy area.

So it was unusual for that reason.

Very unusual.

I was driving down there

and I got a phone call
from my chief superintendent.

[cell phone ringing]

And he said to me, "That case,
that's going to be Jill Dando."

In most homicide cases,

the detectives would not have known
their victim at all,

but in this case,
almost everybody knew of Jill Dando.

[ambulance siren wailing]

There was an ambulance coming up
the Fulham Road as we were going down,

and I realized that was her
being taken away from the scene.

[woman] It was a lovely spring day…

and I was reading the bulletins,
the news summaries.

The next scheduled bulletin is at 2:40.

I had put on a rather nice blue suit.

Well, one actually that came
from the designers

that Jill and I used to go to together.

[indistinct chatter]

And everything was fine in the newsroom,
which is a buzzy, noisy, vibrant place.

[man] …page 45.
Tell me what promos you're running?

And then the news came in
that a woman had been killed.

And these rumors started going
around the newsroom that it was Jill.

And it went terribly quiet.

-[siren wailing]
-[gripping music playing]

[indistinct police radio chatter]

[Hamish Campbell] When I arrived,
I was briefed by the uniformed officers.

And they told me that no one had seen
what had actually happened to Jill.

But they had already identified
two witnesses

who had seen a man leaving the scene.

And they described this white man,
dark hair, thick-set,

wearing a coat, a dark coat,
wasn't masked, wasn't wearing gloves.

So the real focus right there
was how the person

who had been seen running away
was to be caught.

Uniformed officers were told
to spread out and search the area.

We were waiting for information
from the hospital

because there was no confirmation
that Jill had died.

That changed very quickly
when I stood on the pavement

and just looked from the gate,

up to the front door of Jill's house.

And I could see
the bullet and casing on the doorstep.

Jill Dando had been shot in the head.

It was immediately sort of unfathomable.

The concept of any woman
being shot in the head in London,

yet alone a celebrity,
was rare in the extreme.

[indistinct chatter]

The media are already up
at the top cordon.

I knew then that the media interest
was going to be extraordinary.

[ambulance siren wailing]

[male doctor] Jill Dando arrived here
by ambulance at 12:30 p.m.

Despite all efforts by ambulance
paramedics and hospital medical staff,

she was certified dead at 1:03 p.m.

The newsroom was cold with… with shock.

Real shock.

We're people who are used to reporting

on all sorts of deaths, disasters, wars.

But to have one of your own…

[laughing] I'm sorry. It's just I was…

[Jennie] One of your very, very own,

killed in that manner on her own doorstep
was just too awful to believe.

[somber music playing]

And I… I had to read it.

[man] Jill was 37.

[Jennie] I remember a boss saying to me,
"Are you going to be okay doing this?"

And I said, yeah, I'll be okay.

[man] Jill was 37.

Pete, I'm telling you she was 37.

All right.

[man] I told her, she was 37.

She was exactly two years
younger than me. She was 37.

What shall I say?

[man] I'm telling you,
she was definitely 37. Definitely.

Here we go.

Within the past few minutes,
police have confirmed

that the BBC television presenter
Jill Dando has been stabbed to death

outside her west London home.

She died in the ambulance
on her way to hospital.

There are no more details at the moment.

The next scheduled bulletin is at 2:40.

[intriguing music playing]

I was working in the, uh, Bristol office

of the Bristol Evening Post.

And our newsroom had a bank of TV screens.

Our BBC colleague Jill Dando has died

after being attacked
outside her London home.

[Nigel] Reports were coming out
that she had died.

I clicked into sort of automatic mode.

I thought I need to protect
my dad from this.

I rushed down to Weston-super-Mare.

He was obviously devastated.

I was wondering how we were going
to cope with all this.

About half an hour
after I had got down to Weston,

the TV reporter from BBC Points West
knocked on the door. I knew him.

And I sort of slipped back
into journalistic mode.

I gave him an interview.

[man] When did you last see her? Was it…

I saw her on, um… Easter Sunday.

It would've been about two,
three weeks ago.

Yeah, she was on good form.
Um, looking forward to her wedding.

It was a sense of emptiness
and a sense of despair.

And I had to explain to my dad
what had happened,

what was going to happen.

That we were kind of going to be
in the eye of a storm.

[helicopter hovering]

[tense music playing]

[male reporter] The police search
is well underway now, Alan.

There are a minimum of 30 detectives.

You can see behind me
the operation in front of Jill's home.

[Hamish] All the resources came.

The ballistics experts, the blood experts,
the scene photographers.

The scene itself had been
heavily contaminated.

Because there had been
attempts to resuscitate.

But everything was picked up,
relevant or not, scrapings, gravel.

Fingerprint marks from the gate.

Fibers.

We had a bullet
and a cartridge casing on the doorstep.

The ballistics expert told me
it was a single shot

to the left side of her head.

Some thought
like a professional execution.

And that bullet and casing on the doorstep
were from a 9mm caliber weapon.

The search teams arrived.

The whole of Gowan Avenue was searched.

Bins, gardens, flowerbeds, shrubs.

Looking to see if the gun had been
discarded or anything had been discarded.

We identified some of the key witnesses.

The postman, a sort of
Mediterranean-looking man,

just after ten o'clock on the opposite
side of the road to Jill's house,

and a witness claimed
he saw a man running across the road

and he stopped at the bus stop.

And he was sweating.

[suspenseful music playing]

There was a traffic warden,

and she was about to give a ticket
to the driver of a blue Range Rover,

and as she was starting
to write the ticket out,

he brushed her off and he drove away.

So, I didn't know at the time

whether there was
one person involved or two or three.

Everybody in that street on that day
had to be eliminated out

as much as possible.

[vehicles honking]

[birds squawking]

[gripping music playing]

The next day's newspapers were absolutely
rammed with stories about the murder.

It was the only story in town.

On a sad morning,
we'll be talking about poor Jill Dando.

The shocking loss of one of Britain's
best-known personalities

drew many tributes.

In London,
police are investigating a murder

that has shocked
the television-viewing public.

[reporter 1] Jill Dando was,
in the opinion of many in Britain,

second only to Princess Diana

in terms of public affection.

Jill Dando was someone who was known
to, virtually, everybody in this country.

[reporter 2] Even the Queen
has been moved to comment,

saying she is shocked and saddened.

[woman] Following the death
of Princess Diana,

I would say that Jill Dando's murder

was the biggest story
that we will ever report on.

[indistinct chatter]

Female journalists of my generation
were shaken by it

because we saw ourselves in Jill.

Jill had been a journalist.
She loved the press.

She was good to us, she respected us,
she knew we were doing a job

and we wanted as much as the police

to find out who did it
because she was one of us.

[gripping music playing]

I was the crime correspondent
at the Daily Mirror.

I can remember discussing it
with… with my news editor.

And him saying to me,
"So, what do you think about this?"

He said, it must be
something with Crimewatch.

Well, not necessarily, hold your horses.

One of the pieces of information coming in
from one of our reporters on the ground

was that they'd found a neighbor
to Jill's house in Gowan Avenue

who'd heard a scream.

-[reporter] Did you hear a man's voice?
-No man's voice at all.

-Did you hear a shot or did you--
-There was no shots.

From what I'd say was a shot,
I didn't think there was a shot, no.

[reporter] From your assessment,
what did you hear?

I did hear… a scream.

I had a private conversation

with one of the members
of the murder squad.

He said we cannot find
any witnesses, any neighbors,

anybody who was in the area at the time
who actually heard a gunshot.

We don't have the gun.
We don't have anybody who saw the gun.

But this weapon could have
had a silencer on it.

Unlike in the movies,

a silencer on a gun is a very rare
piece of equipment in real life.

So, automatically, that suggestion
steered us in the direction

that maybe this was a professional job.

Somebody asked the question,
is this an assassination?

Is this an execution?

Like a political murder
or an organized crime murder?

So all the theories about, you know,
the who, the what, the why,

were starting to stack up.

[male reporter] Jill Dando was left dying
on the doorstep of her home.

Revenge, perhaps, for her role as a crime
reporter who helps jail top criminals.

Everyone had a view on how Jill Dando
was murdered and who was responsible.

[intriguing music playing]

Back to the office,
I held a meeting with the team.

I said, there's a danger of us
being swept up with the media hype.

And reminded them that,
with any murder investigation,

the victim was a key element
to try to solve the case.

So we needed to look at Jill's life.

Who is Jill

and who were the persons
closest to her and nearer to her?

I don't, I'm afraid.

I'm one of these people
who what you see is what you get.

I don't think I've got
any skeletons in the cupboard.

[audience laughing]

[children chattering]

[Nigel] I was nine years old
when Jill was born in 1961.

Quite often on a Sunday as a family,

we'd go down for a picnic on the beach.

Do you remember those
sand-blown lettuce sandwiches?

[laughs]

They were part of the staple diet

of summers growing up
in Weston-super-Mare.

[nostalgic music playing]

There wasn't much money around.

We didn't have exotic holidays like that.

I wonder whether
she actually had a passport

before she was offered the job
as, uh, presenting the Holiday program.

[imperceptible]

It was almost preordained
that she was going to become a journalist.

Well, she was interested in words
and, um, she was more outgoing than I was.

I'd whisper in her ear occasionally
saying, "Why are you still in Weston?"

"Why don't you look for jobs
around the place?"

Thirty years ago,
a computer capable of similar calculations

wouldn't have fitted
into a building this size.

It would have been full of…

[Nigel] She got a job as a journalist
on BBC Spotlight, based in Plymouth.

And then became a presenter.

They do mention the ethics committee
refusing this idea.

They've said no more sisters
are going to be donors.

[Nigel] She was so polished
and so professional.

…Fisherman depend
is in deep financial trouble.

[Nigel] But at the same time
retaining a natural warmth about her.

[laughing]

Sort of a twinkle in her eye.

Her performances on Spotlight

caught the attention
of the producers at BBC Breakfast.

[man] …television made, is going up
the line to Breakfast Time.

[Nigel] The world by then was her oyster.

-I must just--
-How many times have I done this now?

Thank you very much. Oh, God. [laughs]

-We wish you well, my darling.
-Thank you.

You better say goodnight
for the last time.

Good night from here
and good morning from London on Monday.

[producer] Page 45. Now, would you tell me
what promos you're running?

Give me that. Just hold on a second.

No, Bob, I've got to know now.

Run the first one. I'll confirm
in a couple of seconds.

I'm Bob Wheaton.

At that time, I was, uh,
running the six o'clock news.

I can remember.

There I was sitting at the desk.

I'm ready to get the six o'clock news
of the day prepared.

And there on, um, BBC Breakfast Time…

-Dementia has found more evidence…
-…was Jill.

…possible link with aluminum levels…

[Bob] Hadn't seen her before.

[Jill] The study, published in…

She had a good face for television.

While Frank Bruno's been preparing
for his fight…

[Bob] Her voice, beautiful,
a classless English voice.

…tussling with a
television crew in Canada.

She was a total natural.

Winds of up to 100 miles an hour…

[Bob] She shone and I knew
she was gonna go places.

But I think how you look does matter.

And she'd arrived from provinces
looking like a regional girl.

I'd looked at her and said to her,
"You need to sort the way your hair is,

you need to wear the right clothes."
She'd put on a lot of weight.

And, you know, she was advised
that she needed to look right.

At the time she had curly, permed hair.

Um, brown.

And she wanted a different look.

I think I suggested that we cut this short
and, uh, see where we go with it.

And she said, "I'm going to be
on television. Should I ask my producer?"

And I went, "No,
probably not a good idea."

[indistinct chatter]

[device beeping]

The government's £3.25 billion package
to keep down the poll tax

has been welcomed
by Conservative backbenchers.

[Martyn] It became
quite a signature look.

And in many ways
I think people saw Jill as a TV Diana.

[indistinct chatter]

At that time, Diana would come down

and we would probably do
the occasional blow-dry.

[male interviewer]
Who had the haircut first?

Jill.

[Bob] Her hair was right.
She had lost a lot of weight.

Her diction was perfect. She had a charm
about the way she presented the news.

Well, a fine weekend in prospects.

And people regarded her
as a girl next door

who was giving them, uh, the authority
of BBC News and it was a good package.

I suppose in celebrating
the success, we got closer.

And, uh, eventually we became involved.

[Jennie] Jill got involved
with Bob very early on,

so that was always quite--
I don't want to say this on camera.

It was a difficult situation. She was…
She was with the boss.

I think the top will probably be
South Africa again.

Today, or rather today…

[Jon] I always thought it was
a very strange relationship

because she was so freewheeling…

Just hanging fine…

And he was quite a control freak,
but in a very quiet way.

There was no bad word said,
it was like I, you know…

"Shh. Let me explain. This is what it is."

It was that kind of relationship.

…section which has got library film
and graphics and so on.

Jill was at the top of her game.

She'd choose what she wanted to do.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

I was brought in as a young journalist,
I think I was about 23.

[pensive music playing]

I really looked up to Jill.

Um, she was absolutely
where I wanted to end up.

The headlines this morning…

[Anastasia] But it was really hard.

It was difficult
not to feel a bit of an imposter.

[Jill] Could we have?
I wouldn't mind some scripts.

[Anastasia] Sitting next to
these alpha males,

sometimes she was made to feel inferior.

So often when he's talking
to ladies who say

it's harder for us in broadcasting.

And I keep thinking,
absolute nonsense, I mean, you know,

if you're a good-looking woman,
then it is not difficult.

-It, well…
-It is easier.

No. I think people expect more of women,
that's the trouble, you know…

As Jill's, uh, career is advancing,

one of the problems that she had,

all the women had, was that it was
a very male-dominated company.

To be absolutely honest,
it was quite misogynistic.

All sorts of men
will be regarded as controlling

because men are especially…
Tough editors are tough sometimes.

But controlling in a way
which is detrimental to the relationship

or to the person, not at all.

[intriguing music playing]

The reality is, most people are killed
by someone they know.

The people in her inner circle
were Alan Farthing, her fiancé.

Her previous partner for, who had been
her partner for some years, seven years.

Mr. Wheaton.

And her business agent, Mr. Roseman.

They had to be seen and interviewed
and eliminated primarily by alibi.

If you could show you were somewhere else
on the 26th of April, in that time frame,

you can't be the murderer.

But it doesn't necessarily remove yourself
from somehow arranging for her murder,

if that was the situation.

[indistinct chatter]

First of all I wanted to ask
how you're coping at the moment.

I think I'm coping in the same way as

anybody else would cope
under the circumstances.

I'm devastated.

Everybody around me is devastated.

-[indistinct clamoring]
-Hi.

[indistinct conversation]

[Alan] I cannot understand
why they would want to kill

-somebody as gentle…
-This was my mother's…

…kind, well-meaning and

as perfect a person as Jill.

Yes.

The best daytime television program.

[Nigel] I'll always remember it.

We were in the back of a limousine
following Jill's coffin.

There were just
thousands of people who'd come out.

Weston just stopped.

[melancholy music playing]

I didn't know her personally,
but I thought I'd like to be here.

[woman] Diana was our rose,
but Jill was our sunflower.

I can't say any more.

[male reporter] A hundred or so people
were invited to the church.

Many of her friends worked
with her at the BBC.

The coffin arrived
at the church at three o'clock.

It was accompanied by her brother, Nigel.

Her father, Jack.

And, of course, by the man
she would have married this September,

her fiancé, Alan Farthing.

[Martyn] When Jill met Alan, it was quite
a life-changing moment for her.

A moment that she'd thought about
and had dreams of for quite a while.

She'd announced her engagement.

She should have been in a church
getting married, you know,

and here she was
in a church being buried.

[priest] Life was entering a new,
exciting, fulfilling age.

Until that fateful moment,

Jill, the beautiful girl next door,

known to every family in the country,
was shot dead.

And then everyone was asking
the question, "Why?"

[Hamish] Some of my key thinking
about it was,

if someone deliberately
set out to kill her,

why would they choose to kill her?
What was to be gained from that?

What benefit would anybody accrue
from killing Jill Dando?

And then Alan Farthing mentioned
that a large sum of money,

over £30,000, £35,000,

was given by Jill to Mr. Wheaton.

[intriguing music playing]

So, that had to be investigated as to why
that sum of money had been given over.

[Bob] After the funeral,
the police came to see me.

And one of the policemen goes,
"Well, we've had this report

that you owed her quite a lot of money,

um, and you still owed it to her
when she died."

"Uh, would you like to explain that?"

I said, "Yeah. Yeah.
I'm quite happy to do that."

[intriguing music playing]

And you sort of feel, gosh,
you know, the light is on me here.

They wanted to know about how we met,

um, how long we'd been together,
uh, how did we break up.

And yes, she had contributed towards me
buying my house by the river.

I said, I had a mortgage, um,
but there was a small shortfall.

I could've had a bigger mortgage,
but she wanted to share

because we were then
sharing the house together.

And by the way, I do not need
that much money that badly.

I can show you the evidence of why,
and I took him to my computer,

went into my bank account and showed him,
um, that I had quite a lot of money.

She was generous to everybody,
including me.

We loved each other.

I wouldn't have ever thought
of doing something like that.

To have lost somebody with whom,
uh, I had spent valuable, interesting,

important and enjoyable years
was a massive blow.

[pensive music playing]

[Hamish] Well, the things
that are innocuous can appear suspicious.

I think it was just a gift
from Jill to Mr. Wheaton.

You know, you talk about things in detail

but when following death,
things can emerge,

but they're almost tittle-tattle,
gossip, salacious or otherwise.

But it doesn't move you into the realm
of responsibility for killing someone.

We concluded that he was…

he had nothing to do
with the murder at all.

And we needed to sift out all that noise

and try to really focus
on basic principles

before getting carried away further
and further down different avenues.

Jill didn't live at 29 Gowan Avenue.

She lived with her fiancé,
further out in West London.

We knew she visited Gowan Avenue rarely
and stayed overnight even more rarely.

So to know that Jill would turn up
at 29 Gowan Avenue

on Monday morning by 11:30,

you would have to have been following her.

-[suspenseful music playing]
-[device beeping]

[detective inspector] I was
the deputy on the inquiry.

It was a painstaking process.

Two officers going through

the many hundreds of hours of CCTV.

There were thousands of people
to eliminate from the inquiry.

Nothing would be discounted
until each had been evaluated

to a degree by one of the team.

There was over 190 CCTV and cameras
in the surrounding streets.

Four hundred and thirty hours
of viewing time.

And from that we established
Jill's movements on the 26th of April.

Started from Alan Farthing's home.

[suspenseful music playing]

She stopped at a petrol station.

Filled the car with petrol.

And then she left the petrol station
and she went into Hammersmith town center.

Went to at least two shops, maybe three,
to buy some fax paper or copying paper.

She returned to her car.

Then she left Hammersmith
and travelled south down to Fulham Road.

Then she got down to near Gowan Avenue,

parked right outside her house.

And then she walked up the gateway.

And killed at the doorstep.

[Ian] It was simply a matter
of just plodding through everything.

And we can categorically say,
100%, that she wasn't followed.

So, how did the killer know

that she was going to be
at Gowan Avenue that morning?

And then the thinking

is that Jill told somebody where she was.

So we did look at the phone calls
to her on that day.

Who knew she was going to be
where she was?

There was one person alone.

Mr. Roseman.

Jon Roseman was Jill's
very colorful agent.

Um, I had lots of dealings
with Jon over the years.

He was very, uh,
shall I say, robust to deal with.

He was very straight-talking.
Uh, you knew when you'd upset him.

There's a very famous story about him

going around somewhere with a baseball bat
to, uh… to show his feelings.

[gripping music playing]

[Jon] The police, they came to visit me
on a Saturday morning.

And they asked me about this timeline.

Because the only reason she went there
that day was to pick up some faxes

that had been sent to her
from my office about some work.

She was on her way
to a lunch, I think it was.

And so she just, like,
literally stopped off

back to her house to pick up faxes.

[keys jingling]

One of the things that
they were interested in was my book.

I had always wanted to be a writer.

And so I had written a book.

They always say,
write about what you know,

so I wrote about an agent.

An agent whose clients were murdered
under mysterious circumstances.

A client who'd been shot.

[Hamish] Mr. Roseman had written a book

which involved the death
of a presenter or personality.

So that seemed ironic
that he's writing a novel

which actually then occurred in real life.

[Jon] The police, there were two of them,
sitting in my office,

and we talked it through

and they asked me if I had a manuscript
of the book, which I did.

And they also said,
"What was the time difference

between the first murder in the book
and the second murder in the book?"

And I'm thinking,
like I was in the Twilight Zone.

I thought, he's not taking this seriously,

like somebody's had my manuscript
and is following the plan of the book?

[male interviewer] Did you think
whether others might be suspecting you?

[laughs]

Well, I'd have to have paid someone
to do it, that's for sure.

But I had this reputation,

and yes, I was really tough,
but it was just an act.

And anybody who suspected
that I would cut off

a financial revenue like Jill Dando's
would have to be insane.

[chuckles]

[director] Action.

Well, that's all for this--

Hang on, I can't see the lens.

[man] When you turn,
bring your body around.

Oh, okay, right. I'm going…

[Jon] I mean, it sounds terrible,
but had we not sent her any faxes…

That's all from Mauritius.

Next week I'll be on
the Greek island of Skiathos.

I'm not going to say--

Had she not gone back to the house
that day, it wouldn't have happened.

Who knows how, where else
it would have happened,

but that was the reason
she went back to the house.

I do find this kind of stuff
really difficult to talk about.

Oh! It's just so glamorous.
It's wonderful. Let me at it.

Everything was going so well for her.

I came here unescorted, but I'm told
that a prince is waiting in the wings.

[Jon] I mean, nobody has a life
like that, right?

We would love to have
a life like that, right?

But Jill had a life like that.

It's not! It's not. It's not.

[both laugh]

Listen, I'm…
Jill, I'm so sorry about this.

I… I find her death still difficult
to come to terms with.

-Do you mind if I whirl her away?
-Oh, you may whirl. I can't believe it.

[clicks tongue]

There you go.

None of that inner group of people
was responsible for Jill Dando's murder.

And we still didn't have an understanding
of the reason why Jill had been killed.

We had to properly focus down.

[suspenseful music playing]

Who was the man
who had been seen running away?

Who was driving the blue Range Rover?

And who was the sweating man?

[Jeff] I knew by then
from talking to my contacts,

that the murder of Jill Dando caused,
you know, huge consternation

within the hierarchy
at Scotland Yard as well

because Jill Dando was perceived
as part of the policing family.

But they were bedeviled by the fact
that they didn't have a suspect.

They didn't have a murder weapon.

[Hamish] Morning.

Are you any closer to knowing either
a suspect or a motive for this killing?

We don't know the person
who killed Jill Dando at this time

and we're trying to establish
a motive as to why she was killed.

And our main inquiry focuses
on determining the motive.

Once we establish the motive, we will be
able to move forward more rapidly

as to who the suspect or suspects are.

[indistinct chatter]

The red-top news business
won't tolerate a vacuum, right?

They want information.
They've got pages to fill.

I could see the clouds
gathering on the horizon

and I knew, unless they
solved this crime really quickly,

it was only a short matter of time

before we started to become deluged
with all sorts of theories.

[gripping music playing]

[reporter] In the absence of
any obvious motive for the attack,

speculation, and it is only that,
focuses on a possible stalker.

Jill Dando had had problems
with obsessive fans in the past,

as one close colleague recalls.

I don't think she was in any sense,
in fear of, certainly not in mortal fear

of anything happening to her.
She was irritated from time to time.

Uh, there had been somebody stalking her.

Um, I mean, to be honest,
that's really, it goes with the turf.

Anyone who is in the public eye,
and Jill was in the public eye

more than almost anybody,
um, does have certain threats.

We used to get all the mail
coming to our office.

Some mail might be a little bit eh-eh,

so you had to be careful
and just take some of these letters away.

But they weren't threatening,
they were just, well, you know.

There's a lot of perverts out there.

But then we received a letter
from somebody claiming to be a Serb.

It was in relation to the appeal

that Jill had given
earlier that month for Kosovo.

This weekend we've all become aware

of the humanitarian crisis
facing the Balkans,

as thousands of people from Kosovo…

[Jon] The letter seemed to be
somewhat threatening.

Whatever you can afford can make
a big difference to these people's lives

and their chances of survival.

[Jeff] The Balkan War had been going on
in the former Yugoslavia,

you know, which had split
into various states,

you know, Serbia and Kosovo and so forth.

It was a very horrible war.

So, when it started to emerge
that her agent had a threatening letter…

Then the BBC started
to get threats by telephone.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

[male reporter 1] The murder of one of
the country's best-known TV personalities

has taken a frightening turn.

[male reporter 2] The TV center where
Jill Dando worked received a phone call.

It was from a man claiming to be Serbian,

saying he was behind the star's death.

[theme music playing]

-[gripping music playing]
-[phone ringing]

[man] Your Prime Minister Blair murdered,
butchered 17 innocent young people.

He butchered, we butchered back.
The first one you had yesterday.

[Bob] The day after Jill was killed,

the BBC received calls
from what would seem to be a Serb.

As a hard news man,

as a man who can look for a story,
as it were, in the development of things,

it just seemed to me that it was possible
that they had somehow got to the country

or had sleepers in the country
to punish Britain.

[loud explosions]

It was horrible.

[male reporter] In a split second,
the station's main control room

and other technical areas
were completely destroyed.

NATO bombed the TV station in Serbia.

[male reporter] NATO says
that the TV station

was the hub of Serbia's war propaganda.

[Jon] A lot of journalists were killed.

[people clamoring]

[Bob] People had died in that place.

[indistinct chatter]

The Serbs were furious about it.

[sobbing]

It's not impossible somebody
who is deeply aggrieved decided,

"We would get our own back on the country
for what you as part of NATO did to ours."

[indistinct chatter]

Thousands of people from Kosovo
have left their homes

and arrived on the borders
of neighboring countries.

Jill had fronted an appeal for Kosovan
refugees and victims of the war.

So there was a connection.

This is a massive exodus,
around 600,000 people are on the move.

It was a bit scary to think that

that might have been the motive.

That it could have been
a Serbian war lord.

[male reporter] We know you as a killer,
Arkan, not as a peaceful politician.

You know it's bullshit
you're talking about.

The Yugoslav War was very bitter
and it was a very big news story.

As the international community loses
patience with the fighting in Bosnia,

Radovan Karadžić, the leader of…

[Jennie] Many of us were involved in
reporting or presenting news about that.

As the next few days went by

and, you know,
I approached my own front door,

you looked over your shoulder,
you were frightened,

because if it had been
a professionally arranged killing,

then there was reason to be scared.

[theme music playing]

One of Britain's most popular television
presenters has been murdered

in what could be a professional hit.

The tributes here on the flowers
echo the overriding reaction of shock…

[man 1] Even the Queen has been moved
to comment, saying she is shocked…

[man 2] Police say there are many
possible motives for the murder.

[man 3] …responsible for
solving so many crimes

may have created enemies in the process.

[woman 1] The Crimewatch presenter
may have been assassinated in retaliation

for the NATO bombings of the Belgrade…

[man 4] Detectives confirm that Jill Dando

had complained of being
followed by a stalker.

[woman 2] A man who has gone
on trial in London

had an obsession with celebrities
and was fascinated with firearms.

[man 5] Detectives say they're not
ruling out any line of inquiry.

Some believe the killer may have
got away with murder.

BBC executives feel,
in the light of Jill Dando's murder,

they can take no unnecessary risks
with the safety of their staff.

Police investigating Monday's killing
will also treat

the alleged Serbian connection seriously
until it is proved otherwise.

[Hamish] The threat to the BBC
saying that was retaliation.

We weren't able to trace that caller
because they were anonymous.

Then the next question
is the Serbian government?

The Serbian state?

An individual Serb living in London
on their own who's angry?

We then did explore, obviously,
with security services here

for any intelligence
or information that they had.

That's the thing with homicide
investigations where it's,

the suspect is unknown,
you have to be cautious.

You cannot just
jump to a conclusion and run with that.

[pensive music playing]

Everyone had a theory about how
she was murdered and who was responsible.

Criminal networks. Mafia.
Russian. Jilted lovers.

We have a good description there
of the man who was seen running away.

[Hamish] But the reality is,
many a stranger homicide inquiry,

the answer lies
within the first tranche of information.

Though I feared that there was something
and we'd missed it.

That somewhere in the beginning
there was a message

or information which had been overlooked.

[gripping music playing]

In terms of actual evidence
about the case,

we had the traffic warden's information.

Of her attempt to issue a parking ticket
to a blue Range Rover on Gowan Avenue.

[dispatcher talking indistinctly]

[Hamish] We then received information
about a blue Range Rover

seen travelling across Putney Bridge.

[male reporter] The blue Range Rover
in this picture was seen

speeding through red lights
away from the murder scene.

[Hamish] The vehicle was
driving at high speed.

At such a speed that it's leaning over,
it joins the Fulham Palace Road.

Approaches the traffic lights,
which are now red.

Travels through the red lights
and goes away at speed

south on the Fulham Palace Road.

It was then realized those two pieces
of information were linked.

The inquiry then focused on
Range Rovers for many months

and plotted every Range Rover
and CCTV pictures of Range Rovers

to try and trace them down.

But we didn't have a number.
We just had a color and a make.

Somehow that was going to
have to be sifted down and analyzed.

The blue Range Rover
was a key piece of evidence.

But it's very difficult for the police
in these circumstances.

I mean, looking for a specific
blue Range Rover in London

would be like looking
for a needle in a haystack.

[Hamish] I knew it was going to be
an enormous amount of work.

Buckingham Palace has made it clear
that Princess Diana will still be invited

to attend some state occasions,

but the divorce settlement will inevitably
lead to a big change in her life.

When you're doing the news, you have to be
the person that was watching,

so they think
you're speaking just to them.

You have been invited
into their living room.

Jill had that skill.

She was very, very versatile.

And I loved that.
She managed to cross the divide.

This is the scene
in The Mall this evening.

Already hundreds of people
lining the route,

prepared for a damp,
possibly showery night,

so that they can pay their respects
tomorrow to Diana, Princess of Wales.

I know she was happiest
when she was interviewing people.

Not politicians, but just ordinary people.
I know she loved that.

What did Diana mean to you?

She was kind
and she did a lot for other people.

[Anastasia] Some of the cleverest
journalists in the room couldn't do that.

They didn't have what she had,
that magic touch.

[Jon] When I took her on,
she was already incredibly well-known,

but she needed other programs to do.

And then along came Crimewatch.

[Crimewatch theme music playing]

First tonight, a reconstruction
of a truly sad…

[Jon] Jill just jumped at the chance.

…in which a young man became a killer.

I didn't want her to go to the program.

I'd said to her when she was offered it,
[inhales sharply] "Don't like it."

Do please call if you know anything,
this man must be stopped.

I don't want you being in a place

where you're reporting nasty events
that happen to people.

[Jill] It's public service
broadcasting at its best.

Crimewatch has results.

People might consider you to be a target

as a result of what
the program does to criminals

apprehended as a result of its work

and found themselves in prison.

I regarded that as a threat
and I said that to her.

[foreboding music playing]

[distant siren wailing]

[journalist] Takes a certain
sort of person,

brutal, sadistic psychopath

to walk up behind a woman
in broad daylight

and shoot a gun into her head.

I mean, that is not something
you do lightly. I've done horrible things.

I've got 68 previous convictions.

[tires screeching]

But I couldn't do that.

But I tried a bit of everything.

Theft, stealing cars, selling drugs.
Whatever was criminal I would do.

I was a dyed-in-the-wool,
24-hours-a-day criminal.

In 1998, I was actually on remand
in Belmarsh Prison,

uh, waiting to go up to the Old Bailey
on multiple charges of armed robbery.

[reporter] Police have confirmed that
the BBC television presenter Jill Dando…

[Noel] When Jill Dando was shot,

a lot of criminals, I have to say,
at the time, they sort of went, "Yeah,"

because Jill Dando was on Crimewatch UK,
and a lot of them had ended up in prison

down to, you know,
stuff they had on Crimewatch.

[Jill] An attempt to pervert the course
of justice on a major scale.

An organized gang…

It's quite possible that it was one
of those who actually done Jill Dando.

I thought it was a professional.
The way it was done, it was professional.

Because, if in the '80s and '90s,
the way every hit was carried out

was in broad daylight out in the street.

You want a place where people
are not expecting you to do it.

If you're walking in your door in the day

or you're walking down the high street,
you're not on alert.

The chances of catching a professional
who works in that way are slim to none.

[gripping music playing]

[Nick Ross] Ever since Crimewatch started,
we've closed by saying,

"Don't have nightmares, do sleep well."

And given Jill Dando's murder,

you might think
any reassurances sound hollow tonight.

It was almost inevitable

that we would do an appeal
on Crimewatch to explain the case

and seek witnesses
and appeal for information.

This is a somber and, for me,
a surreal Crimewatch UK.

I remember watching
the Crimewatch on Jill's murder.

[Nick] It's been almost unbearable
dealing with Jill's death.

But this program was her passion.

And now, as Jill helped others,
we hope we can do the same for her.

Seeing Nick Ross, I was struck
by how professionally he handled it.

[woman] Getting towards the end
of Gowan Avenue,

on the Fulham Palace Road end,

I was conscious that somebody
was sitting on my tail, as it were.

[Hamish] The principle of Crimewatch…

[woman] Hurrying me.

…was to ask the public about evidence.

[woman] I had got the impression there was
more than one person…

Who owns this car? Who is this photograph?
Where is this person?

[Hamish on TV] There were several
sightings of a blue Range Rover…

So, we then released information
about a blue Range Rover

and hopefully someone can
give us information.

[Hamish on TV] Were you driving around
that area on the 26th of April?

Ring us, tell us where you were
on that day,

which Range Rover you were driving
and where you were.

[Jane] Once they factored in
the blue Range Rover,

there was talks maybe
of an accomplice who'd followed Jill.

I do actually think the Range Rover
sort of symbolized professional hit,

gangland, criminal world.

More than one person escaping
from the scene fast.

It's a free call number.

So Nick Ross asked
if the public could help.

Please call if you can
identify any of those…

[Ian] Hundreds of calls are coming in.

[man] I'm calling about
the Jill Dando murder.

Members of the public,
other police forces.

Basically, everyone seemed
to have information

about a vehicle being very close
to the scene at the time of the murder.

[man] Hi, I've got information
about Jill Dando.

[Hamish] Seemed everybody
drove blue Range Rovers.

[woman] I've got information about Jill…

[Hamish] So it was a long shot.

[gripping music playing]

But then there was one phone call

that was quite interesting.

An informant says,
"I know who killed Jill Dando

and here are the names
of the individuals."

That particular informant
appeared plausible.

He was known as Mr. James.

The information
James was giving us was showing

that the people
behind the murder of Jill Dando

were active criminals.

They were a higher-level drugs group.

I and another officer
arranged to meet him.

[suspenseful music playing]

That conversation was covertly recorded.

And he was questioned at length
by me to understand how it is

his claim that he knew
who had killed Jill Dando could be true.

And he gave an account
and a story of a Range Rover.

[camera shutter clicking]

And the account and detail he was giving
was sufficient for us to say,

well, we need to look
at this criminal network.

So they were followed.

And we used a range
of police tactics and operations

to try to understand
where they were going,

what they were doing, and seeking to hear
what they were saying.

[indistinct radio chatter]

[gripping music playing]

[Jane] Initially we felt it was
going to be solved very quickly.

And then it, just suddenly,
a whole summer went by.

It went very quiet.

[male reporter 1] The street where
Jill Dando lived and died.

The media circus has gone,
but people are still coming to terms

with one of the most bizarre murders
ever committed.

The shooting of Miss Dando
remains a mystery.

A crime many here in Britain,
where gun violence is so rare,

still find incomprehensible.

[male reporter 2] After a promising start,

progress appears,
from the outside, to be slow.

[male officer] If there's anything
that jogs your memory,

give the number a ring.

[imperceptible]

The press, people like me,
we want developments.

News executives coming to me and saying,
"Why haven't they solved this job?"

[Hamish] We were working on
certain lines of inquiry.

But we don't have to give
all the details all the time.

It was almost like tumbleweed, nothing.

And then we were all thinking,
well, are the police onto somebody?

Is there some sort of dynamite
piece of information

they're about to come out with
that we don't know about?

[Hamish] After many months
and much investment,

it turned out
the informant James was lying.

And it became clear that he was seeking
to blame others for Jill Dando's murder,

hoping that they
would be arrested to release him

from the pressure
he was under in his own drugs work.

We didn't have proof

the Range Rover
was even involved in the shooting.

The sea around here is ideal
for snorkeling and scuba diving.

But here's something which
involves neither swimming

nor getting your hair wet.

I'm going walking on the sea bed
with one of these.

I thought it would be a sure-fire, quick
investigation and they'd find somebody. I…

I was just left reading the papers
like everyone else.

Thinking, "God,
she had it all ahead of her."

Just so wasted.

It's just, uh… wasted.

[audience cheering, applauding]

[Martyn] I think her career
was really not even halfway.

Just, um, tragic to have that taken away

so, uh, brutally, um,
and without explanation.

-[laughing] No, I don't believe this.
-[man laughs]

[Nigel] What you saw on the screen
was Jill in her element.

Jill Dando, this is your life.

[nostalgic music playing]

Thoroughly enjoying herself,
uh, and just wishing

that the members of her audience
were there with her,

having as good a time as she was.

[chuckles] It's cold.

[Nigel] I hate to say this expression,
but she was the nation's sweetheart.

I was very pleased for her
because she'd done tremendously well

from humble beginnings.

Who knows what would have happened?
I don't know.

I put my absolute trust
in the police to do it.

How else was it going to be solved?

[gripping music playing]

We wanted to put Jill on the front pages,
but it started to go quiet.

The family, well, that story kept
in the newspapers,

because as long as you keep
the story alive,

you keep the investigation alive.

[Nigel] I had conversations with Hamish

who said that they were following
these lines of inquiry.

But essentially
they were just drawing blanks.

[indistinct chatter]

[male reporter]
With no immediate prospect of an arrest,

detectives are increasingly under pressure
to come up with a result.

I couldn't understand
how there hadn't been an arrest.

Most famous TV personality,
all the resources and no one was arrested.

[Hamish] It generated thousands
of pieces of information.

It was relentless, eliminating suspects
and closing down lines of inquiry.

But we had not identified
all these witnesses in Gowan Avenue.

Who was it they were seeing?

The great majority of witnesses
cannot recall the human face sufficiently

for an artist to then recreate that face.

[imperceptible]

But there were four people
from the witnesses

who believed they could do.

One of them had witnessed
a man in the Fulham Road…

running across the road
and he stood at the bus stop.

That witness was able to describe him
sufficiently for an e-fit to be drawn.

And the e-fit was the one we produced
or showed at the press conference.

[people chattering]

We didn't have all the answers.

I sensed a concern and nervousness
from everybody above me.

And the media, swirling around
with so many ideas and thoughts.

That had to be managed.

-[camera shutters clicking]
-[indistinct chatter]

[male reporter] Four days
after the murder of Jill Dando,

the police released
this computer-generated picture

of the man they're treating
as their number one suspect.

He was seen by several witnesses,

the last time standing by this
bus stop in Fulham Palace Road

just after Jill Dando was shot.

This was very, very significant indeed.

We felt that the police would not be
putting out an e-fit of somebody

they thought was only
a marginal person of interest.

This was seen as a very significant event.

If he is really the killer of Jill Dando…

[clamoring]

…we have to find this man.

[male reporter]
At Putney Bridge tube station,

security camera video
is also being examined

in case it has captured her killer.

A killer who, it was said,
may have been a hit man,

but uses a bus for his getaway.

[imperceptible]

[Jeff] We made a lot of inquiries.

You know, Daily Mirror reporters went
to the area of this bus stop,

knocked on doors, tried to find anybody
who might have seen anything.

But nobody that we found had seen
anybody who looked like this e-fit

and certainly nobody came forward
to us to tell us,

you know, any follow-up information
that might be significant.

[camera shutters clicking]

My next logical thought was,

well, you know, most London buses have,
you know, CCTV on board.

That'll be key for the police.

All they've got to do
is contact London Transport,

find out all the buses
that were within one hour

each side of that sighting of that man,

and there you are, you should have
your sweating man at the bus stop.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Hamish] I sent officers to Fulham
to see if there was any CCTV.

You know, maybe they were overwhelmed
with more pressing tasks,

but by the time they put that request in
to view the tapes, they were wiped.

It was a missed opportunity.

[tense music playing]

[Hamish] There were only 16 detectives
on my murder team

at the start of that investigation.

Sixteen people were never going
to complete what I needed completing.

By putting out the e-fit, we told
millions and millions of people

about a man at a bus stop,
hoping that the public could help.

Who is this man?

We ask if he has nothing to do
with this investigation

to come forward and eliminate himself.

[male reporter] The main suspect
is a white male

wearing a dark suit
with neatly cut brown hair.

He's between 35 and 40 years old…

Some of this information may have
jogged someone's memory.

If so, they should contact
the police immediately.

[phone ringing]

[Hamish] A man phoned the inquiry room

and stated that he looked like the e-fit.

He didn't say that
he was responsible for killing Jill,

but he placed himself at the crime scene.

So he was a person of interest.

-Am I allowed to mention his name?
-[man] Yep.

[Charlie] Shackleton,
he was a strange character.

He had a blue-lighted ambulance
as his mode of transport.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Hamish] He was a giant of a man.

He was an undertaker
and he drove a hearse.

Shackleton had said
that he was in the park

and he'd run out of the park
because he was being chased by a man,

and he went to the bus stop.

That was important at that stage
because we thought the sweating man,

e-fit person was of some importance.

So here was a man claiming to be that.

Because he was making those claims

and we couldn't address the problem
without interviewing him,

he was arrested and a search
was conducted of his house.

This arrest just looked like
a dynamite piece of development.

We all thought, "Is this it?
Is this going to be the evidence we need?"

[suspenseful music playing]

[Charlie] I searched his home address.

There was a coffin in the house.

[Hamish] There were some photographs,

there was a map of the Fulham area

and some BBC material, I think a letter.

[intriguing music playing]

[Jane] James Shackleton
was quite a character.

[male reporter]
The Shepherd's Bush undertaker,

who specialized in DSS funerals…

[James] I'm making a baby's coffin.

In fact, I've got to make two,
one here and one there.

He said he was in the area
collecting wood to make coffins.

So, I mean, who does that?

[James] They said that I had
a fascination for Jill Dando

and I was stalking her and all that stuff.

I said, "You're barking up
the wrong tree, mate."

I said, "Well, I'm gay myself."
Uh, I said, "I don't, um…"

I said, "But as for your DC,
[laughing] well, he's more my cup of tea,"

sort of thing.

[Jane] He was a bit of a fantasist.

He'd sort of fashioned himself
as a member of the aristocracy,

uh, bogusly, I might add.

I was sweating and out of breath,
as you can imagine,

I'd just done half a marathon.

Mr. Shackleton was identified
as somebody who was a liar.

Had previously thought to involve himself
in other murder investigations.

He was bailed out of the police station
and then eliminated from the inquiry.

Well, I can confirm that,
uh, I was certainly not the man

responsible for Jill Dando's death.

[on TV] I probably
do look a bit like the e-fit.

It's dragged on a bit now, hasn't it?

And they are grasping at straws.

[Ian] Clearly, one of the mistakes
made in the inquiry

was the publication of the e-fit.

The publication of the picture led
to a lot of additional

and, to be honest, unnecessary, work

with people phoning in to say
that this looks like so-and-so.

If today you google Jill Dando
e-fit suspect…

This man is the one outside Jill Dando's
house on the mobile phone.

…a picture will come up
of someone that was never a suspect.

It was a poor choice to release the e-fit

because it distracted
the inquiry for many months.

But the media pressure was so great
that there were some from our press office

and other senior officers and suggestions,

just give them something,
let's put this out.

And I think that was an error.

My private thinking was,
we were heading in the right direction.

Jill Dando's murder
was the work of some loner.

[crowd] Eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.

[crowd cheering]

-[clock chiming]
-[firecrackers bursting]

[Nigel] It was the dawn
of a new millennium,

and we still had
the shadow hanging over us

that, uh, Jill's killer still
hadn't been caught.

And that you knew that the longer
this police inquiry went on,

the more likely it was that whoever
killed Jill would get away with it.

[gripping music playing]

[Jane] The police, who desperately wanted
to solve this crime, were at a standstill.

Many investigations take a lot
more than 12 months, two years,

and if that's the way it is,
then that's the way it is.

[Jane] There comes a point
in any police investigation,

and in particularly
the case of Jill Dando,

that a certain amount of frustration
starts to creep in.

Already they'd looked
at Jill's personal life,

that had been ruled out.

They'd looked at
all the multiple sightings.

They'd eliminated multiple Range Rovers.

They'd spent hundreds of thousands
on surveillance,

and the Serbian connection
seemed to have dried up.

We were nowhere.

[Hamish] I was thinking, "Well,
where do we go from now?"

Well, we're gonna have to go back
to the beginning, really.

A belief that an answer sometimes lies
in the system, but we've already missed.

[keyboard clacking]

It was my role to go through
all the information

that was on the system to identify
those messages that needed a follow-up.

[gripping music playing]

[man] There's a man
who lives on Crookham Road.

Quite tall, about 5'11".

[woman] A man with mental health problems
visited our center.

He's around 39 years old
with short dark hair.

[Ian] There were thousands of people
who hadn't, at that time,

been eliminated from the inquiry.

I managed to get this down
to a few hundred.

[man] How long did that take?

Fucking ages.

[chuckles] Um…

[gripping music playing]

[female reporter]
Despite the huge police operation,

there's no sign of a breakthrough.

The reward for information leading
to the murderer has now risen

to a quarter of a million pounds.

[Jane] It was the biggest reward
in criminal history

in this country at the time.

It was a huge amount of money
and if that was going to persuade anybody

to come forward, that would have done it.

But there were no takers.

And I thought that was really significant.

That the most likely explanation for this

is only one person in the whole world
knows who did this.

And that's the person who did it.

There he is again, not a sound.
Just like being burgled, but in reverse.

Jill never spoke to me
about being frightened

or scared of anyone or anything.

But it is part and parcel of being
a presence on television.

A star as she was, you get
a lot of unwanted attention.

You get strange people writing to you.

People who are obsessed with you.

[Bob] People, uh,
were always interested in Jill.

There would have been a flood
of people writing. They really liked her.

Peter, it says
you're a big fan of Jill Dando.

-I am. She's lovely.
-She's wonderful?

-You got any pictures of her?
-No.

Well, let's get one right now.
Jill Dando, ladies and gentlemen.

[audience applauding]

[Bob] They saw her as a daughter,
but they loved her face,

they liked the girl next door about her,

how attractive she was,
how well she did her job.

They wrote the most affectionate letters.
Some of them actually tried to meet her.

Was there anybody out there who felt
that she had let them down somehow?

Some very strange character who thought

that she deserved
what later happened to her?

[Hamish] Another marker
that it was the work of a loner

was the nature of the weapon.

[female reporter] The weapon, a 9mm pistol
similar to this one, has never been found.

It's the brass casing from the bullet
recovered near her body

which could hold the clue
to the killer's identity.

Six markings have been made
by hand using one tool

around the top of the cartridge casing.

The gun was not actually
a substantive 9mm firearm.

It was either a reactivated weapon
you can lay your hands on

or a starting pistol converted.

The casing of the bullet
had six indentations

around the top part of the rim.

So that was crimping to hold the bullet
in the cartridge case.

But this was not manufactured crimping,
this was handmade.

Each crimp mark
was of a different level of pressure.

It had an element of homemade-ness to it.

Does anybody recognize those markings?

Have they handled ammunition

before the event or after the event
with markings like that?

[Hamish] We knew from the first day
from the nature of the injury to her head

and the muzzle mark of the gun

had impacted
and imprinted itself on the head

and there was some small bruising
on her arm, her forearm, as well.

That didn't strike me
as a quick assassination

and tried to avoid contact,
blood transference, hair transference.

The fact that the person
had approached Jill and touched her,

right into her space to kill her,
didn't indicate, for me,

that this was a professional execution.

[gripping music playing]

[keyboards clacking]

[Ian] Several of the messages that came in
in the first few days of the inquiry

now seem to relate to the same person.

[man 1] A man came in
asking if we could verify

that he was at a cab company yesterday.

He specifically asked me if I could
remember what he was wearing.

He lived in Crookham Road,

which was a very short distance
from Gowan Avenue.

[man 2] His name is Barry Bulsara.

[woman] Today, he called again,

asking for the exact time
he was there on Monday.

He said it was for his solicitor.

He was obviously identifying himself

and wanting to know his alibi
for the day of the Jill Dando murder.

We had started work
on the background to Bulsara

and it had shown
that he had got a previous conviction.

But that was not his real name.

We had been trying to find him
to take a witness statement.

Eventually, detectives went
to the unemployment benefit office.

That's where we met him
and commenced the first interview

and spoke with him about the matter.

And that man was Barry George.

[gripping music playing]

How would I describe Barry George?

I thought his behavior was dysfunctional.

He was always being someone else.
He was using personas, celebrity names.

Paul Gadd is the real name
of Gary Glitter.

[imperceptible]

Those names of Gadd,
Bulsara were the names

under which Barry George
had previously been convicted

and was known to the police.

George had received a conviction
for attempted rape in the name of Gadd.

And he had also received a conviction
for an indecent assault on a woman.

I just thought it was very interesting
to have a man living so close by

with the background that we had
started to understand about him

being the very person who was the subject
of two, three, four phone calls

in the first month of the murder.

So, authority was given to put him
under full 24-hour surveillance.

[intriguing music playing]

He did fit that category of a loner.

He was unemployed and he really
just wandered around.

He spent all his day wandering the street,

approaching people, approaching women.

If it wasn't stalking, it was following.

[camera shutter clicks]

His obsessive behavior presented
as troubling features

which I thought we needed
to… to move on very quickly.

They authorized
a search warrant of his house

and officers went to
the premises to search it.

[gripping music playing]

So myself and two officers
went to his home address,

knocked on the door repeatedly.

There was no answer,
so we forced the door open.

[officer] These sacks on the left, is that
some of the detritus from his bedroom?

[tense music playing]

[Charlie] It smelt. It was chaotic.

In the main bedroom,
there were black bin liners stacked up.

Clearly the rubbish hadn't been taken out
for a very long time, if ever.

[camera shutter clicking]

Newspapers strewn all over the room.

There were ants and there were all sorts
of things on the kitchen surfaces.

There was, uh, excrement
around the flat, piles of it.

If you put that scene in a movie,
you wouldn't believe it

because you would think,
[scoffs] "No, this is too much."

It… It's over exaggerated.
But it was real.

You've got to ask, what kind of mind
is this person that lives there?

[dog barking distantly]

We were clearly looking for firearms.
Clothing we were looking for.

Literature in relation to Jill Dando.

[camera shutter clicking rapidly]

We found a three-quarter length coat,

which was very similar to the one
that witnesses had described.

We found part of a gun holster.

We found a handwritten list of firearms.

We recovered a lot of undeveloped film.

We found a number of magazines
relating to firearms,

relating to martial arts.

News media coverage of Jill Dando.

[suspenseful music playing]

[camera shutter clicks]

[Hamish] It certainly presented
as very suspicious material recovered

from a man within half a mile
of Gowan Avenue.

But there was no material found
which was a direct link

between George and the crime scene
or the murder of Jill Dando.

I was really concerned that
we were going to be 100% right.

Because whoever we arrested

was going to be the subject
of such scrutiny and oversight.

So I was determined that
everything we did was correct.

It was essential to complete as much
as possible before he was arrested.

[Charlie] During the course
of the search of Mr. George's flat,

we recovered a lot of undeveloped film.

I took them to our photographic branch
to be developed.

Clearly we needed to see what was on them.

[Hamish] I remember looking
at all these photographs.

And when I looked there were just
hundreds of different women.

[camera shutter clicking]

[unsettling music playing]

Women in the park, women in the street.

A lot of them were photographs
of women from behind.

Some of them were from a distance.

One of them was also from a woman
in Gowan Avenue,

right next door to number 29.

And in amongst them
was a picture of Barry George

holding a handgun and wearing a gas mask.

That was sent back to the laboratory
for immediate analysis of it.

And the gun expert at the laboratory,

he told us that it appeared to be

an 8mm Bruni firing gun.

One of the types of firearms
that it was reported killed Jill Dando.

[male reporter] Police know the weapon
used in the murder

was a semi-automatic handgun
similar to this one.

[Hamish] I declared that
George was a suspect

for the murder of Jill Dando.

And the date finally settled on
was on the 25th of May

was the plan for his arrest.

[male reporter] Police hunting the killer
of the television presenter, Jill Dando,

have been holding a man all day
on suspicion of murder.

He was arrested shortly after dawn.
Detectives say it's highly significant.

-[interrogator] Did you kill Jill Dando?
-No, sir.

[sighs]

-[woman] A little bit of water?
-[Barry] Definitely, yeah.

Thank you.

[woman] So, Barry, are you all right?

-Mm-hmm.
-Feeling okay?

Um…

[breathing heavily]

[somber music playing]

[This Morning theme music playing]

We all heard the shocking news
that Jill Dando had been murdered

on her own doorstep.

Do you think you can look forward
to another phase in your life?

Jill was a very positive person

and she would want us
to do something positive.

[woman] It had been
a whole year since Jill had been shot

and they hadn't found someone for it.

How are you now? Time does heal.
Are you on the road?

A lot of people have given me
enormous support.

[woman] She was the darling of Britain.

And that just, it beggared belief
that they couldn't find

the person who killed Jill Dando.

[tense music playing]

And I was busy getting ready
to go to a prayer meeting.

[reporter] Good morning, the headlines.

[male reporter] The man held by
Scotland Yard on suspicion of murdering

the BBC TV presenter Jill Dando…

[woman] I heard on the news
that somebody had been arrested.

[male reporter] …who lives half a mile
from Ms. Dando's former home.

And I thought that was wonderful,
at long last,

someone was going to be
brought up for Jill's killing.

[male reporter] The police have removed
items from his home for examination.

[woman] And then
the newscaster said his name is…

[male reporter] …Barry Bulsara.

[woman] I just went numb.

I just thought, no, it can't be
the same Barry Bulsara.

This is utter madness.

That was my brother.

Could he have done it?

[siren wailing]

[sirens wailing]

[male reporter] Today,
Scotland Yard issued a statement

to say a man was arrested

on suspicion of murdering Jill Dando.

[female reporter] Scotland Yard
has not confirmed

the identity of the man
they're questioning.

[gripping music playing]

[Hamish] It was
a big step to arrest the man

suspected or accused
of killing Jill Dando.

[indistinct chatter]

[male police officer] It is, uh, 27.

[Hamish] I wrote in my logs,
"I fear it was the ill man, the loner,

the infatuated, the psychopath,

the disturbed or the obsessed
who was responsible."

Barry George fit that category.

[clears throat]

[inhales sharply]

[breathing heavily]

[Hamish] The Jill Dando murder
was considered

as one of the biggest
homicide investigations

conducted by the Metropolitan Police.

Four thousand people had been spoken to
or interviewed in one way or another.

So, I was just focused on
getting it right.

[male interrogator] Do you agree
that you possessed a gun?

Replica.

So we accept
that you possessed the replica gun?

Yes, sir.

[Hamish] What was interesting was
he answered the questions

during the interview.

Not a gun. A replica gun.

Most people being interviewed for a murder
would not answer any questions.

[breathing heavily]

[female interviewer] I'm going to ask you
a few questions.

I just want you to try and remember

what it was like
when you were detained and arrested.

The police wanted to speak to me,

what for, I don't know, you know,

because I haven't committed any crime.

So did you know who Jill Dando was?

I've never met her in my life.
Didn't know who she was.

The police, over and over
grilled me about it.

And I really did not know who she was.

[male interrogator] Did you ever buy

a G145, 8mm, blank-firing
government automatic?

[Barry] No, sir.

-Have you ever possessed one of those?
-No, sir.

-Have you ever handled one of those?
-No, sir.

-Have you ever fired one of those?
-No, sir.

We knew that he was lying.

[suspenseful music playing]

We had a photograph
of George holding this pistol,

which was one of the types of firearms
that it was reported killed Jill Dando.

[male interrogator] Do you recognize
the person in the picture?

The picture that was taken,
it's not me in that picture.

[male interrogator]
Who do you think it is?

Could be anyone.

That's a picture of you, Mr. George.

[BBC News theme music playing]

Good evening. Police hunting the killer

of the television presenter Jill Dando
have been holding a man all day…

On suspicion of murder
in connection with last year's killing

of popular BBC
television personality Jill Dando.

The story of Barry George's arrest
was probably almost as big

as the story of Jill Dando's murder
in the first place.

The people I worked for,
they just wanted to know everything,

who is this guy, from cradle to grave?
You know, every cough and splutter.

I started working my contacts.

I eventually got through to somebody

and my source was higher up
the chain of command.

He said to me that, you know,
he's a guy called Barry Bulsara.

Barry Bulsara? I said, you know,
is he related to Freddie Mercury?

I knew that his real name was Bulsara,
very unusual surname.

And I thought,
that can't be a coincidence.

[gripping music playing]

[male reporter] The forensic examination
of the suspect's home and its contents

is likely to continue throughout the day.

[Jon] It was in all
the newspapers, on all the news channels.

Police over here are saying that
this is a very significant development

in what's been
a 13-month-long investigation.

My phone rang off the hook
with every journalist in the universe

trying to find, you know, get a quote.

Police are still questioning
a man in London tonight.

And it was obvious to me that
this was the biggest event of the year.

After 24 hours,
they could apply for an extension

to hold him for further questioning.

[Jeff] The answer coming back
from Freddie Mercury's representatives

was he doesn't have a cousin called Barry

and hasn't a clue who this bloke is.

[male reporter] The singer's family
denied any connection.

[Jeff] So I said, "So what are we saying?"

"Is this guy some sort of fantasist?"
And he said, "Well, put it this way,

he doesn't appear to be the full ticket."

[solemn music playing]

I took great heart from the fact that

nobody knew that his surname was George.

We're just an ordinary family.

These things don't happen
to ordinary people.

I thought that the whole thing
was going to fall apart

and we'd never have to tell people
that this happened to us.

I believed it was a mistake.

They would soon realize, "No, we've got
the wrong guy," and they would let him go.

It is important to give everybody
the chance to be innocent

and let them demonstrate that

because they will soon unravel
if they're not.

-[male interrogator] Do you tell lies?
-No, sir.

-Are you Freddie Mercury's cousin?
-No, sir.

Have you told people
you're Freddie Mercury's cousin?

I have done, sir.

-Is that a lie, Mr. George?
-Yes, sir.

Things just turned from bad to worse.

[tense music playing]

I'm thinking, now you're trying
to put me in a frame,

use me as a, you know, scapegoat.
That's as simple as that.

[male interrogator]
What's your interest in Jill Dando?

I don't have an interest
in Jill Dando, sir.

I would have had no knowledge
of who she was.

[male interrogator]
Do you know who Jill Dando was?

Until after her, um, death, I had no idea.

The position that Barry George maintained
that he didn't know Jill Dando,

he'd never heard of her, that was a lie.

We found photographs of television
presenters from his flat, always female.

Many people are interested in celebrities.

They're autograph hunters
or they go to locations.

But Barry George's interest appeared
to be private and almost secret.

Barry George knew of Jill Dando.

It was frustrating and difficult.

I mean, despite all the information
we'd found in the intelligence,

there was nothing there at that time

where we could charge George
with murdering Jill Dando.

We had the maximum of 96 hours in custody.

He either had to be charged
or released at that stage.

[Charlie] The public, watching programs
like Crime Scene Investigator, CSI,

they want the smoking gun.
They want the hard, firm evidence

that in reality just doesn't always
exist in investigations.

[gripping music playing]

Investigation is about methodology,
uh, and process.

I went back to the forensic exhibits.

I searched his home address.
We found a coat.

The three-quarter length coat
which was very similar

to the one that witnesses had described
as being worn by the shooter.

It had been photographed at the laboratory
and sent for forensic analysis.

[Barry] Allegedly, the coat that
they recovered for evidence,

it was a black cashmere coat,
just like this one.

And if I had been the perpetrator,
there'd be cashmere and wool evidence.

Thousands of fibers.

[Hamish] Forensic material
erodes very quickly.

So the idea there would be blood,

fibers or gunshot residue would be minimal

because we were a year behind.

If we couldn't find any direct evidence

which could link George
to that crime scene,

he would need to be released.

And then we received the report.

The laboratory had found a single particle
of gunshot residue

in the inside coat pocket
of the three-quarter length coat.

George had been in the presence
of discharged gunshot residue.

And of all the types it could have been,

that particle was the same type
as found at the crime scene.

This changed
the investigation dramatically.

[male interrogator] How do you explain
the firearms residue

in your coat pocket, Mr. George?

The coat pocket of the coat
that you may have been wearing

on the day that Jill Dando was killed.
How do you explain that?

I can't explain.

I have no knowledge.

[Hamish] That's when his solicitor
advised him to make no further comment.

We had sufficient evidence now.

And he was charged
with the murder of Jill Dando.

[male reporter] After four days of
questioning at Hammersmith police station

in West London, the self-styled
Barry Bulsara was charged with murder

under his original name
of Barry Michael George.

The detective leading the inquiry,
Hamish Campbell,

left the police station without comment.

Mr. Bulsara was driven away
to a jail in South London.

[female reporter] Tonight, Barry Bulsara

is spending his first night
in prison after being charged

with the murder of Jill Dando.

[Michelle] I was in
a department store in Cork

and I got a phone call
from Barry's solicitor.

I thought that she was ringing me to say,
"Okay, they're going to let him go."

But that wasn't what she said.

She said, "I'm really sorry."

"I have to tell you
that they're going to charge him."

And she said, "They found this particle
of gunshot residue on his coat."

At that moment I had to ask,
"Could he have done it?"

[suspenseful music playing]

I spent 32 years in prison
and I was serving a sentence in Belmarsh.

I knew a journalist who worked
for Punch magazine.

He phoned me up one day and said,
"Barry George was arrested

and on remand for high-profile
execution-style murder with a firearm."

"Is there any chance
you can get a personal interview?"

So I said, "Well, yeah."

I put the phone down,
sidled up to a friendly screw.

I said, "I hear Barry George is in here."
He said, "Yeah, he's in the hospital."

Okay. I went back to my cell.
Half hour later, I faked a heart attack.

Uh, so the screws come rushing in,
took me over to Belmarsh hospital,

and I spotted him
from the newspaper pictures.

Tried to start a conversation with him.

Obviously, I couldn't write anything down

because, you know, I'm over there
for a suspected heart attack,

and if I had a notebook and a pen,
they'd get suspicious.

First question I asked him,
"All right, mate. What's your name?"

And he went, "Barry."

I went, "Okay."
I said, uh, "Do you like guns?"

He looked at me for a minute
and he said, "I like Guns N' Roses."

And I remember thinking,
he's got to be drugged out of it

because he was so slow in his speech.

And obviously I wanted
the juicy story, didn't I?

"Yes, I killed Jill Dando."
That's going to be my journalistic coup.

Uh, "Did you do the murder?"

And he went, "No."

And I went, "You know who was murdered?"
And he went, "Yeah, it was Jill Dando."

[imperceptible]

I looked at him and I thought,

"There's something
not quite right about this guy."

[intriguing music playing]

I sent the interview
and I said, "I've spoken to him."

"He's not capable of committing
a cold-blooded execution in broad daylight

and then
not speaking about it for a year."

"No way," I said, "there's no way
he could keep that secret."

Seeing Barry behind the horrible
Perspex screen,

it was the most awful thing.

He looked so vulnerable
and we couldn't touch,

but he put his hand up against the glass
like that. And I put mine.

He just looked straight in my eyes
and he said, "I didn't do it."

And I thought, "Right.
That's enough for me."

I just said, "We will fight this."

We needed to get the best
legal representation we could.

[man] Michael Mansfield, slate nine.

[male interviewer] It would be helpful
if you could list

some of the major cases
that you've worked on.

How long have you got?

[male reporter 1]
There were serious acts of violence

by senior and junior police officers…

[male reporter 2] Michael Mansfield
is a high-profile barrister.

He's represented the likes
of the Birmingham Six.

Guildford Four, Tottenham Three,
Cardiff Five.

Bloody Sunday in the north of Ireland.
Hillsborough.

A full examination of the issues
and the truth of what went on

hasn't even been fully explored yet.

Mohamed Al-Fayed and Diana,
that's pretty big.

A whole series of cases
involving the Black community,

and then that culminated
with the Lawrence inquiry.

[pensive music playing]

When I first met Barry,
it took a little while to create,

as it sometimes does, a relationship.

I didn't recognize just how serious

the workings of his mind were.

He didn't respond in the way
that people usually did.

My concern then was the police allowed
the case to be infused with this theory

that it was this loner man.

What is the case against him?

That he's an oddball character,
he has an obsession with women,

but not particularly with Jill Dando.

He had an interest in guns.

And all of that produces
an incontrovertible case

that he's the man who did it.

No, it doesn't.

Now, if I were a police officer,
I'd approach it a different way.

Nearly every crime scene
has the answer within the scene.

I went on a bicycle to have a look at it.

The front garden's tiny.

It'd take you four or five paces
from the gate. It's nothing.

Between the time she clicks
her driver's door closed,

walks to the front door,
it's a matter of yards only.

It cannot have been
a lone gunman. [chuckles]

[intriguing music playing]

It has to have been somebody
with inside information.

Every time you put Barry George
into the role of the executioner,

it doesn't work.

He'd had to have had the loaded gun
on him ready to fire

and be crouched in the front garden
so that she didn't see that he was there.

Well, he'd have to be there for hours.

Doesn't add up.

I realized that this was
an injustice in the making.

So then, what kicks in is the feeling of,
sadness is the wrong word, anger.

I want to do something about it.

[gripping music playing]

[metal door slams]

I had to ask myself, "Well, is it right?"

"Is it fair? Is he fit to stand trial,
understand the proceedings?"

And so I'd asked him
to be examined by the psychologists,

in order to make some kind of assessment.

[professor] I learned that the legal team

were having huge difficulties
with Barry George.

Michael Mansfield said,
"I think there's something not right here

and he needs to be tested."

I sat on the train thinking,
what's this person going to be like

'cause you know it had been
in all the press,

this monster who'd "killed" Jill Dando.

[pensive music playing]

But when I arrived,
he was just so distressed

and so all over the place.

It was extreme. It was all coming one way.

I felt like it was an avalanche
of words hitting at me.

"They've done this and they've done that."

For his intellect, I found that he fell
in the borderline range,

so that's extremely low.

With his working memory,
his processing speed,

actually, everything else
was at the first percentile.

So 99% of people
would perform better than him.

[intriguing music playing]

[Jane] All newspapers
were put on to what we call,

getting the background on that person.

And of course, what we found
was very colorful indeed.

It rapidly became clear
that Barry George had built up

a sort of a very fantasy life for himself.

In the '80s, he had been fined
for impersonating a police officer.

He told women he was in the RAF,
then it became the SAS, uh,

whereas in reality he'd just been
rejected from the Territorial Army.

[male reporter] Aren't you a nutter?

No.

[Jane] And then this footage emerged.

And now he was called Steve Majors
all of a sudden

and he was doing this stunt
which involved going over the top

of four double-decker buses
whilst wearing roller skates.

So you've never actually done
anything like this before?

Never in the world. It's never been done.

Haven't you had a go on a mini-ramp
just to have a practice?

-No, not at all.
-[chuckles softly]

[gripping music playing]

[Barry screams]

[Jane] I think he dislocated his spine,
he fractured his femur

and you think,
fantasist of the first order.

But could you make the leap
from that to this is the man

that walked up to Jill Dando and shot her
in cold blood in the head?

[birds screeching]

[pensive music playing]

[Michael] The essence of the case
has two dimensions. One is a culprit,

and the other thing you need
to grasp is the evidence.

The ballistics, namely the cartridge case
left behind from the bullet.

It had been adapted.

The crimping of the cartridge case,
that's rare.

Somebody had written in to the police,
trying to help,

saying, "I'm very familiar
with this kind of ammunition."

"I served in Eastern Europe
in the Balkans,

and crimping is a characteristic."

So then you have to say to yourself,
where does that take you? To Serbia.

[loud explosion]

[gripping music playing]

[distant explosion]

[distant siren wailing]

There was a Serbian connection.

Right there on the doorstep.

And it had happened before.

Earlier in April, the month in which
Jill Dando was murdered,

another journalist was also murdered

outside his home in Belgrade,
I think about 11 days before.

[reporter] Talk of Serbian involvement
in the murder was all but discarded.

There is no link whatsoever between any
of those more speculative theories

that we've been…

[Michael] I don't want to be facetious,

but I think the police
didn't take it seriously

because there'd been no real investigation
of the Serbian connection.

It has all the hallmarks of an organized,
orchestrated execution,

which in my view, point heavily away
from Barry George.

Am I getting carried away?

[laughs]

[gripping music playing]

[Hamish] A major part of the inquiry
was to try to follow up

on some of the women
who were in the photographs.

[Barry] The undeveloped film.

If they were for myself,
why didn't I develop them?

Because there were masses of them.

They said that I'd been…

What is it, their words? Stalking people.

But where I was talking
with people, right,

and if at any time they didn't feel
comfortable in my presence,

I would have walked away.

As time went on
and we got closer to the trial,

other details started to emerge.

There was a real escalation
in the level of disturbing behavior.

We'd gone from what looked like
a sort of a harmless, quirky fantasist

towards something much more sinister.

There was the arrest
for attempted rape, sexual offences.

Then, of course, this other piece
of evidence came up.

[people cheering]

He had an obsession with Princess Diana

and he had been caught
in the grounds of Kensington Palace

with a coil of rope, wearing combat gear,
carrying a 12-inch hunting knife.

And at the time, the police had just
thought it was harmless,

which I have to say, I find astonishing.

That was not normal behavior.

[imperceptible]

So this became another part of the puzzle
that, for the media,

pointed towards the possibility
of him being involved.

[intriguing music playing]

[female reporter] In May last year,
detectives arrested Barry Michael George.

His trial, which begins
at the Old Bailey today,

is expected to last at least six weeks.
He denies murder.

[man] I was the courts correspondent
of the London Evening Standard.

There was a thirst,
a desperation for information

which had to emerge from the trial.

[people clamoring]

The road outside the Old Bailey
was packed with television crews.

It stopped the traffic.
It was a massive media occasion.

[male reporter 1] Two years and eight days
after Jill Dando's murder,

her fiancé Alan Farthing
arrived at the Old Bailey.

With him was Jill's brother Nigel
and other members of the Dando family.

[male reporter 2]
From the defendant's family,

Michelle Diskin, Barry George's sister.

[female reporter] George is being defended
by Michael Mansfield QC.

It was the first sighting in public
of Barry George since his arrest,

which was big in itself
because everybody wanted to see

the man who was accused
of killing Jill Dando.

[tense music playing]

[Michelle] I was allowed
to be quite close to Barry.

He looked totally lost.

[breathing heavily]

[Nigel] When the prosecution
started to outline the case,

uh, we were able to hear more details

of exactly what the police case was
against Barry George.

The first few weeks of the trial,
we had learned

that a witness on Gowan Avenue
had potentially placed Barry George

on that road at 7:30 in the morning.

[male reporter] Susan Mayes,
who told the court

she was very sure
she had seen the defendant

near Jill Dando's house.

Ms. Mayes told the court that the man

seemed nervous and tried
to shield his face.

We also heard
that Barry George had attempted

to retrace his own steps that morning.

[female reporter] On the same day,
George had visited

a local advice center known as HAFAD

Two days later, he went back trying
to establish what time he'd been there.

[Jane] And in the prosecution's view,
he was trying to create a false alibi.

And then, of course,
the particle of gun residue

that was found in the coat pocket,

which then the prosecution claimed
put him in the presence of a fired gun.

In police interviews,
George couldn't explain

how the particle had come
to be in his coat,

and the jury were told it was
compelling evidence of his guilt.

The prosecution made the allegation
that I forced her to the ground

and then put a gun to her head.

But if I had pushed her down,
if you think, if you just--

-Do you mind, come, being a guinea pig?
-[female interviewer] Yeah.

If I had pushed you down,

-you're facing your door…
-Yeah.

-Putting the keys in your door.
-Yeah.

If I had pushed you down,
and it was alleged

-I pushed you down with my left hand…
-Yeah.

There'd be masses of blood
or gunshot residue over the perpetrator.

They found one particle, right?

I rest my case.

[Jane] We sort of got to the closing
of the prosecution

and we realized that, hang on,
that is… that is all there is.

[indistinct chatter]

The particle of gun residue
was dynamite piece of evidence,

but actually all of the other stuff,

unpleasant though some of it was,
was very circumstantial.

[intriguing music playing]

When the prosecution case wound up,
the question was, is it enough?

[camera shutters clicking]

It's a long-standing maxim
around Scotland Yard

is that until you've actually been
cross-examined by Michael Mansfield

on the contents of your notebook,

then as a police officer,
you haven't earned your stripes.

[Hamish] Yes, there was a level
of nervousness, of course,

because Mr. Mansfield is not someone
you can ever [chuckles] fool

or seek to evade answers from.

[Paul] Michael Mansfield once said
that he took the view

that whenever he's cross-examining
a policeman in court,

his thoughts are, "This man is lying."

So, the great moment arrived

when Michael Mansfield
came to cross-examine Hamish Campbell.

It was a battle of wills
across the courtroom.

[Michael] You found a particle
of firearms residue,

but, well, it works
the other way, doesn't it?

The absence of particles
anywhere else at all

in his flat, that's important.

[Hamish] George had been in the presence
of discharged gunshot residue, primer,

but he denied firing any gun
of any sort for many, many years.

There was no evidence indicating
that he'd ever owned a weapon

that could have been the gun in this case.

The possession of the firearm,
armorer's gun cards,

the magazines, the holster.

If there'd been a real investigation
of the Serbian connection…

[Hamish] We did explore this Serbian issue
by asking the security services,

and there is no evidence at all
which suggests

that the Serbians
or the NATO conflict was responsible.

[Michael] Where was the evidence
of an obsession with Jill Dando?

He might go up to women and talk to them

and pretend to be
the cousin of Freddie Mercury,

but that doesn't make him a murderer.

Barry George was perfectly capable
of committing that crime.

Barry George did not murder Jill Dando.

[female reporter]
Defense barrister Michael Mansfield QC

has suggested the Crimewatch presenter

may have been assassinated
by an underworld hitman

or a Serbian gunman in retaliation…

Mr. Mansfield told the jury that
there's no evidence since the mid-1980s

that his client has owned, possessed,

carried or bought
any weapon or ammunition…

Mr. Mansfield also pointed out
that police had been able to find

no forensic evidence of any firearms,
fired or otherwise, at Mr. George's flat.

[gripping music playing]

[Michelle] I was really quite confident
that, um, it would not be a conviction

because it was quite obvious

from the evidence
that Barry hadn't done it.

The judge took nearly three days
to sum up all the evidence.

And then the jury was sent out
for their deliberations.

Mr. Justice Gage told them to take
their time in considering their verdict

and asked that they try to come
to a unanimous decision.

[Hamish] Each day we were just waiting
at court for the verdict.

We were all called back into court.

We were told, um, "Oh, there's a decision,
there's a decision."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Michael] One member of the jury
sat on the front row, she was in tears,

and that could have meant
a number of things.

[Michelle] The foreman was asked to rise.

In fact, I even caught his eye.

He was then asked,
"Do you find Barry George

guilty or not guilty of murder?"

And the answer was…

[suspenseful music intensifies]

[music fades]

They found me guilty.

How could they have convicted me?

[Michelle] I looked at Barry.

And the look on his face.

It was the most desolate look.

And then all hell broke loose.

[clamoring]

Late this afternoon at the Old Bailey,
Barry George was found guilty…

…of the murder of Jill Dando.

The judge told Barry George his actions
have deprived Ms. Dando's fiancé, family,

friends and the wider public
of a much-loved and popular personality.

A woman-hating loner has been
sentenced to life in jail…

Ending a case that shocked
the country in 1999.

You are unpredictable and dangerous,
and are likely to remain so for some time.

There can be only one sentence,
imprisonment for life.

[male reporter] As Barry George begins
his life sentence for the murder,

people are contemplating what turned him
from a relatively harmless eccentric

into an astonishingly
cold-blooded assassin.

[Jane] Barry George,
who all his life had sought fame,

suddenly the most famous man in Britain,

a fame that he probably didn't want,
but he certainly got.

[gripping music playing]

[Michael] It affected me very badly

because I felt
we pulled out all the stops.

We had really demonstrated
an extremely weak-to-non-existent case.

I thought, "What on earth have I done?
Have I got it right or wrong?"

I have no doubts, and if people were
to read the information

and understand the full facts,
I think, like the jury,

they would equally be assured
that Barry George murdered Ms. Dando.

That verdict of guilty
was viewed as a success.

On behalf of Jill's family,
I'd just like to say

that obviously I welcome today's verdict.

You'll appreciate
that these past two years

have been a very difficult time
for those closest to Jill.

But we've gained strength
from the enormous amount of goodwill

from people all over the country
for whom Jill meant so much.

[interviewer] Tell us
how you felt in that moment.

No, I'm not going to answer that question.

Because of what happens next.

[birds squawking]

[pensive music playing]

[Barry] I live in Ireland now.

It's quiet here.

You're treated like a scab in London,
but you're not here.

[birds chirping]

[breathing heavily]

[female interviewer sighs]

-Moment.
-[female interviewer] Oh, yeah.

-Refreshment break.
-Refreshments.

I was locked up for eight years.

I knew in my own conscious
I hadn't done anything of what they said.

I was taking everything step-by-step.

I was just keeping my eyes and ears open

and hoping what I hear, you know, is good,

um, and it was.

[man] My name is Raphael Rowe.

I am an investigative journalist.

A few years after Barry George
was convicted,

his sister reached out to me.

She was asking if I could help

highlight the fact that her brother
was wrongly imprisoned.

I was at BBC Panorama at the time,

but when I was 20 years old,

I was wrongly convicted of murder
and a series of robberies.

[people cheering]

I spent the next 12 years
in maximum security prisons.

I've waited a long time for this.

The only reason I'm standing here now
is because of my sister…

And Michelle was convincing.

You know, she sounded like my sister did

when my sister was saying,
"Help my brother."

It resonated with me.

[Barry on phone]
I haven't committed this crime, right?

I don't deserve to be here.

[Raphael] When I first spoke
to Barry George,

he was able to tell me
that he was innocent,

but he wasn't really able
to tell me why he was innocent.

[Raphael on phone]
So you didn't kill Jill Dando?

-[Barry] Of course not.
-[phone beeps]

All right, I'll go and see
if I can find out

whether he's telling the truth.

I did what I did best,

which is read every line
of every statement,

looking for inconsistencies.

And I was really shocked by what I found.

The only piece of evidence
that supposedly linked him

to the crime was the gunshot residue.

The link is there,
the jury heard that, you're guilty.

Why would that be in there if you didn't?

So, I went to America, I ended up
in Boston, speaking to the FBI,

who started to question
the reliability of gunshot particles

because it was no longer being relied on

in cases in America,
um, for contamination concerns.

So I spoke to
this ballistic expert and said,

"Was it from the gun that killed
Jill Dando? Was it even a gunshot?"

If this particle was found in a taxi,

uh, nobody would think
about gunshot residue.

[Raphael] He completely
undermined the science

that was relied on
at Barry George's trial.

At the end of my investigation,
the findings were then presented

to the Criminal Cases Review Commission

and it led to them
commissioning a new report

that this ballistic evidence
shouldn't be admissible as evidence

as to guilt or innocence
and could no longer be relied on.

That's when the court said,
"We dismiss the finding of guilt

on account of the new understanding
and appreciation of gunshot residue."

"So there must be a retrial."

[pensive music playing]

It was like déjà vu.

[reporter] Michelle arrived from Ireland,

after years of waiting for the evidence in
her brother's case to be reviewed again.

Today, we're hoping that we're going to
get justice for Barry. Thank you.

The judge asked for their decision.

And he said, "Not guilty."

For the first time in all of those years,

I let emotion show on my face.

We stood up and just whooped. Joy.

[reporters clamoring]

Following the verdict,
the Crown Prosecution Service said,

Mr. George now has the right
to be regarded as an innocent man.

I was still trying to get
my mind around it.

[male reporter] Barry George
leaving the Old Bailey

a free man for the first time
in eight years.

[Barry] I was glad to be out of there.

When you've got
allegations coming at you 24/7,

you know, no let up.

How, I mean, how else would you feel?

Barry George left the court
through the back.

He was bundled into a car, looking
absolutely exhausted but very relieved.

[all clamoring]

[camera shutters clicking]

My sister is my rock.

Don't tell her I said that.

[solemn music playing]

First thing I want to say is that
we're disappointed at today's verdict

but we're especially disappointed
for Jill's family and friends.

[Hamish] Do I think he should have
been found not guilty?

We accept and respect the decision
of the court this afternoon.

I thought the guilty verdict in 2001
was the correct verdict.

We will reflect upon today's verdict

and reconsider
what the next steps will be.

Thank you very much.

[male reporter] A huge embarrassment
for the police?

Thank you.

Barry George tonight walks free.

But the question remains,

if he did not kill Jill Dando,
then who did?

[pensive music playing]

I think it's really interesting,
after his acquittal

there has been no more
serious investigation into,

into Jill Dando's death.

I think as far as the police
were concerned, it was case closed.

It's been in the news or subject
to comment and report

every year for 23 years.

I think people like a mystery.

But I don't think it's a mystery at all.

[female interviewer] If I was to
say to you, did you kill Jill Dando?

-What would you say?
-Simply no.

It makes me angry that they've taken
eight years of my life… away.

They just basically persecuted me.

[pensive music playing]

[male interviewer] Do you think
that Barry George killed Jill Dando?

I did, yes.

[male interviewer] But do you now?

I don't think I've changed my mind.

If anybody in this documentary
who you interview,

uh, says that Barry George did it,

I think they need to
see somebody, get help.

They wasted all those resources
they had, uh, on this guy,

when the real perpetrator is free

and having dinner somewhere.
You know, it's just ridiculous.

Barry George had been acquitted by a jury,
which is the seal of innocence.

And the police say, "We're not looking
for anybody else. We got it right."

Well, sorry, the file
should still be open on this case.

They should be looking.

The public also know where
there hasn't been any resolution.

So it makes sense
they want to examine it themselves.

-[gripping music playing]
-[keyboard clacking]

[mouse clicks]

What happened that morning remains
a mystery, the crime unsolved,

her killer never held to justice.

[Nigel] There have been
a number of stories

about perhaps this
had something to do with Jill,

perhaps that
had something to do with Jill.

Big story for one day
and then it goes away.

And really, I just shrug
my shoulders at them.

Uh, they don't have legs,
they don't seem to travel.

Uh, they make a headline for 24 hours
and then they're forgotten about.

[Raphael] The theories that have surfaced

over the years in this case,
that Jill Dando was looking into something

that may have been, um, one of the reasons
somebody wanted to silence her,

just doesn't wash with me.

She wouldn't have been doing it alone

and it would in fact make those
who survived the assassination

be all the more determined to expose
whatever that secret investigation was.

You hear of such terrible people
in this world doing terrible things

and that's what worries me,
is the mentality of some people

that can actually do those awful things.

[male interviewer] Have you got an inkling
as to who… who was responsible?

I don't really want to talk about that
for my own safety.

But there are rumors
in the criminal world who done it,

let's put it that way.

And it's not who you'd think
and it's not Barry George.

It was a professional hit.

[intriguing music paying]

Can you give any insight into why?

No. No, if I tell you why,
you'd know who done it. So, no.

[woman] What advice you have for
up-and-coming journalists?

When I was on the local paper,
I'd go to council meetings,

interview the couple celebrating
their golden wedding anniversary.

You learn what real people
are really like.

I think being a good journalist is about
getting under the skin of people.

As a journalist,
unsolved crimes play on your mind.

For me to be sitting here
24 years on and saying

that we still do not know
who killed Jill Dando

is just mind-boggling to me.

Crimewatch has results. You go on air
and about ten minutes later,

the phones are ringing, people are
ringing in with all sorts of suggestions.

I've had 20 years of people
coming up to me

and asking me the questions
that I'm answering now.

Uh, and I'm okay with that,
I'm fine with that.

I also believe and hope that one day,
uh, there will be an answer to it.

Whether any new evidence
will come forward. I hope it will.

Uh, but we'll just have to wait and see,

until the day that the police
come along and say,

"Right, okay, we've now got
enough evidence to nail Jill's killer."

[girl] Do you ever get worried
about things you see on Crimewatch?

[Jill] Oh, yes, you do.

But at the end of the day
the crimes that we show are so rare.

It's not something
that you walk out into the street

and think, "The same thing's
going to happen to me."

[theme music playing]