All language subtitles for Who.Killed.Jill.Dando.S01E03.NF.WEB.h264-EDITH.en

[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]