Jill Dando
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Jill Dando (November 9, 1961 – April 26, 1999) was a British television presenter who worked for the BBC for over fifteen years. Her murder led to a high-profile hunt for her killer, and the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science is named after her in recognition of her contribution to the fight against crime.
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[edit] Biography
Dando was born in Weston-super-Mare, and was educated at Worle Comprehensive School and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre. She studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in Wales.
Dando's first job was as a trainee reporter for the local newspaper, the Weston Mercury. After five years as a print journalist, Dando began employment with the British Broadcasting Corporation when she became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985. She transferred to BBC South West in 1985, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West. In 1986, Dando made a move from regional to national television when she moved to London in 1986 to present the hourly daytime television news summaries.
Dando went on to present the BBC television programmes Breakfast News, the Six O'Clock News, the travel programme Holiday, the crime appeal series Crimewatch UK, and occasionally Songs of Praise. At the time of her death she was one of the highest-profile of the organisation's on-screen staff; she had previously been BBC personality of the year. Crimewatch would later reconstruct her murder to aid the police in the search for her killer.
At the time of her death, Dando had presented just one episode of her new project: Antiques Inspectors, and was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times.
[edit] Murder
On the morning of April 26, 1999, Dando left the home of her fiancé, Alan Farthing, and returned to her house in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. As she reached her front door at about 11.30 a.m., she was shot in the side of the head at close range with a home-made weapon based on a replica 9mm semi-automatic pistol.
Her body was discovered shortly afterwards by a local resident, and she was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13.03 BST. She was 37 years old.
Dando was so well-known in the UK that her death caused considerable shock and her killing ranks as one of the most notorious in British criminal history — a particular irony given her role on Crimewatch.
[edit] Operation Oxborough
The murder investigation by the Metropolitan Police — named Operation Oxborough — lasted for over a year. Dando's status as a well-known public figure probably brought her into contact with thousands of people, and there was fevered speculation about the motive for her killing, including that her role as co-presenter of Crimewatch may have brought her into conflict with elements of Britain's criminal underworld. Much of the theorising had little grounding in fact, notably that Serb extremists had targeted her after a charity appeal she had presented after the break up of Yugoslavia. Crimewatch presented a reconstruction of the murder which resulted in over 500 phone calls.
After six months, the murder investigation team had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year a review highlighted a suspect who had been largely overlooked, and that immediately after the murder some witnesses had called who were worried about the odd behaviour of a man who lived around half a mile from Dando's home. After a period of surveillance, police arrested Barry George for Dando's murder.
Barry George was charged on the basis of witness reports and a small amount of forensic evidence. His flat was searched and there was evidence that George had been obsessed with guns, celebrities and the BBC. He had been in the habit of taking photographs of female newsreaders from his TV, and surveillance showed he routinely followed women in the street, often to their front door. Records showed he had once been found hiding in the grounds of Princess Diana's residence, Kensington Palace, dressed in dark clothing and with rope and a balaclava, and there was some physical similarity between the Princess and Dando. Indirect evidence also pointed to an amateur killer rather than a professional assassin: the choice of location (nowhere to hide after the murder), the element of chance (Dando effectively lived with Farthing and rarely visited the house), the lack of any sort of getaway vehicle, the muzzle contact with the victim, the amateur firearm and home-made ammunition. Although the murder weapon was not found, a single particle of firearms residue was detected in one of George's coats. The Metropolitan police have admitted that the coat was exposed to an environment containing firearms residue whilst in their custody. Firearms residue is not however, even admissible as evidence in the United States, as it has been found to be consistently unreliable due to cross contamination. A leading US forensic scientist described the use of the firearms residue in a BBC Panorama programme about the Dando murder, as 'not science'.
George was found guilty of murder in a jury trial at the Old Bailey, and was sentenced in July 2001 to life in prison. Several appeals were rejected, most recently in comprehensive terms. Nonetheless, George's lawyers have mounted a case for a further appeal. Those who do not accept George's guilt believe the murder was professional and say that George would have been incapable of carrying it out because of his learning difficulties. Others dispute this and point out that he was once a stunt-man. Some who believe in his innocence claim that only a select number of Dando's associates could have known where she would have been. (In fact, unless Jill had a secret assignation — an idea rejected by the police — nobody knew she was going to Gowan Avenue that morning and large amounts of CCTV footage of her journey show she was not followed. Almost certainly, therefore, her killer had been waiting there on the off-chance, or was simply opportunist. Although of course since Jill had not been at her house in days, waiting on the offchance would have taken a long time and the killer would surely have been clearly seen by many people, and there are very few if any, instances on record of 'opportunist killings' committed in such a professional manner with one shot, by a smartly dressed man who then walks calmly away and apparently has no motive whatsoever.) More persuasively, George's defenders question the validity of the fragment of firearms discharge residue that was found in George's pocket. In late August 2006, The Independent on Sunday ran a story questioning the evidence.
[edit] Legacy
Dando's co-presenter Nick Ross proposed the formation of an academic institute in her name and together with her fiancé, Alan Farthing, raised almost £1.5m. The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science was founded on April 26, 2001 (the second anniversary of her murder) at University College London. A memorial garden was designed and realised by the BBC Television Ground Force team in her memory in Weston-super-Mare and opened on 2 August 2001 by Cllr Peter Bryant, chairman of North Somerset
[edit] References
- "BBC presenter shot dead", BBC News, 26 April 1999.
- "New Dando murder evidence studied", BBC News, 5 September 2006.
