Barry George, the man accused of murdering Jill Dando, has insisted his ‘conscience was clear’ 20 years after the tragic death which remains unsolved.
Barry, now 59, was found guilty of the murder of British television presenter Jill but his conviction was subsequently overturned on appeal in August 2008.
Speaking on ITV’s new documentary Jill Dando – The 20 Year Mystery, Barry had now admitted there are probably still people out there who think he did kill her.
‘There are probably a select few people who may think, “okay, he’s been through the case. He’s got off on a technicality, probably, or whatever.” But my conscience was clear – I knew I hadn’t done it,’ he said.
‘I find it sad that they done what they’ve done to me and that they didn’t have no sound evidence. The truth of the real killer is somewhere out there, you know.’
When asked about the arrest, he poured scorn on the Met Police and suggested that the Met Police ‘just shut their eyes to everything else once they had nicked poor Barry George’.
Jill was a British journalist, television presenter, and newsreader who on 26 April 1999 was shot dead outside her home in London.
Forensic studies have indicated that the gun was pressed against the 37-year-old’s head at the moment of the shot.
Her next-door neighbour Richard Hughes said that he had heard a surprised cry from Jill prior to the murder, which he described as ‘like someone greeting a friend’ – but no gunshot was heard.
He witnessed a tall man aged around 40 walking away from her house after the incident – which is believed to be the only sighting of her killer.
The new documentary has been given access to hundreds of documents and photos sourced from police files and focuses in particular on the possible connection to Serbia.
At the time of the murder, Britain was one of the main partners in NATO’s bombing campaign against Serbia, which was was engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Kosovar Albanians.
ITV allege that the police files contain intelligence reports stating Jill was murdered in revenge for the bombing and the programme has uncovered what appears to be a potentially significant failure by Operation Oxborough, the investigation into her death.
A man appears to have made a series of calls to the BBC, citing the murder as revenge for the bombing of RTS. The police had details of these calls but it seems they never connected all of them to the same man.
Jill Dando – The 20 Year Mystery airs on ITV at 9pm on 25 April 2019.
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