Jill Dando

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Jill Dando
Born	9 November 1961(1961-11-09) Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Died	26 April 1999 (aged 37) Fulham, London, England
Cause of death	Murder
Occupation	Television presenter and Newsreader
Employer	BBC

Jill Wendy Dando (9 November 1961 – 26 April 1999) was an English journalist, television presenter and Newsreader who worked for the BBC for 14 years until she was murdered in April 1999. Her death sparked a huge manhunt by the Metropolitan Police and led to the trial of Barry George. Initially convicted of the murder, after a successful appeal and retrial, George was finally acquitted on 1 August 2008, thus leaving the crime unsolved.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Murder 2.1 Investigation 2.2 Potential suspects 2.3 the Yugoslav connection 3 Family 4 Legacy 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Jill Dando was born in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, and was educated at Mendip Green Infant School, St Martin's Junior School, Worle Comprehensive School and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre, where she was head girl.^[1] She studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in Wales.

Dando was a keen thespian. She was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre.

Dando was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare before she started her first job as a trainee reporter for the local newspaper, the Weston Mercury, where her father and brother worked. After five years as a print journalist, she began employment with the BBC when she became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985. That year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West. In 1986, Dando made a move from regional to national television when she moved to London to present the hourly daytime television news summaries.

Dando went on to present the BBC television programmes Breakfast News, the BBC One O'Clock News, the Six O'Clock News, the travel programme Holiday, the crime appeal series Crimewatch and occasionally Songs of Praise. At the time of her death she was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff; she had previously been BBC Personality of the Year. Crimewatch would later reconstruct her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. However, following the acquittal of Barry George, Crimewatch has made no further appeals for information about Dando's murder. At the time of her death, Dando had presented just one episode of her new project, The Antiques Inspectors and was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News that evening.^[1] She was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times magazine.

[edit] Murder

On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando left the home of her fiancé, Dr. Alan Farthing, and returned alone to her house in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. As she reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head.^[2] Her body was discovered shortly afterwards by a friend, local resident Helen Doble. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03 BST. She was 37 years old.

"As Dando was about to put her keys in the lock to open the front door of her home in Fulham, she was grabbed from behind. With his right arm, the assailant held her and forced her to the ground, so that her face was almost touching the tiled step of the porch. Then, with his left hand, he fired a single shot at her left temple, killing her instantly. The bullet entered her head just above her ear, parallel to the ground, and came out the right side of her head." - Bob Woffinden, The Guardian, July 2002

Forensic reports on the killing indicated that Dando had been shot by a 9mm automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Both the gun and the ammunition had probably been customised for the purpose. The technique used would have made the shot almost silent and would have prevented the killer from being splattered with blood. The probable killer, a white man aged around 40, was seen hurrying from the scene of the attack.

[edit] Investigation

After the murder both BBC and ITV broadcast extensive coverage of the incident. An ultimately unsuccessful 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.

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, the police focused on 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 her murder, despite the lack of forensic evidence or motive. George was initially found guilty of murder in a jury trial at the Old Bailey, and was sentenced on 2 July 2001 to life imprisonment. In November 2007, George successfully appealed his conviction and, following an eight week hearing, which ended in a unanimous jury verdict of not guilty, he was acquitted on 1 August 2008.^[3]

Dando's agent, Jon Roseman, revealed that he had not been surprised by the verdict. Writing in the Daily Mirror, Roseman said that, in spite of a thorough police investigation, the evidence against George seemed inadequate, causing him to doubt George's guilt from an early stage.^[4]

Following the acquittal, a police source indicated that Dando's family and her former fiancé Alan Farthing wished the case to remain closed—and suggested that, while the file would remain open, a reinvestigation was unlikely.^[5]

[edit] Potential suspects

The original police investigation had considered various possibilities for the killing. Although the clinical nature of the attack suggested a professional hit with a gangland or political dimension, the police soon began to favour the idea that a crazed individual acting on an opportunist basis was responsible. This was so because by April 1999 Dando was living with her fiancé and only making occasional visits to her house in Gowan Avenue. Police thought it unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Dando's movements to have known when she was going to visit her house. Furthermore, the gun used in the killing had a smooth bore barrel of a kind commonly found in the workshop conversion of replica guns for use by petty criminals. The police felt that a professional assassin would not use such a poor quality weapon. Although, it was suggested that a smooth bore barrel might be used in the expert customisation of a gun for use as a short range execution tool.

Lines of inquiry explored in the police investigation included :

• the possibility that a criminal gang may have killed her after being featured on Crimewatch, a programme co-presented by Dando.^[6]
• the theory that somebody had hired an assassin to murder Dando as revenge for their being convicted as a result of evidence garnered by Crimewatch viewers. This was later ruled out by detectives.^[6]
• at Barry George’s first trial his defence barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, mentioned a possible plot that involved Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian-Serb leader. Mr. Mansfield quoted from a National Criminal Intelligence Service report which stated that the Serbian warlord leader, Arkan, had ordered her assassination in retaliation for the bombing of a television station in Belgrade by NATO aeroplanes on 23 April 1999. Dando's earlier presentation of an appeal for aid for Kosovan Albanian refugees may have angered Bosnian-Serb hardliners; however no one has claimed responsibility or credit for the attack. Bob Woffinden, a journalist who specialises in miscarriage of justice has stated "Claims of responsibility are made by groups such as the IRA or ETA. In 60 years, there has not once been a claim of responsibility for an assassination carried out by east European secret services."^[7][8]
• Another Serbian link surfaced in February 2009: A West Midland petty criminal of Serbian descent was said to have boasted of the killing in a bar in Belgrade in September 2001. A jailed former cargo aircraft captain as well as two other witnesses stated they were present in the bar at the alleged confession.^[9]
• theories that a jealous ex-boyfriend may have killed Dando after finding out that she was due to marry her fiancé later that year. However after briefly looking into the background of her ex-boyfriends detectives discounted this theory.^[6]
• Dando’s brother, Nigel, informed detectives that she had become concerned by “some guy pestering her”. A supposed fan called Julian had approached her a few days before her murder; this man fitted the description of a suspect seen near Dando’s home on Gowan Avenue. He may have been the man witnessed near Dando’s house wearing a baggy suit and a trilby hat on the day Dando was killed.^[6]

Even the possibilities of mistaken identity or action taken by a professional rival were considered.

[edit] the Yugoslav connection

The 2008 acquittal of George prompted a re-examination of earlier theories on who was behind the Dando killing. Commentators paid increasing attention to the Yugoslav connection. The former communist regime in Yugoslavia had a history of targeted assassinations directed against its opponents. It has been claimed that between 1946 and 1991 the Yugoslav Secret Service (UDBA) had carried out at least 150 assassination attempts against people living outside Yugoslavia. The victims were mostly Croatian émigrés although others were targeted. The attacks were usually carried out by small teams comprised of a trigger-man supported by a spotter and were always carefully planned. The attacks were often made as targets entered or left their homes since this was the point at which they were most vulnerable and where a case of mistaken identity was least likely.^[10]

The last known UDBA hit in the UK took place on 20 October 1988 when Nikola Stedul, a 51 year old Croatian émigré was gunned down outside his home in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy. For various reasons, the attack did not go smoothly. Stedul survived it although he was severely wounded in the head. His assailant was arrested a few hours later at Heathrow airport and identified as one Viko Sindic – a Yugoslav known to Western intelligence services. ^[11]

The killing of Dando exhibited many of the characteristics of a UDBA hit, although it remains unproven as such.

[edit] Family

Dando's mother died in the 1980s. Dando was survived by her father, Jack, and her brother Nigel, who is currently a BBC journalist. She never married or had children; she had planned to marry Alan Farthing in September 1999.

[edit] Legacy

Dando died intestate; consequently her father inherited her entire net estate. Its gross value was just over £1 million.

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 at University College London on 26 April 2001, the second anniversary of her murder.^[12]

A memorial garden was designed and realised by the BBC Television Ground Force team in Dando's memory, using plants and colours that were special to her. It is located within Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare (51°21′09″N 2°58′45″W / 51.352498°N 2.979242°W / 51.352498; -2.979242) and was opened on 2 August 2001, by Councillor Peter Bryant, chairman of North Somerset Council.^[13]

The BBC set up a bursary award in Dando's memory, which enables one student each year to study broadcast journalism at University College Falmouth. Sophie Long, who was then a post-graduate who had grown up in Weston-super-Mare and is now presenter on BBC News, gained the first bursary award in 2000.^[14]

In 2007, Weston College opened a new University Campus on the site of the former Broadoak Sixth Form Centre where Dando studied. The Sixth Form building has been dedicated to her and named as "The Jill Dando Centre".^[15][16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jill Dando at the Open Directory Project
• Jill Dando at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC microsite for Jill Dando

Preceded by Sue Cook

Co-host of Crimewatch with Nick Ross 1995-1999

Succeeded by Fiona Bruce

Persondata
NAME	Dando, Jill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English journalist and television presenter. She was murdered.
DATE OF BIRTH	9 November 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
DATE OF DEATH	26 April 1999 (aged 37)
PLACE OF DEATH	Gowan Avenue, Fulham, London, England