The brother of murdered TV presenter Jill Dando says regardless of the case remaining unsolved 24 years, he has a principle about who may very well be behind her demise.
The execution fashion killing of certainly one of Britain’s best-loved broadcasters in broad daylight on her personal doorstep in April 1999 shocked the nation, leaving the press, public and police united in disbelief.
One of the most important murder investigations in British historical past – lastly leading to a conviction one yr after her homicide, solely to be overturned seven years on – stays unsolved to today.
Her brother, Nigel Dando, has instructed Sky News he believes it was “a random killing” carried out by a stranger, and that the presenter “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Speaking forward of a brand new Netflix documentary, wanting into the homicide and ensuing police investigation, Mr Dando mentioned that even all these years after his sister’s demise, he’s hopeful “the killer is out there watching” and will “come forward… to confess what they’ve done and get it off their chest”.
‘It’s a heck of a narrative’
Receiving information of the demise of a liked one is tough – and all of the extra so when that demise is sudden and violent.
Mr Dando says he hadn’t seen Jill for round three weeks earlier than her demise, however then obtained a cellphone name telling him his sister had been killed.
He says: “Within a couple of minutes, really, of hearing that Jill had died, half of my brain wanted to grieve for her loss and be close to my dad… He was in his eighties and not in the best of health. So, you had the family side of things.”
However, as a fellow journalist, Mr Dando additionally had a second a part of his thoughts clicking into gear.
He goes on: “But, you know, one of the leading TV celebrities in this country gunned down on her own doorstep. It’s going to… It’s a heck of a story. And you kind of knew what was going to come down the line.
“I used to be attempting to arrange myself to take care of that, understanding that you simply needed to take care of the media. But attempting to guard my dad from any excesses of it.”
It is of course that same power of the story that attracted true crime producer Emma Cooper to the case, and she would go on to spend over a year heading up the three-part documentary.
She explains: “An act that violent with a gun taking place in an space of London, that might be outlandish now in 2023. So, to look again at that taking place at the moment is extraordinary.”
But she says it was also key to remember the person at the heart of the story: “It was essential to all of us that Jill was very current within the collection and that we reminded individuals who knew her and bear in mind her. And additionally [it was important] we introduced it to a brand new viewers of younger individuals who do not essentially find out about Jill and do not essentially know what occurred to her and what an enormous half she was in all of our lives.”
Who was Jill Dando?
Born within the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, Dando’s first job was as a trainee together with her native weekly newspaper, the Weston Mercury, the place her father and brother additionally labored.
Quickly progressing from print journalism to tv, her expertise paired with a girl-next-door persona noticed her rise by way of the ranks of regional exhibits to nationwide TV, happening to current Holiday, the Six O’ Clock News and Crimewatch.
Just two years earlier than her demise, she was voted BBC character of the yr.
On 26 April 1999 she was shot lifeless exterior her dwelling in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, southwest London. She had been as a result of current the Six O’ Clock News the next night.
The many theories about Jill’s killer
One of the theories of a potential motive behind her killing, was that her presenting position on Crimewatch had made her susceptible to criminals who may bear a grudge towards her for her half in bringing them down.
Another was {that a} Serbian murderer might have killed her, in revenge for NATO bombing, after seeing her entrance an enchantment for assist for Kosovar Albanian refugees.
However, Mr Dando would not consider such theories stand as much as sturdy investigation, calling them “interesting lines of inquiry” however which “never went anywhere”.
Of the Crimewatch connection he says “there was no evidence, it was just someone jumping on the bandwagon”.
And of the idea of hyperlinks to Serbian mafia – Mr Dando says there was “no real evidence of a Serbian hitman”.
But he does have his personal ideas about who might have been behind his sister’s demise.
“My theory before this happened and that’s been reinforced since by watching this documentary, is that Jill was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that somebody walking down the street, holding a gun for whatever reason, spotted her, either knowing her or not knowing who she was, and shot her dead.”
Mr Dando provides that a number of the “theories would make great stories in fiction, but… There’s no line that really holds a huge amount of water apart from you know, a random killing, which I think it was.”
Who is Barry George, and the way does he match into the case?
Local man, Barry George, who had earlier convictions and a historical past of stalking ladies, was arrested for Jill’s homicide nearly a yr after her demise, and later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mr George spent seven years in jail, however was later acquitted as a result of unreliable forensic proof, leaving the case once more unsolved.
Speaking about Mr George’s authentic conviction, Mr Dando says: “At the time I thought that the police had got the right person, and a jury agreed with that sentiment because he was obviously found guilty and jailed for life. But the legal system moves on.”
But Mr Dando does have one concern – that Mr George selected to not give proof, at both his trial or re-trial.
Mr Dando says: “I would just liked to have seen him tell a jury exactly what he was doing on that day, because he’s never actually explained where he was. It’s all a bit jumbled up. It would have been interesting to have heard him explain where he was, and for him to have been cross-examined about his movements on that day.”
While the conviction towards Mr George was quashed, he has been unsuccessful in his makes an attempt to realize compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
Mr George can be a contributor to the Netflix documentary.
Executive producer Emma Cooper says she felt it was important to have Mr George’s facet of the story within the movie, to current “as clear of a rounded picture of all the events as possible from as many different perspectives as possible”.
In the documentary, she asks Mr George outright, “Did you kill Jill Dando,” to which Mr George solutions, “No”.
She says: “I thought it was important to ask, I thought that the audience would expect that of us to ask him a straight question. And so, we did.”
One of the most important murder investigations in British historical past
Mr Dando says he bears no anger in direction of the police over the shortage of a conviction, calling the investigation “a difficult job” and including: “I don’t have any negative feelings towards the police at all with their inquiries. I didn’t at the time, and as the years have gone on, I don’t.”
As the documentary exhibits, whereas Dando’s fame ensured that information of her homicide travelled far and vast, it additionally performed an element in hindering the investigation.
Mr Dando says officers have been inundated with folks attempting to “do the right thing” by providing up info, and the consequence was an avalanche of ideas “overwhelming all the potential lines of inquiry that came in”.
While the investigation was moved into “an inactive phase” 9 years in the past, Met Police instructed Sky News detectives “would consider any new information provided” in a bid “to determine whether it represented a new and realistic line of enquiry”.
Offering additional info across the mixed reward of £250,000 which was initially provided for info resulting in an arrest, the Met instructed Sky News, “Any discussion about any reward would have to take place in the event that new information came to light.”
Jill’s legacy
Mr Dando says he’s nonetheless approached in public – within the grocery store, on the carpet store – by folks “wanting to talk about Jill” and “how they remembered her”.
Jill was simply 37 when she died, and 5 months away from getting married to her fiance, Alan Farthing.
Mr Dando says: “She was on an upward trajectory… Whether family life would have taken over from her broadcasting career or whether she could have juggled the two. Who knows what would have happened, where she would have been today.”
Will we ever get a solution?
Ms Cooper says: “It’s really important for a shared audience to look back at that and for new people to discover what happened. And for older people to be reminded about it and to be reminded of the fact that it is still unsolved.”
The movie paperwork features of the investigation that almost all – together with a few of Jill’s household – have by no means heard about earlier than.
Other contributors to the movie embody Dando’s ex-partner, tv producer Bob Wheaton, her agent Jon Roseman, and former detective chief inspector Hamish Campbell who headed up the homicide case.
Ms Cooper says: “If somebody could see something that could jog a memory that has been unclaimed for 20 years, that would be an amazing outcome for all of us.”
Mr Dando too, has hopes – even when they’re vanishingly slim – that the documentary might result in some kind of reply for himself, and all those that liked and knew Jill.
He says: “We’ve lived for 24 years not knowing who did it, but maybe more importantly, why they did it. Why would you go up to a stranger and do what you did? I just don’t know. So, it would be nice to have some closure from that point of view to know why that person pulled the trigger.”
He goes on: “Maybe even the killer is out there watching this documentary and their conscience, even after all these years may be pricked and it may just encourage them to come forward to confess what they’ve done and get it off their chest.”
Who Killed Jill Dando? is launched on Netflix on Tuesday 26 September.
Source: information.sky.com”