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Has justice been served or is an innocent man in prison and a cold-blooded killer on the loose?

A new book argues Barry George, the man convicted of killing Jill Dando, is innocent and that there is a dangerous killer on the loose. The book, Who Killed Jill Dando? is written by true crime writer S. C. Lomax.

Barry George was convicted in July 2001 of the murder of Jill Dando, the popular television presenter who was shot on her doorstep outside her Fulham home at 11:30 on Monday 26 April 1999. The evidence presented at trial was described as “compelling”, yet the case of Barry George remains amongst the most debated in British criminal history.

The book discusses all of the evidence in an attempt to show a balanced and definitive account of the case. When considering all of the facts it is clear that there was no proof Barry George murdered Jill Dando and even if the reader does not agree with my belief he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice, they will realise that very little evidence was used to convict and that there are many unanswered questions still remaining.

A large number of legal documents have been consulted. Those who know George, including a relative, fellow prisoner and his best friend, have also been spoken to. I also have had contact with George. Extensive research of the evidence and lengthy discussions with these individuals has enabled me to find new arguments showing George could be innocent. When I speak to George I realise that there is no way he could commit a cold, calculated act of murder because he is always agitated and often paranoid. He could not have killed, for no apparent reason, and walked away very calmly. The killer certainly walked calmly from the scene of the crime.

There was a vast amount of information which the jury at his trial were never made aware of and the jury were seriously misled in certain respects, such as the issue of George’s interest in firearms. The jury were also unaware of George’s personality disorders, disorders innocently explaining most of his ‘odd’ behaviour following the murder. Since George’s conviction new evidence, discussed in this book, has been acquired, which casts further doubt on the safety of the conviction.

From S. C. Lomax: “I have studied a very large number of documents, have consulted people involved in this case and have examined many theories of what allegedly occurred outside 29 Gowan Avenue on the morning of 26 April 1999. Throughout the time I researched the evidence, having kept an open mind throughout my research, I did not come across a single detail that has lent itself to a credible suggestion that Barry George was in any way involved, either directly or indirectly, in this heinous crime. I have concluded that the strength of the case for George’s innocence far outweighs that for his guilt. It is my sincere hope that the case of Barry George will be recognised as the miscarriage of justice that it is and that it shall remain in the annals of criminal history as a lasting reminder of the failings of the British justice system.”

“I have formed the conclusion that George is the victim of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice to have taken place in this country in recent years. I believe anyone who approaches the case with an open mind and studies the facts as I have will reach the same conclusion or, at the very least, believe there is doubt about George’s conviction. I am of the opinion that everyone in Britain should be concerned by the conviction of Barry George because if he could be jailed on the basis of evidence of the weakest nature then it could happen to anyone. I have no doubt that George did not kill Jill Dando, which means there is a cold-blooded killer who has got away with murder.”

The book is available as a paperback, priced at £9.99, and can be purchased from any bookshop where books can be ordered, by quoting the ISBN number: 0 7552 0503 0. Additionally it can be ordered via www.amazon.co.uk

For further details please visit www.sclomax.co.uk and/or e-mail sclomax2004@yahoo.co.uk.


NOTES TO EDITORS

Who Killed Jill Dando? is an updated version of an earlier book I had published. The revised version includes information relating to intimidating emails, often very threatening in their nature, that I have recently been receiving from a man some regard to be Jill Dando’s real killer. Personally I believe the man to be an attention seeker but he claims to have inside knowledge of the crime. Another man has confessed to Dando’s murder. I have interviewed him and acquired a lot of information about the man, who claims he wishes to clear his conscience before he dies.

The case was so controversial because of the lack of evidence; one witness claimed she saw George for five to six seconds near Dando’s home four and a half hours before the murder. The witnesses who saw the killer did not recognise him. It was suggested George was obsessed with Dando but there was no evidence to prove this; he had eight articles in newspapers relating to the victim, but he had over eight hundred newspapers in his flat. There was a particle of alleged firearms discharge residue in his coat pocket, but was this from the murder weapon? No one could tell. It was even claimed it could have come from a firework or that it could have entered the pocket as a result of contamination. The prosecution witness could not rule out these possibilities.

A number of individuals provided George with an alibi. Within days and weeks of the murder they claimed he was at an advice centre shortly after the murder. A year later some had changed their mind as to the time of his visit. However, the woman who actually dealt with George remains adamant he was with her just fifteen to twenty minutes after the murder. In court it was agreed that if she was correct George is most certainly innocent.

At trial the jury were told George acted out of proportion for a man uninvolved in the crime, because he asked the local council to construct a monument to Dando. However, what the members of the jury were not told was that George is believed to suffer from Histrionic Personality Disorder, one of the symptoms for the disorder being that an individual will respond to significant events in dramatic ways. George had acted in a dramatic way following the deaths of Freddie Mercury and the Princess of Wales, ye he was not connected to either of these deaths.

Barry George continues to maintain that he is innocent. He has never confessed to the crime and he has never provided incriminating evidence.

I first began to have doubts about this case on the day that Barry George was convicted. There was a televised reconstruction of the trial on the night on which George was convicted. Whilst watching the reconstruction I consider the words of one of the witnesses and believed that what he was saying contradicted the prosecution’s assertion at trial. Once George’s conviction was upheld at the Court of Appeal in July 2002 I began to carry out more detailed research in to the case and was soon absolutely convinced that he is the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice. The evidence is incredibly tenuous and there are very good grounds to suggest that he had an alibi at the time Jill Dando was shot. Having studied all of the facts I have come to the single conclusion that there is no way at all that Barry George could have committed the crime for which he was convicted. I can say that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The police were under a huge amount of pressure to find the killer and they spent more than £2,000,000 in what was to become one of the largest police investigation ever undertaken in Britain. Two months before Jill Dando’s death, the Macpherson Report concluded the Metropolitan Police Force was not solving enough murder investigations (it was solving only 84% of murders as opposed to the national average of 92%). Therefore the police were under pressure to solve this high-profile murder. They did not want another fiasco so soon after being criticised for the Stephen Lawrence investigation. After a year had elapsed, in April 2000, they stumbled across Barry George, a disabled, unemployed, divorced man with an IQ of 74. In May that year Barry Michael George was arrested in connection with the murder. He was charged with the murder and subsequently convicted after a lengthy, controversial trial. He was only convicted by a majority of 10 to 1. Did the jury reach the correct verdict?


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