Barry George revisited.

[Holly Goodhead]

The idiom “grasping at straws” springs to mind.

Jill no longer lived at Gowan Avenue.  She lived with her fiancee at Bedford Close, Chiswick.  She returned home briefly to collect something and did not even open her front door.  CCTV shows she was not being followed.  How did the perp know she was going to call at her home address on that day at that time?  If BG was responsible he got lucky. 

BG clearly had/has mental health issues but that doesn't mean he murdered Jill Dando. 

Imo the perp was either someone who was acquainted with Jill directly or indirectly through a.n other.  Or a neighbour who could watch out for her car turning up.  Or someone had decided they wanted to murder her and put a tracking device on her car or some personal possession and decided the less risky place to murder her was her home address.  What were the other options?  BBC - too much surveillance in the vicinity.  Alan Farthing's house at Bedford Close, Chiswick?

[Nicholas]

Imo the perp was either someone who was acquainted with Jill directly or indirectly through a.n other.  Or a neighbour who could watch out for her car turning up.  Or someone had decided they wanted to murder her and put a tracking device on her car or some personal possession and decided the less risky place to murder her was her home address.  What were the other options?  BBC - too much surveillance in the vicinity.  Alan Farthing's house at Bedford Close, Chiswick?

“I tend to think it wasn't a professional hit. I think you can rule out the Serbian hitman, which was a popular theory that was doing the rounds at the time,' said Nigel, whose sister was murdered aged 37. 'For what it's worth, my belief is that it was just a misguided individual on the street on the day, with a firearm, who knew where Jill lived, and who just 'struck lucky'.

Proceeding to explain his theory, Nigel revealed that Jill's lifestyle at the time meant she wasn't guaranteed to be in a certain place at any given time.

'I think it was a relatively random act [given] Jill's lifestyle at the time, as she wasn't regularly at home. You couldn't say that every 'Monday morning at 11 'o' clock she would be there.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6876353/Jill-Dandos-brother-believes-misguided-person-blame-murder-TWENTY-years-ago.html

[Nicholas]

Jill no longer lived at Gowan Avenue.  She lived with her fiancee at Bedford Close, Chiswick.  She returned home briefly to collect something and did not even open her front door.  CCTV shows she was not being followed.  How did the perp know she was going to call at her home address on that day at that time?  If BG was responsible he got lucky. 

BG clearly had/has mental health issues but that doesn't mean he murdered Jill Dando. 

Imo the perp was either someone who was acquainted with Jill directly or indirectly through a.n other.  Or a neighbour who could watch out for her car turning up.  Or someone had decided they wanted to murder her and put a tracking device on her car or some personal possession and decided the less risky place to murder her was her home address.  What were the other options?  BBC - too much surveillance in the vicinity.  Alan Farthing's house at Bedford Close, Chiswick?

You can make things up in order to suit your theories and repeat yourself as much as you like, as previously stated, but it won’t change the facts nor bring your argument credibility!

I’m inclined to take note of Nigel Dando’s claims given he was her brother and would no doubt have access to a working set of case files, and more importantly, he wants nothing more than to find out why his sister was murdered.

[Nicholas]

Many things stand out for me including the fact that,

“psychologist Dr Caroline Logan, called by the prosecution, said she believed George feigned illness in the hope of influencing the case.

And Barry George’s history proves he had form for having previously conned the criminal justice system.

I’m of the opinion that he could well be re-tried in the not too distant future.

“........Dr Philip Joseph, another leading psychiatrist who was called by the prosecution, said George was "far more competent" than tests would suggest and capable of lying in police interviews. While some of his behaviour could be attributed to his epilepsy and cognitive impairment, his stalking of women appeared to stem from an "intense anger" caused by rejection, Dr Joseph said.

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/jill-dando-murder-trial-experts-were-split-on-barry-george-s-behaviour-1-1083223

[Nicholas]

A recent BBC documentary about the murder of Jill Dando:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003w40/the-murder-of-jill-dando

What has always struck me as odd about this case is the fact Jill Dando spent very little time at her house.  Instead spending most of the time at her fiancees house in Chiswick where she spent the night before she was murdered.  Then when she left his house that morning she didn't go straight to her house but went shopping.  CCTV footage doesn't show any evidence that she was being followed.  Later that day she was due to attend a bridal shop for a fitting. 

How would anyone, other than those in the know through Jill, her fiancee and those close to her know her movements?  The one exception being immediate neighbours.

Jill and Alan were engaged in Feb 1999 and on the day of the murder she was due to attend a bridal shop.  Was the perp, either directly or through a hit person, a jealous ex or someone that had desires on Alan Farthing from afar? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Farthing

The docu shows yet another completely male dominated police investigation so once again we only see the case investigated through the male eye!

Many of the participants ask why would anyone want to murder Jill Dando?  Jealousy?  Here was a woman who appeared to have it all and if the perp had some unhealthy interest in Alan Farthing or was a jealous ex then I would imagine if you were that way inclined it would only be exacerbated by seeing Jill's face on high profile tv programmes like News, Holiday and Crimewatch.

“In the early stages of the murder investigation, a lot of attention – at least in media terms – fell on men who had been romantically linked to Ms Dando.

“TV’s girl next door” had lived with television producer Bob Wheaton, 14 years her senior, before the relationship ended because according to some accounts he tired of her frequent absences as she travelled the world on assignment for the Holiday programme.
 
Then there had been Simon Basil, a young South African game warden with whom Ms Dando had enjoyed what she described as a “very Lady Chatterley” relationship.

Eventually, on a blind date, she “found the man I love”, the gynaecologist, Alan Farthing.  In early 1999, Ms Dando and Mr Farthing announced their engagement at a party attended by Sir Cliff Richard, Nick Ross and Anna Ford, with the first interview being secured by OK! Magazine.

But between these three publicised romances, there had been briefer flings, as police discovered when they started trawling through Ms Dando’s personal diaries

All the men who had romances with Ms Dando were cleared. 

So too was an allegedly besotted Russian crimelord who had been the subject of speculation that he had ordered Ms Dando’s killing because she had rejected his advances while filming for the Holiday programme in Cyprus.

The murder investigation provided a good excuse for those kinds of stories about a celebrity’s love life, but no credible evidence has ever emerged to suggest that anyone romantically linked to Ms Dando had anything to do with the murder
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jill-dando-murder-theories-what-happened-who-barry-george-bbc-documentary-a8851491.html

[Nicholas]

So if BG was responsible he must have struck lucky in that Jill pulled up in her car and he happened to be in the vicinity at the right time with a loaded firearm.

“Police believe George followed Miss Dando on several occasions before he killed her.

Eighteen months before Miss Dando was shot, George told a complete stranger that he had a famous friend, "a very special lady", and pointed out the road where Miss Dando lived.

"He had encountered her before, I am sure. It was not the first time he was in Gowan Avenue. There must have been an element of luck. He did not know she would turn up," said detective superintendent Hamish Campbell, who led the two year murder investigation.

George mingled with mourners in the quiet street where hours earlier he had shot Miss Dando - and even laid a bouquet at the cordon police had set up around the crime scene.

Det Supt Campbell believes George may have shot her because he felt confusion and anger, possibly sparked by her engagement to Mr Farthing.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/02/jilldando

[Nicholas]

No one reported anyone loitering about in the weeks/days leading up to the murder.  On the day of the murder there were various conflicting sightings as there always are in these cases. Jill had not reported anyone bothering her.

“Stalking victims can be targeted at least 100 times before they raise the alarm, a police expert has said.
Wiltshire's deputy chief constable Paul Mills, said academic studies indicate the delay is down to individual acts by a stalker seeming unimportant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-47838538

[Nicholas]

As Jill's cousin said in the docu for this to have happened all the stars would need to align. 

The statistical chances of an opportunist stalker happening upon Jill at her home address when her movements were random and unknown who just happened to have a loaded firearm on his/her person would imo be so statistically unlikely I would rule it out.

She had not mentioned to anyone about being stalked.

Where are you getting your “statistics” from exactly? And what’s an opportunist stalker? I don’t recall Barry George being referred to in this way?

[Nicholas]

“Stalking victims can be targeted at least 100 times before they raise the alarm, a police expert has said.
Wiltshire's deputy chief constable Paul Mills, said academic studies indicate the delay is down to individual acts by a stalker seeming unimportant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-47838538

“Profile of a stalker

Stalking is a crime of power and control. Stalkers tend to obsess about their victim. They may make many plans for the future that involve their victim.

Stalkers tend to have very weak social skills, and see nothing wrong with their behaviour.

Few stalkers see how their actions are hurting others, and they do not believe society’s rules apply to them.
They don’t believe they are threatening, intimidating, or even stalking someone.

Most stalkers see their actions simply as attempts to get closer to their target, help them, or to gain their love

Stalkers often ‘research’ their victims via public records for information or manipulating the victims’ family and friends.

Stalkers often obtain information from the victim’s friends, their workplace and from the victim’s family.

Romantically obsessed stalkers refuse to believe the victim does not want a relationship with them.

Stalking can be a form of retaliation because of some perceived slight. Indeed, many sexual harassment victims report being stalked in retaliation for reporting their harassers.

A stalker may be so subtle that the victim may not even aware that it is happening.

It is not always just the initial victim who is stalked. A stalker may also harass family, friends and fellow workers.
http://www.protectionagainststalking.org/what-is-stalking-2/

[Nicholas]

“........Dr Philip Joseph, another leading psychiatrist who was called by the prosecution, said George was "far more competent" than tests would suggest and capable of lying in police interviews. While some of his behaviour could be attributed to his epilepsy and cognitive impairment, his stalking of women appeared to stem from an "intense anger" caused by rejection, Dr Joseph said.

Read more at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/jill-dando-murder-trial-experts-were-split-on-barry-george-s-behaviour-1-1083223

Can anyone shed any light on this. Was Barry George successful or is he still under MAPPA?

“Mr George, 49, is seeking court orders to stop his movements being closely supervised by the Metropolitan Police and other agencies, including probation service and housing authorities.
Yesterday he accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages at London's Royal Courts of Justice over claims that he had pestered women he was obsessed with.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6833611/Barry-George-wants-police-off-his-back-court-hears.html

[Holly Goodhead]

“In the early stages of the murder investigation, a lot of attention – at least in media terms – fell on men who had been romantically linked to Ms Dando.

“TV’s girl next door” had lived with television producer Bob Wheaton, 14 years her senior, before the relationship ended because according to some accounts he tired of her frequent absences as she travelled the world on assignment for the Holiday programme.
 
Then there had been Simon Basil, a young South African game warden with whom Ms Dando had enjoyed what she described as a “very Lady Chatterley” relationship.

Eventually, on a blind date, she “found the man I love”, the gynaecologist, Alan Farthing.  In early 1999, Ms Dando and Mr Farthing announced their engagement at a party attended by Sir Cliff Richard, Nick Ross and Anna Ford, with the first interview being secured by OK! Magazine.

But between these three publicised romances, there had been briefer flings, as police discovered when they started trawling through Ms Dando’s personal diaries

All the men who had romances with Ms Dando were cleared. 

So too was an allegedly besotted Russian crimelord who had been the subject of speculation that he had ordered Ms Dando’s killing because she had rejected his advances while filming for the Holiday programme in Cyprus.

The murder investigation provided a good excuse for those kinds of stories about a celebrity’s love life, but no credible evidence has ever emerged to suggest that anyone romantically linked to Ms Dando had anything to do with the murder
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jill-dando-murder-theories-what-happened-who-barry-george-bbc-documentary-a8851491.html

But I can't find any evidence of the same exercise carried out on Alan Farthing?  He was/is a physically attractive man imo and many woman find medi doctors attractive even when the doctor is not particularly physically attractive.  Maybe someone was obsessed with him?  Either someone who had been in a relationship with him or someone who wanted to be in a relationship with him and Jill Dando was seen as standing in the way!?  The someone may have carried out the crime or hired a hit person to carry out the deed.

A Google of 'man stalked woman by fitting tracking device to car' throws up numerous cases.  I can't find any evidence that Jill's car was examined for a tracking device?  This sounds the most plausible explanation imo given cctv shows she was not being followed, she hardly visited her home and had not even entered the property before she was shot.

The fact the cartridge had been tampered with and may have had part of its contents removed to reduce the sound potentially shows some pre-planning.  I believe the bullet was hollow nosed which would be lethal with a close contact shot to the head.  A silencer may well have been difficult to obtain. 

[Nicholas]

Where are you getting your “statistics” from exactly? And what’s an opportunist stalker? I don’t recall Barry George being referred to in this way?

I’m familiar with George being referred to as a “serial stalker.”

“.........that man is Barry George, the serial stalker and social misfit who served eight years for murdering Jill before being acquitted and freed last August after a second trial.

During the interview he gave (or rather sold for £80,000) to a down-market tabloid after his release, George insisted he was never fixated with the 37-year-old star, as the prosecution had alleged

Barry has mentioned visiting the grave a few times,' his spokesman Surjit Singh Clair told me this week.

'It's something he definitely wants to do. He just feels there's a connection between them  -  they've been tragically brought together.'

George has also discussed his plans with his confidante, his sister, Michelle Diskin.

'Barry spent eight years in jail for a murder he didn't do,' Mr Singh Clair said. 'He's become entwined with her life and she has played a huge part in his. He wants to exorcise Jill's ghost, and say: "I don't want you to think I hold any hard feelings against you."

'If he looks respectable and takes flowers, and perhaps goes with a friend or relative rather than slinking around on his own, then it wouldn't look too bad. It's his personal choice.'

Regrettably, it is. George's spokesman says he might request permission from Jill's family  -  and if so, he could receive a surprisingly favourable reaction.

For with remarkable magnanimity, Nigel Dando said that he would not object to the visit. 'It might give Mr George cause to ponder and reflect,' he said, when told of George's plans.

Mr Singh Clair is a Midlands-based freelance journalist who was enlisted by the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation (MOJO) to promote George's cause four years ago, when he was battling to overturn his murder conviction.

“In an angry email to me this week, Michelle Diskin claimed her brother was the victim of a media-driven plot designed to smear and intimidate him.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1076331/Obsessed-visiting-Jill-Dandos-grave-acting-erratically-Barry-George-man-edge.html

[Nicholas]

But I can't find any evidence of the same exercise carried out on Alan Farthing?  He was/is a physically attractive man imo and many woman find medi doctors attractive even when the doctor is not particularly physically attractive.  Maybe someone was obsessed with him?  Either someone who had been in a relationship with him or someone who wanted to be in a relationship with him and Jill Dando was seen as standing in the way!?  The someone may have carried out the crime or hired a hit person to carry out the deed.

A Google of 'man stalked woman by fitting tracking device to car' throws up numerous cases.  I can't find any evidence that Jill's car was examined for a tracking device?  This sounds the most plausible explanation imo given cctv shows she was not being followed, she hardly visited her home and had not even entered the property before she was shot.

The fact the cartridge had been tampered with and may have had part of its contents removed to reduce the sound potentially shows some pre-planning.  I believe the bullet was hollow nosed which would be lethal with a close contact shot to the head.  A silencer may well have been difficult to obtain.

Your circular reasoning doesn’t persuade me in the slightest Holly.

[Nicholas]

I believe the bullet was hollow nosed which would be lethal with a close contact shot to the head.  A silencer may well have been difficult to obtain.

Why?

And to obtain by whom?

[Holly Goodhead]

But I can't find any evidence of the same exercise carried out on Alan Farthing?  He was/is a physically attractive man imo and many woman find medi doctors attractive even when the doctor is not particularly physically attractive.  Maybe someone was obsessed with him?  Either someone who had been in a relationship with him or someone who wanted to be in a relationship with him and Jill Dando was seen as standing in the way!?  The someone may have carried out the crime or hired a hit person to carry out the deed.

A Google of 'man stalked woman by fitting tracking device to car' throws up numerous cases.  I can't find any evidence that Jill's car was examined for a tracking device?  This sounds the most plausible explanation imo given cctv shows she was not being followed, she hardly visited her home and had not even entered the property before she was shot.

The fact the cartridge had been tampered with and may have had part of its contents removed to reduce the sound potentially shows some pre-planning.  I believe the bullet was hollow nosed which would be lethal with a close contact shot to the head.  A silencer may well have been difficult to obtain.

As might be expected Alan Farthing was a suspect in the early stages of the investigation but was quickly eliminated.

Anyway I found the following article which states all Ms Dando's former lovers were traced and interviewed.  Also Alan Farthing's patients were investigated as some had apparently developed a strong attachment to him.  But one by one they were eliminated.  However I still can't find any evidence that Alan Farthing's former wife, Maria, was interviewed/investigated and eliminated and/or any other women he may have had relationships with or were not patients but had some unhealthy interest in him.  Maybe Maria Farthing was interviewed/investigated and eliminated like the others.  Maybe she ended the marriage.  Maybe she was in a relationship with a.n other at the time and happy.  But maybe, just maybe, she was an aggrieved former wife who could not stand the thought of her former husband getting engaged and marrying Jill Dando.

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/dando-verdict-lines-of-investigation-ranged-from-serb-hitmen-to-jealous-lovers-9148193.html

Timeline:

- 1990 - Alan Farthing married Maria
- 1997 Dec - Alan Farthing is introduced to Jill Dando.  He was separated from his wife at the time.
- 1998 late - Alan and Maria Farthing divorce
- 1999 Feb - Alan Farthing and Jill Dando announce their engagement
- 1999 Apr - Jill Dando murdered
- 2000 Oct - Alan Farthing meets actress Helen Hobson at Cliff Richard's 60th Birthday and the pair start a relationship
- 2003 - Alan Farthing meets Dr Janet Stowell
- 2008 - Alan Farthing and Dr Janet Stowell marry