“Jill's former co-host Nick Ross, 71, has blasted police for what he feels was a "scattergun" approach, and for a line of enquiry he believes was "foolish"
Nick Ross claims police in the Jill Dando murder case made blunders that could have hindered the probe.
The ex-Crimewatch co-host said their TV appeals focused on the wrong lines of enquiry.
He added: “We would have done things differently.”
The 71-year-old accused police hunting Jill Dando’s killer of a “scattergun” approach to their Crimewatch appeals and claimed they focused on the wrong lines of enquiry.
After the TV presenter was shot dead outside her home 20 years ago, detectives singled out her work on the show that Nick co-hosted as a possible motive for the killing.
But Nick branded the idea “foolish” and insisted criminals rarely targeted those trying to bring them to justice.
He also claimed police were wrong to focus on a mystery Range Rover spotted on CCTV near where Jill, 37, was gunned down in West London on April 26, 1999 – a move that swamped Crimewatch staff with calls and which he fears may have hindered the murder investigation.
On the theory that her death was linked to the show, 71-year-old Nick said: “The thing is, and not so much the fault of the senior investigating officer, but top brass, they had this intuitive and, we thought, rather foolish view, it would be to do with Crimewatch.
And we knew it would not be to do with Crimewatch. In modern times, there has never been a judge attacked for sending someone down, a prosecuting solicitor, or anybody.
“It’s just not the way it happens here.
“And when I contacted colleagues in the States, it was as rare as hen’s teeth there.
“The only thing that would have made sense is if you were dealing with a criminal who was not rational about it.
“A lot of the appeals could be frustrating when police had this scattergun approach.”
On the Met’s insistence on leading Jill’s appeals with the Range Rover footage, Nick added: “It was difficult because we had to rely on the way the police wanted to structure it.
“All of us who had spent years on Crimewatch and it may sound absurd to say we know as much about crime as the police, but some of us had been investigating, in a way, longer than some of the detectives.
“We did understand a lot and certainly the editor and I, we would have done it very differently.
“Police were still very much going for witnesses to a Range Rover.
“The Range Rover had in those days a particular association with criminality. But they were looking for a bunch of stuff which was just likely to get a lot of people calling in, but that wasn’t very focused.
“Already it was clear that this had such big publicity, the risk was they would get swamped with literally thousands of lines of enquiry.
“Which is exactly what happened, they finished up with over 7,000 lines of enquiry.”
Nick, who fronted Crimewatch for 23 years, insisted a more focused appeal into his friend’s murder could have been beneficial to the investigation
He pointed to the ones after the murder of James Bulger, two, in 1993.
Nick said a forensic psychologist told him children who had killed cats always lived within 200 yards of where the animal was found.
Crimewatch then drew concentric rings around where James’ body was found to narrow down the search area.
The show helped solve the crime after viewers recognised the toddler’s two 10-year-old killers leading him to his death in Liverpool on CCTV.
Nick added: “It always fascinates me. Why we have this thing that detectives have to be police officers? You don’t need to be a warranted officer and have the powers of arrest to investigate a crime.”
Barry George, 58, was arrested a year after Jill’s death, convicted of her murder and jailed in 2001. But he was released on appeal in 2008 when the case was quashed.
Nick said he pre-recorded the opening of the first Crimewatch show after her killing, such was the struggle to present it.
He added: “It was really difficult, the only time I ever pre-recorded the introduction to Crimewatch.
“I just really liked her and so it was very difficult. I was on Newsnight the night of the murder, trying to calm down.
“When there’s an unsolved crime police, and we journalists tend to say, it’s professional, it’s complicated, and so often it isn’t.
“On Newsnight I remember trying to calm the speculation it was some kind of CIA equivalent. When actually almost all crime turns out to be much more sordid and low grade.”
Nick helped bring Jill to Crimewatch having been impressed with her on other programmes.
He remembered his old friend as an “incredibly skilled” journalist and added: “When people die those around them just say nice things about them and suppress the less pleasant bits.
“The truth is, nobody can think of anything bad to say about her.
“She was just such a generous-hearted, nice, unaffected person. The first time I saw her on TV, I saw this unaffected authority. She was so natural.
“Why I was so keen she should join us on Crimewatch is when she was speaking to the camera you genuinely felt she was speaking to you.
“She really was a star, the biggest on British TV, and yet it didn’t affect her at all. It didn’t matter if you were sweeping the floor or you were the editor of the programme, you were just a colleague.
“She was one of the lads, one of the girls, one of the crew.”
The Met police said: “The investigation into Ms Dando’s murder remains open, therefore we cannot comment in any detail other than to say we will always explore any new information which may become available.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jill-dando-murder-police-made-14305108
