Jill Dando
Encyclopedia
Jill Wendy Dando was an English journalist
, television presenter and newsreader
who worked for the BBC
for 14 years. She was murdered by gunshot outside her home in Fulham
, West London; her killer has never been identified.
, Somerset
, and was raised a Baptist. When she was three, it was discovered she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery
. She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965. She was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Comprehensive School
, and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre
, where she was head girl
, and passed two A levels
. She studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in Cardiff
.
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 in 1979. She started her first job as a trainee reporter for the local weekly 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 1987, she worked for TSW, then worked for BBC Spotlight in Plymouth. In early 1988, Dando made a move from regional to national television when she moved to London to present BBC television news.
Dando went on to present the BBC television programmes Breakfast Time
, Breakfast News
, the BBC One O'Clock News
, the Six O'Clock News
, the travel programme Holiday
, the crime appeal series Crimewatch
(from 1995 until her death) and occasionally Songs of Praise
. In 1994 she moved to Fulham.
On 25 April 1999, Dando presented the first episode of The Antiques Inspectors. She was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News on the evening of the following day. She was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times
magazine (for 24 to 30 April).
At the time of her death she was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff; she had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year. Crimewatch reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. After Barry George
(see below) was charged with the murder but acquitted, Crimewatch made no further appeals for information concerning the case.
home of her fiancé, Dr. Alan Farthing. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Gowan Avenue, Fulham
, West London. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered about 14 minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble. Police were called at 11:47. 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.
Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9 mm calibre
automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a surprised cry from Dando "like someone greeting a friend" but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a 6 foot (1.8 metre) tall white man aged around 40 years old, seen walking away from Dando's house.
—named Operation Oxborough—proved fruitless for over a year. Dando's status as a well-known public figure probably brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known by millions, so there was fevered speculation about the motive for her killing.
Within 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 concentrated their attention on Barry George
, who lived about half a mile from Dando's house. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offending and other anti-social and attention seeking behaviour.
George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May and charged with Dando's murder on 28 May.
George was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and on 2 July 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment
. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after discredited forensics evidence was excluded from the prosecution's case, George's third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George's acquittal on 1 August 2008.
Dando's family and her fiancé Alan Farthing did not ask the police to reopen the investigation. George's family and supporters were jubilant at the outcome, claiming that there had never been any worthwhile evidence against him. This view was articulated by Dando's former agent, Jon Roseman, who stated that he had doubted George's guilt from an early stage. After George's acquittal, a number of newspapers published articles which appeared to suggest that he was guilty of the Dando murder and other offences against women. In December 2009, George accepted substantial damages from News Group Newspapers over articles in The Sun and the News of the World
, following a libel action in the High Court.
The original police investigation had explored the possibility of a professional killing. But since Dando was living with her fiancé and was only rarely visiting her Gowan Avenue house, it was considered unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Dando's movements to have known when she was going there. CCTV evidence of Dando's last journey (mainly security video recordings from the Kings Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, which she visited on her way to Fulham) did not show any sign of her being followed. Her BBC colleague Nick Ross
stated on Newsnight
on the night of her death that retaliatory attacks by criminals against police, lawyers and judges were almost unknown in Britain. Finally, forensic examination of the shell case and bullet recovered from the scene of the attack suggested that the weapon used had been the result of a workshop conversion of a replica or decommissioned gun. It was argued that a professional assassin would not use such a poor quality weapon. The police therefore soon began to favour the idea that the killing had been carried out by a crazed individual acting on an opportunist basis. This assumed profile
of the perpetrator led to the focus on Barry George.
At Barry George’s
first trial his defence barrister
, Michael Mansfield
QC
, 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 on 23 April 1999, which had resulted in the deaths of several well-known Yugoslav TV presenters. Mansfield suggested that Dando's earlier presentation of an appeal for aid for Kosovan Albanian
refugees may have angered Bosnian-Serb hardliners. Dando's picture was on the cover of the Radio Times
(edition 24 to 30 April 1999) in the week of her killing.
Despite this, the police did not believe that the Yugoslavs had killed Dando. Since she was merely a TV presenter they did not perceive any obvious motive on the part of the Yugoslavs. Only three days had separated the Belgrade bombing and the killing of Dando. The police reasoned that three days would not have allowed sufficient time for the Yugoslavs to have organised and carried out her murder. Finally, no Yugoslav group ever credibly claimed responsibility for the killing. It was argued that there would be no point in carrying out a revenge killing without claiming responsibility.
But the theory still holds great sway with commentators. The former communist regime in Yugoslavia had a history of 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 consisting 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.
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 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 Vinko Sindičić—a Yugoslav known to Western intelligence services.
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". Woffinden advanced the view that a Yugoslav group was behind the Dando killing and in various newspaper articles he contested all the grounds on which the police had dismissed this possibility.
Discredited links with Yugoslavia include the case in which a West Midlands 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 time of the alleged confession.
, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s.
Dando was a devout Christian. She never married or had children. She had a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton from 1989 to 1996. She had a relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, she met gynaecologist Alan Farthing; his divorce was finalised in November 1998. Dando and Farthing were engaged from February 1999 until her death. They scheduled their wedding for September 1999. Farthing married fellow medic Janet Stowell on 20 March 2008.
Dando's funeral took place on 21 May 1999 at Clarence Park Baptist
Church in Weston-super-Mare. She was buried next to her mother in the town's Ebdon Road Cemetery. The gross value of her estate was £1,181,207; after her debts and income tax, the value was £863,756; after inheritance tax, it was £607,000, all of which her father inherited because she died intestate.
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 £1.5 million. The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science
was founded at University College London
on 26 April 2001, the second anniversary of her murder.
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 (51.352498°N 2.979242°W) and was opened on 2 August 2001.
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 a presenter on BBC News, gained the first bursary award in 2000.
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".
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, television presenter and newsreader
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
who worked for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for 14 years. She was murdered by gunshot outside her home in Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, West London; her killer has never been identified.
Early life and career
Jill Dando was born in Ashcombe House Maternity Home, Weston-super-MareWeston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, and was raised a Baptist. When she was three, it was discovered she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery
Pulmonary artery
The pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. They are the only arteries that carry deoxygenated blood....
. She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965. She was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Comprehensive School
Worle Community School
Worle Community School is a community school and specialist Arts College in Worle, a suburb of Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England. There are currently 1,490 students aged 11 to 16 in the school.-History:...
, and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre
Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College
Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College is a secondary school in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England.The school, which has specialist Mathematics and Computing College status, has 897 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years....
, where she was head girl
Head boy
Head Boy and Head Girl are terms commonly used in the British education system, and in private schools throughout the Commonwealth.-United Kingdom:...
, and passed two A levels
GCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
. She studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
.
Dando was a keen thespian
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. 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
Barnfield Theatre
The Barnfield Theatre in Exeter, England was originally built as The Barnfield Hall near the end of the 19th century by Exeter Literary Society and converted to a theatre in 1972, and is located near the centre of the city on Barnfield Road, Southernhay....
.
Dando was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979. She started her first job as a trainee reporter for the local weekly newspaper
Weekly newspaper
A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published on newsprint once or twice a week.Such newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and are usually based in less-populous communities or small, defined areas within large cities; often, they may cover a...
, the Weston Mercury, where her father and brother worked. After five years as a print journalist, she began employment with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
when she became a newsreader
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
for BBC Radio Devon
BBC Radio Devon
BBC Radio Devon is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Devon. It began transmissions on 17 January 1983, replacing a previous breakfast show for Devon and Cornwall broadcast on the local frequencies of Radio 4....
in 1985. That year, she transferred to BBC South West
BBC South West
BBC South West is the BBC English Region serving Devon, Cornwall and the Channel Islands.-Television:BBC South Wests television service consists of the flagship regional news service Spotlight, the opt-out service BBC Channel Islands, the topical magazine programme Inside Out and a 20-minute...
, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West. In 1987, she worked for TSW, then worked for BBC Spotlight in Plymouth. In early 1988, Dando made a move from regional to national television when she moved to London to present BBC television news.
Dando went on to present the BBC television programmes Breakfast Time
Breakfast Time
Breakfast Time was British television's first national breakfast show, beating TV-am's flagship programme Good Morning Britain to the air by two weeks.The show was revolutionary for the time...
, Breakfast News
Breakfast News
Breakfast News was a breakfast news show which aired on BBC One from September 4, 1989 to September 15, 2000.The programme had been previously known as Breakfast Time....
, the BBC One O'Clock News
BBC One O'Clock News
The BBC News at One is the afternoon news bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel on Monday to Sunday 1:00pm....
, the Six O'Clock News
BBC Six O'Clock News
The BBC News at Six is the evening news programme broadcast each night on British television channel BBC One and the BBC News channel at 18:00. For a long period the News at Six was the most watched news programme in the UK but since 2006 it has been over taken by the BBC News at Ten...
, the travel programme Holiday
Holiday (TV series)
Holiday was a long-running UK television programme on BBC One, and was the oldest travel review show on UK television. It was aired on the channel from 1969 until 2007.-Overview:...
, the crime appeal series Crimewatch
Crimewatch
Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One...
(from 1995 until her death) and occasionally Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise
Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional Christian hymns. It is a widely watched and long-running religious television programme, one of the few peak-time free-to-air religious programmes in Europe Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional...
. In 1994 she moved to Fulham.
On 25 April 1999, Dando presented the first episode of The Antiques Inspectors. She was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News on the evening of the following day. She was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
magazine (for 24 to 30 April).
At the time of her death she was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff; she had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year. Crimewatch reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. After Barry George
Barry George
Barry Michael George is a British man who was wrongly convicted on 2 July 2001 of the murder of British television presenter Jill Dando. His murder conviction was judged unsafe by the Court of Appeal and was quashed on 15 November 2007...
(see below) was charged with the murder but acquitted, Crimewatch made no further appeals for information concerning the case.
Murder
On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando left the ChiswickChiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
home of her fiancé, Dr. Alan Farthing. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Gowan Avenue, Fulham
Fulham
Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
, West London. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered about 14 minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble. Police were called at 11:47. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital
Charing Cross Hospital
Charing Cross Hospital is a general, acute hospital located in London, United Kingdom and established in 1818. It is located several miles to the west of the city centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham....
where she was declared dead on arrival
Dead on arrival
Dead on arrival or D.O.A. is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police...
at 13:03 BST
British Summer Time
Western European Summer Time is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in the following places:* the Canary Islands* Portugal * Ireland...
. She was 37 years old.
Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9 mm calibre
9 mm caliber
This article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the caliber range. The most prevalent of these rounds is the 9x19mm Parabellum.*Length refers to the cartridge case length.*OAL refers to the overall length of the cartridge....
automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a surprised cry from Dando "like someone greeting a friend" but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a 6 foot (1.8 metre) tall white man aged around 40 years old, seen walking away from Dando's house.
Investigation
After the murder there was intense media coverage. An investigation by the Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
—named Operation Oxborough—proved fruitless for over a year. Dando's status as a well-known public figure probably brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known by millions, so there was fevered speculation about the motive for her killing.
Within six months, the murder investigation team
Murder Investigation Team
Murder/Major Investigation Teams are the specialised homicide squads of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. Forming part of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, itself part of the Specialist Crime Directorate, there is one MIT for each Borough Operational Command Unit...
had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year, the police concentrated their attention on Barry George
Barry George
Barry Michael George is a British man who was wrongly convicted on 2 July 2001 of the murder of British television presenter Jill Dando. His murder conviction was judged unsafe by the Court of Appeal and was quashed on 15 November 2007...
, who lived about half a mile from Dando's house. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offending and other anti-social and attention seeking behaviour.
George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May and charged with Dando's murder on 28 May.
George was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and on 2 July 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after discredited forensics evidence was excluded from the prosecution's case, George's third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George's acquittal on 1 August 2008.
Dando's family and her fiancé Alan Farthing did not ask the police to reopen the investigation. George's family and supporters were jubilant at the outcome, claiming that there had never been any worthwhile evidence against him. This view was articulated by Dando's former agent, Jon Roseman, who stated that he had doubted George's guilt from an early stage. After George's acquittal, a number of newspapers published articles which appeared to suggest that he was guilty of the Dando murder and other offences against women. In December 2009, George accepted substantial damages from News Group Newspapers over articles in The Sun and the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, following a libel action in the High Court.
Potential suspects
Lines of inquiry explored in the police investigation included:- Theories that a jealous ex-boyfriend or an unknown lover had killed her. This was quickly ruled out by the detectives who interviewed all Dando's friends and acquaintances and checked her phone calls.
- A belief that somebody had hired an assassinAssassinationTo carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
to murder Dando as revenge for their being convicted as a result of evidence garnered by CrimewatchCrimewatchCrimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One...
viewers. After exhaustive inquiries this was also ruled out by detectives. - Various theories relating to Bosnian-SerbSerbs of Bosnia and HerzegovinaThe Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina are people of Serb ethnicity inhabiting the Balkan regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or, since the establishment of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state in the 1990s, the Serbs who have its citizenship. The Serbs are one of the three constitutive nations of this...
or YugoslavYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
groups (see below). - The possibility that a deranged fan may have killed Dando after she had rejected his approaches. Dando’s brother, Nigel, informed detectives that she had become concerned by “some guy pestering her” in the few days before her death, but this was ruled out by detectives.
- A case of mistaken identity. This was judged unlikely, given that the killing took place on the doorstep of Dando's own home.
- Even actions taken by a professional rival or business partner had to be considered. Her agent Jon Roseman stated that he had been interviewed as a suspect by police.
The original police investigation had explored the possibility of a professional killing. But since Dando was living with her fiancé and was only rarely visiting her Gowan Avenue house, it was considered unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Dando's movements to have known when she was going there. CCTV evidence of Dando's last journey (mainly security video recordings from the Kings Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, which she visited on her way to Fulham) did not show any sign of her being followed. Her BBC colleague Nick Ross
Nick Ross
Nick Ross is a British radio and television presenter across a wide range of factual programmes and during the 1980s and 90s he was one of the most ubiquitous of British broadcasters, but he is best known for his long-running co-hosting of the BBC TV show Crimewatch which he left on 2 July 2007...
stated on Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
on the night of her death that retaliatory attacks by criminals against police, lawyers and judges were almost unknown in Britain. Finally, forensic examination of the shell case and bullet recovered from the scene of the attack suggested that the weapon used had been the result of a workshop conversion of a replica or decommissioned gun. It was argued that a professional assassin would not use such a poor quality weapon. The police therefore soon began to favour the idea that the killing had been carried out by a crazed individual acting on an opportunist basis. This assumed profile
Offender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
of the perpetrator led to the focus on Barry George.
Yugoslav connection
Soon after the killing some commentators identified the possibility of a Yugoslav connection.At Barry George’s
Barry George
Barry Michael George is a British man who was wrongly convicted on 2 July 2001 of the murder of British television presenter Jill Dando. His murder conviction was judged unsafe by the Court of Appeal and was quashed on 15 November 2007...
first trial his defence barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, Michael Mansfield
Michael Mansfield
Michael Mansfield QC is an English barrister. A republican, vegetarian, socialist, and self-described "radical lawyer", he has participated in prominent and controversial court cases and inquests involving accused IRA bombers, the Bloody Sunday incident, and the deaths of Jean Charles de Menezes...
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, quoted from a National Criminal Intelligence Service
National Criminal Intelligence Service
The National Criminal Intelligence Service was a United Kingdom policing agency set up as a separate body in April 1992 to centralise the gathering and distribution of intelligence on serious and organised criminal matters. NCIS was formed out of the National Drugs Intelligence Unit in the Home...
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 on 23 April 1999, which had resulted in the deaths of several well-known Yugoslav TV presenters. Mansfield suggested that Dando's earlier presentation of an appeal for aid for Kosovan Albanian
Albanians in Kosovo
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo . According to the 1991 Serbian census, boycotted by Albanians, there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population...
refugees may have angered Bosnian-Serb hardliners. Dando's picture was on the cover of the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
(edition 24 to 30 April 1999) in the week of her killing.
Despite this, the police did not believe that the Yugoslavs had killed Dando. Since she was merely a TV presenter they did not perceive any obvious motive on the part of the Yugoslavs. Only three days had separated the Belgrade bombing and the killing of Dando. The police reasoned that three days would not have allowed sufficient time for the Yugoslavs to have organised and carried out her murder. Finally, no Yugoslav group ever credibly claimed responsibility for the killing. It was argued that there would be no point in carrying out a revenge killing without claiming responsibility.
But the theory still holds great sway with commentators. The former communist regime in Yugoslavia had a history of assassinations directed against its opponents. It has been claimed that between 1946 and 1991 the Yugoslav Secret Service (UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
) 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 consisting 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.
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 Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. The town lies on a shallow bay on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth; SSE of Glenrothes, ENE of Dunfermline, WSW of Dundee and NNE of Edinburgh...
. 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 Vinko Sindičić—a Yugoslav known to Western intelligence services.
Bob Woffinden
Bob Woffinden
Bob Woffinden is a British investigative journalist. Formerly a reporter with the New Musical Express, Woffinden has specialized since the 1980s in investigating miscarriages of justice. He has written about a number of high-profile cases in the UK, including James Hanratty, Philip English, Sion...
, a journalist who specialises in miscarriage of justice has stated "Claims of responsibility are made by groups such as the IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
or ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
. In 60 years, there has not once been a claim of responsibility for an assassination carried out by East European secret services". Woffinden advanced the view that a Yugoslav group was behind the Dando killing and in various newspaper articles he contested all the grounds on which the police had dismissed this possibility.
Discredited links with Yugoslavia include the case in which a West Midlands 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 time of the alleged confession.
Family and personal life
Dando was the daughter of Jack (February 1918 – February 2009), who died in Weston-super-Mare on his 91st birthday, and Winifred Mary Jean Dando (August 1927 – January 1986), who died of leukaemia aged 58. Her only sibling, brother Nigel (born 1952), works as a journalist for BBC Radio BristolBBC Radio Bristol
BBC Radio Bristol is the BBC Local Radio service for the English city of Bristol and the surrounding former Avon area. Launched in September 1970, it broadcasts from Broadcasting House in Bristol on FM frequencies 94.9 MHz , 104.6 MHz , 103.6 MHz , on AM 1548 kHz and on DAB.The...
, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s.
Dando was a devout Christian. She never married or had children. She had a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton from 1989 to 1996. She had a relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, she met gynaecologist Alan Farthing; his divorce was finalised in November 1998. Dando and Farthing were engaged from February 1999 until her death. They scheduled their wedding for September 1999. Farthing married fellow medic Janet Stowell on 20 March 2008.
Legacy
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church in Weston-super-Mare. She was buried next to her mother in the town's Ebdon Road Cemetery. The gross value of her estate was £1,181,207; after her debts and income tax, the value was £863,756; after inheritance tax, it was £607,000, all of which her father inherited because she died intestate.
Dando's co-presenter Nick Ross
Nick Ross
Nick Ross is a British radio and television presenter across a wide range of factual programmes and during the 1980s and 90s he was one of the most ubiquitous of British broadcasters, but he is best known for his long-running co-hosting of the BBC TV show Crimewatch which he left on 2 July 2007...
proposed the formation of an academic institute in her name and, together with her fiancé, Alan Farthing, raised almost £1.5 million. The Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science
Jill Dando Institute
The UCL Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science is an institute of crime science located in London, United Kingdom and a part of University College London...
was founded at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
on 26 April 2001, the second anniversary of her murder.
A memorial garden was designed and realised by the BBC Television Ground Force
Ground Force
Ground Force was a British garden makeover television series originally broadcast by the BBC between 1997 and 2005. The series was originally hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh and was produced by Endemol for the BBC.-Production:...
team in Dando's memory, using plants and colours that were special to her. It is located within Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare (51.352498°N 2.979242°W) and was opened on 2 August 2001.
The BBC set up a bursary
Bursary
A bursary is strictly an office for a bursar and his or her staff in a school or college.In modern English usage, the term has become synonymous with "bursary award", a monetary award made by an institution to an individual or a group to assist the development of their education.According to The...
award in Dando's memory, which enables one student each year to study broadcast journalism at University College Falmouth
University College Falmouth
University College Falmouth is a British university college in Falmouth, Cornwall. Founded in 1902, it had previously been the Falmouth School of Art and then Falmouth College of Arts until it received taught degree-awarding powers in March 2005...
. Sophie Long
Sophie Long
Sophie Long , is an English journalist who works for BBC News, mainly appearing as a presenter on the BBC News Channel.-Early life:...
, who was then a post-graduate who had grown up in Weston-super-Mare and is now a presenter on BBC News, gained the first bursary award in 2000.
In 2007, Weston College
Weston College
Weston College is a further education college situated in Weston-super-Mare, England. The college has 7,500 students who are taught at facilities in Weston-super-Mare and Nailsea...
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".