Dando charge man 'said he was at murder'

The man accused of killing TV presenter Jill Dando claimed he was going to help police solve the murder and said he had told them he was there, the Old Bailey heard today.

Sally Mason said she met Barry George in the street a year after Miss Dando presenter was murdered. A Crimewatch appeal about her death had recently been broadcast.

‘‘He said he went to Fulham police station and told them he was there. He said he was going to help them solve the case - wrap it up because a year had gone by and no-one charged.

‘‘I said ‘You do not want to get yourself into trouble’,’’ Miss Mason told the court.

She thought George’s remarks were one of his fantasies as she thought he was living in another world.

Mr Orlando Pownall, prosecuting, asked her what she understood George to mean when he had said he was ‘‘there’’.

Miss Mason said: ‘‘I interpreted it that he thought he had seen the situation and thought he could solve the crime. He is harmless enough, but reality just drifts off the end.’’

Asked what she meant by ‘‘situation’’, Miss Mason said: ‘‘The murder.’’

George, 41, unemployed, from Fulham, south west London, has denied murdering Miss Dando, who was shot through the head outside her home in Gowan Avenue on 26 April, 1999.

Another witness, Amanda Stokes, said she was working on the Mail on Sunday in that year.

The paper asked her to re-trace Miss Dando’s route two days after the murder.

She had interviewed a man near Gowan Avenue who said he was Barry Bulsara.

The prosecution alleges that George had used the name, claiming to be Freddie Mercury’s cousin.

Miss Stokes told the court: ‘‘He said that he had seen Jill Dando on Crimewatch, but had not seen him in the area. He said she was a nice lady but he had not seen her around.’’

Miss Stokes said she became more interested in the connection with Freddie Mercury and gave him her number in case he came up with a story about the star’s family.