Dando 'was killed by professional hitman'

Jill Dando was killed by a professional hitman and not by Barry George who is accused of her murder, an Old Bailey jury has been told.

Defence barrister Michael Mansfield QC said the prosecution case against his client Barry George is "hanging by the merest of threads."

George, 41, of Crookham Road, Fulham, south-west London, has denied murdering Miss Dando on April 26, 1999.

"Barry George's case is not merely that he did not commit this crime, but that it was a crime committed in a professional manner by a professional hitman, planned and carefully executed," said Mr Mansfield, as he opened the case for the defence.

"There have been a number of hallmark features obvious from the beginning that tend to suggest that this is the most likely explanation," he added.

The prosecution had attempted to "erect an evidential edifice" based on a speck of firearms residue allegedly found in George's coat pocket, said Mr Mansfield. That particle measured half of 1000th of an inch - invisible to the naked eye, he told the jury.

"Not only is it invisible, but by the end of the case we say it will have disappeared altogether. Without it, the prosecution would have no case at all, for there is not other evidential link between this crime and this defendant," said Mr Mansfield.

Not one witness in Gowan Avenue had "described, let alone identified the defendant or anyone else hanging about near No 29 in the vital 30 minutes or so before her death," said Mr Mansfield. None of eight witnesses called by the prosecution saw anyone suspicious, he maintained.

Mr Mansfield reminded the jury that Miss Dando was shot with the muzzle of the gun pressed right up to the left side of her head "which also had the effect of silencing the weapon's discharge. No one heard the shot.

"We say for Jill Dando to have been murdered by such a precision shooting with a single muffled shot, it has to be the work of a professional assassin."