UK newsObsessive whose life of fantasy ended in deadly reality
Dando killer Barry George was an oddball loner fixated by women, celebrities - and gunsSpecial report: the Jill Dando case
Barry George yearned to be Gary Glitter, posed as an SAS soldier and pretended to be a professional stuntman. He insisted he was the cousin of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of his favourite band, Queen.
The question for the jurors was whether this serial fantasist who craved attention could have found the notoriety that had previously eluded him in another, more chilling role: Jill Dando's killer.
The answer they reached yesterday was based on the facts of the case, but there was more to George and his twilight world than the evidence presented to court, a side to him that can only be described by the women who became his victims.
For legal reasons, the jury was not told that George has spent convictions for attempted rape and indecent assault.
He was also accused of assaulting his ex-wife a few months into their short-lived marriage.
Thirteen women had given statements to the police saying George had stalked them and there was evidence he had pestered hundreds of others who lived close to his flat in Fulham, developing obsessions that led him to behave in a threatening and frightening manner.
He followed one victim home, telling her: "Now I know where you live."
Police discovered George had compiled lists with the addresses, descriptions, photographs and car registration numbers of almost 100 women. Princess Diana's was among them.
There have been episodes throughout George's life that have defied rational explanation; he was once found hiding in the grounds of Kensington Palace, wearing a balaclava and carrying a knife, a poem to Prince Charles stashed in the pocket of his combat fatigues.
Yet none of this answers the question which has haunted the television presenter's relatives and friends since the moment the trigger was pulled. Why kill Jill?
Detective Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who led the investigation, believes George may have been obsessed with Dando, possibly because she was a celebrity, or because she was an attractive woman who lived nearby.
It is the detective's instinct that George had met her before, though there is no proof, and that George was a "very isolated, lonely and frustrated individual" who was "internally driven".
But could George have accosted Miss Dando on her doorstep and reacted violently when she tried to get away?
A handwritten note found in his messy groundfloor flat in Crookham Road may hint at the truth of what happened on April 26 1999. "I have difficulty handling rejection", George confessed. "I become angry ... it starts a chain of events which is beyond my control."
George seemed to know that there were flaws to his character; he told one woman he befriended that nobody really knew or understood him. "The me they know is not the real me. Perhaps I have another face."
Born on April 15 1960, at Hammersmith hospital, Barry Michael George was the youngest of his parents three children, and the only son. Alfred, his father, was a lorry driver and special constable in the Metropolitan police. He had met George's mother Margaret in London and married her in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in July 1954, when she was 18.
George's eldest sister Michelle lives in Ireland. Another, Susan, two years older than George, died aged 28 when she swallowed her tongue during an epileptic fit.
Barry, too, suffers from epilepsy, and the condition - which was not properly diagnosed until shortly before the trial - may have contributed to the mental problems he seems to have developed.
George's childhood was not easy. His parents' marriage was unstable and led to bitter divorce in December 1973, when Barry was 13.
Naive
Even then George had a fertile imagination, weaving fantasies around his favourite programme, Thunderbirds, which irritated his father, who believed his son was an "oddball" who had been "born naive".
George attended at least three schools before settling at Northcroft juniors in Shepherd's Bush, west London. It had just opened to deal with - in the parlance of the time - "maladjusted children".
Following his parents separation, George's father remarried and emigrated to Australia. Though he moved back to Britain and now lives in Wales, he has not seen his son for 20 years. Margaret told her friends that "when he divorced me, he divorced the kids too".
Aged 14, George moved to a council boarding school for boys who had "emotional and behavioural difficulties".
Staff at Heathermount, set in 14 idyllic acres in Sunningdale, Berkshire, remembered him as a "mummy's boy" who followed one of the matrons "like a lost lamb". The less academic pupils, like George, were encouraged to concentrate on woodwork, metalwork, weaving and gardening, and to perform in ambitious theatre productions, such as La Boheme and The Mikado.
It was here that George's obsession with celebrity began to emerge, insisting to friends and teachers that they should call him Paul Gadd, Gary Glitter's real name.
"He didn't just have posters on his walls like the other kids," said one former member of staff. "He knew every movement, song and dance."
At Heathermount, George may also have had his first contact with guns. In the spring of 1972 the school built a small-bore rifle range, much against the wishes of some parents and governors. Although it closed a year later, George would have known about and probably used the facility.
George often had "funny turns", but staff were not sure whether these episodes were real or feigned. Doctors examined him on two occasions between 1974 and 1976 and concluded there was nothing wrong.
It is now accepted that George does suffer from a mild form of epilepsy, though the experts are divided about its effects. Some believe George deliberately exaggerates the condition, others claim it has caused "severe brain dysfunction".
When George left Heathermount, he moved back to west London to live with his mother. Finding work was difficult - he had no qualifications, and was incapable of concentrating for long periods.
His first and only job was as a messenger with the BBC at Television Centre in Wood Lane. It only lasted four months in 1977 or 1978, but his fascination for the corporation endured until his arrest; he was a regular reader of the in-house magazine Ariel, and had kept four copies of the memorial issue which featured Jill Dando's murder.
Without proper work, George created a number of fictional companies, naming one Xanadu Constructional and Mechanical Engineers. In adverts in the music press, he claimed Jeff Lynne - lead singer of the 70s band the Electric Light Orchestra - was the manager.
It was a lie. He even tried to join the Metropolitan Police, but was turned down before interview.
His reaction to this earned him a criminal record. Using the Met's headed paper, he made a false warrant card and began posing as a police officer, claiming he was a detective based in Hammersmith.
It was a crude deception and he was found out when he approached a woman who seemed to be having difficulties with her husband. He took her address and visited her the next day but her son became suspicious and called the police.
Dressed in a glittery jacket, sleeves rolled up, his hair flopping over his eyes, George revelled in his appearance at Kingston crown court in May 1980, which was covered by the local press.
He described himself as an "unemployed musician" and said he was the former managing director of a company which handled three rock bands. He told the court his name was Paul Gadd and said he was related to Lynne. It was all untrue.
Two months later, still using the name Gadd, George went to the offices of a newspaper in Ealing, west London, and said he was the British karate champion. He claimed he won the title by breaking 47 slate tiles with a single chop of his right hand, and showed the reporter an unengraved trophy.
The newspaper made checks and, in a frontpage story, exposed George as a fake.
Stunt
In 1981 George was again trying to make headlines. Somehow he persuaded a stadium in Derby to stage a stunt in which he jumped over a row of double decker buses on his rollerskates.
The stadium sold hundreds of tickets for the event. At the last moment having seen the platform and ramp which had been constructed George tried to back down but plucked up courage and managed to complete the leap.
But George was not just a performer. He could be predator too.
In March 1980 an actress called June Elvin, who had appeared in Ealing films and the police series Z Cars, was confronted by a man as she walked into the entrance hall of her block of flats in Barons Court, west London.
"He pulled open one side of the gates to the lift, I did the other," she said. "It was a tiny lift with only room for two. Halfway up he stopped the lift and attacked me. He tried to touch me, to put my hand up my skirt. I screamed and shouted and fought back."
The man fled when a friend of Ms Elvin's heard the commotion and ran to help.
Though he was acquitted of this offence inn June 1981, George was convicted of assaulting another woman.
According to reports of this case, George followed the civil servant and asked her out. When she rejected him, he grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt. He received a three-month suspended prison sentence.
Nevertheless, in late 1981 and early 1982 he was stopped by police on three different occasions over allegations that he was harassing women.
In February, 1982, George approached a 20-year-old languages student outside Turnham Green Tube station in west London. She thought he was a harmless eccentric. He walked with her and tried to impress her by saying "How are you?" in German.
In a dark stairwell outside her parent's flat in Acton, George attacked her. He clamped his hand over her mouth and pushed her arm behind her back. Terrified she was going to suffocate, she pleaded with him to let her go, but he con tinued, forcing her to the ground and pulling at her clothing.
The woman, who is now married with two children, claimed she was raped.
"She remembers the incident with clarity," said an officer from the Dando murder squad who went to see her. "She said Barry seemed to snap when she told him to 'fuck off'. He couldn't understand why she was pushing him away." As he ran off, he shouted that he was "sorry".
George denied the rape allegation and the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge to avoid a trial.
He appeared at the Old Bailey in March 1983 under the name Steve Majors (Lee Majors played Steve Austin in the popular series the Six Million Dollar Man). The judge was told he assaulted her because he felt "lonely and rejected".
George was convicted of attempted rape and sentenced to 33 months. He served 23 before being released.
How he was caught for this offence is a story in itself. On January 10 1983, the royal protection squad found George hiding in the bushes at Kensington Palace, wearing khaki, carrying a knife and a length of rope. He never explained why he was there and he was not charged with an offence because officers swiftly linked him to the sex attack.
Initially, George denied involvement, but a bright detective inspector trapped him by asking if he knew any German. George repeated the phrase "How are you?". He broke down and confessed.
Bride
To the amazement of his family, George married in May 1989. His bride, a 35-year-old Japanese language student called Itsuko Toide, had moved into the flat above him the year before. She has said he "pestered" her into the ceremony at Fulham register office.
Four months after the wedding, Miss Toide went to the police claiming George had assaulted her. He was arrested and charged on October 29 1989, but the case was dropped before it reached court. Within a year, the marriage had collapsed.
George told one neighbour, Kim Ferris, that his wife had left him "to stay with a friend because he was doing his place up".
In fact, Ms Toide had returned to Sendai, 300 miles north of Tokyo, where she lives with her 75-year-old mother.
She refused to talk to the Dando squad, but expressed shock to reporters that her former husband was accused of murdering Miss Dando. "I remember thinking she looked just like your Princess Diana," she said on being told.
George's criminal record briefly made him a potential suspect for the murder of Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed on Wimbledon Common in 1992. He was interviewed, not under caution, and released.
George was arrested and charged with indecent assault on two other occasions - in April 1990 and January 1992, but neither case was pursued to court.
His abuse of women continued throughout the 90s, though he was not convicted of any offences.
Detectives found hundreds of rolls of undeveloped film in his flat. When processed, they showed George had taken thousands of photographs of 418 different women. All the photos had been taken secretly.
After his arrest, 43 women who lived in the neighbourhood claimed they had been harassed by George, including a diplomat who said he accosted her in Lambrook Terrace, two streets from Gowan Avenue, four years ago.
The woman claimed he flashed a business card which said he was Freddie Mercury's cousin and followed her when she turned away. She alleged that George grabbed her, but she broke free, ran away and hid behind bushes.
Another woman claimed George began following her in 1991 and tried to kiss her when she was walking down the street.
She brushed him off but George persisted. Sometime later, he approached her again as she tried to unlock her frontdoor and said "Now I know where you live". Three years later, he asked to clean her car, and when she refused he left a note which said: "I like blondes."
Thirteen women were prepared to tell the trial they had been stalked by George and the prosecution hoped to call at least five of them as witnesses. However, the judge ruled their evidence inadmissible .
Digging further into his past, the murder squad discovered George's fascination with the military went beyond using the name Thomas Palmer - the SAS soldier who led the raid on the Iranian embassy in 1980.
In December 1981 he joined the Terri torial Army, 10th batallion Parachute regiment, based at White City, using the name Steve Majors. He attended 29 voluntary training days, learning to strip, assemble and fire rifles and machine guns. He was discharged the following November.
In August 1982 he joined the Kensington and Chelsea gun club. He attended eight sessions but his application for full membership was rejected. When police first interviewed George he claimed he had no contact with firearms after leaving the TA. This was a lie.
By 1985 he had collected several pieces of military equipment, including an imitation Heckler Koch machine gun, a starting pistol and a gas mask.
A friend he allowed into his room at a bed and breakfast in Kensington saw a third weapon, a polished silver pistol, carefully wrapped in tissue paper and kept in a shoe box.
This gun has never been found.
Police also found a photograph of George posing in a balaclava and gas mask and holding a gun, probably a firing pistol. He also owned a combat knife, as well as shirts, jumpers, a beret and epaulettes from the SAS regiment. Only two weeks before Miss Dando's death he had bought an SAS belt.
George was an avid collector of brochures and magazines for military kit suppliers and gun dealers, and his books included Ambush and Counter Ambush, Ninja the Invisible Assassins and Construction of Hiding Places.
As far as the police were concerned, George's fixation with Freddie Mercury was further proof of his obsessive, irrational behaviour.
He had changed his name by deed poll to Bulsara - Mercury's original name - and for 10 years pretended to be his cousin. On the first anniversary of Mercury's death, George hired a white limousine and drove to the former singer's house. He left an arch-shaped floral tribute with a gold plaque on the bottom inscribed with a message and signed: "Your cousin Barry Bulsara". Some onlookers asked him for his autograph and he handed out business cards which read Bulsara Production Inc.
Favoured victims of his fictitious stories were Japanese tourists, but they quickly spread the word that George should be avoided. One Japanese website devoted to Queen posted a warning about him. "Everyone be careful of this man. He is a total fraud who targets Japanese people," it said.
In the spring of 1994, George went to the London bureau of a Japanese paper to suggest they write a story about him. He handed over his Bulsara Productions card but was sent on his way.
Guardian journalist Jonathan Watts, then working for the Japanese paper, said: "We talked for no more than 15 minutes but it was enough to leave a lasting impression that he was a man living in a fantasy world."
When Princess Diana died in 1997, George was one of the first mourners outside Westminster Abbey. Pinned to his lapels were two ribbons, one black as a mark of respect to the Princess, one red in memory of Freddie Mercury.
As he waited amongst the well-wishers he regaled them with tales of his life "on the road" with the band Queen. He left his own tribute message to Princess Diana outside Buckingham Palace, signing it "Barry Bulsara, Freddie Mercury's cousin".
George's interest in celebrity seems to have focused in on television and especially the BBC. Among the thousands of documents taken from his flat were numbers, addresses and contact details of BBC staff. He hoarded BBC notepads and headed paper, and had photos of Emma Freud and Anthea Turner.
Yet his links with Miss Dando remain vague. Three years before the shooting he told a shopkeeper that he had met both her and Princess Diana. Before that he told a BBC employee Sophia Wellington that he disliked the corporation because of the way it had treated Freddie Mercury.
Fantasy
In a note of condolence he wrote after her death, George claimed that he had been present when Mercury was interviewed by Miss Dando - another fantasy. He also falsely claimed he went to the same baptist church as her.
George seemed to know he was suffering from some kind of mental illness. On one handwritten note found in his flat, he had written: "I am suffering from long-term depression."
Detectives also found a note from a GP, dated October 28 1997, which said: "He quite clearly has a personality disorder. Otherwise, he is of normal, average intelligence."
The doctor recommended George should have a proper psychiatric assessment at the Riverside health authority in west London. An appointment was made, but George didn't go.
Doctors who examined George before the trial differed on the likely problem and its extent. It is understood that one report for the prosecution identified "histrionic", "narcissistic" and possible "paranoid" personality disorders; it concluded that George displayed "psychopathic personality characteristics".
One defence psychiatrist, Gisli Gud-Jonsson, from the University of London, concluded that George's epilepsy had caused "seven conditions identifiable as recognised personality disorders".
During the investigation police spoke to experts on stalking to establish whether George was suffering from De Clerambault's syndrome, also known as erotomania. Sufferers often become aware of their victim through the media and establish a delusional fantasy in which they believe they have a special relationship with the person.
When their "love" for him or her is unrequited, violence can follow. Doctors who saw George could not draw any firm conclusions.
Piecing together the fragments of evidence, and churning over the anecdotes of his attitudes towards celebrities and women, the police became convinced they had finally found their man.
In the weeks before George was arrested, the murder squad gathered for a pep talk. At that stage there was no sign of a breakthrough and the team was under pressure. Det Supt Campbell reminded officers they could only investigate to the best of their abilities and hoped they were not down-hearted.
"We're the good guys in all this," he said. "We did not kill Jill. We'll get there."
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