Networked Knowledge - Media Reports

[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 7 November 2007 Duncan Campbell of The Guardian reported “Firearms expert has 'hindsight' over Dando trial testimony”.

 He said the scientist who helped convict Barry George of the murder of Jill Dando said yesterday that "with hindsight" he would have testified differently at George's trial, since at that time he was unaware of the likely consequence of his evidence. Robin Keeley worked for the Forensic Science Service (FSS) for more than 30 years and pioneered the identifying of firearms discharge residue. Yesterday he acknowledged to the appeal court that, by itself, a particle of residue he had identified in the pocket of George's coat, when he was arrested almost a year after the TV presenter was shot, in no way linked George to her killing.

George's legal team argue that Mr Keeley's evidence was "crucial" to their client's conviction at the Old Bailey in 2001. George, aged 47, is seeking for a second time to overturn his conviction. Ms Dando, presenter of Crimewatch UK, lived in Fulham, west London, where she was shot on her doorstep in 1999; George lived nearby at that time. Mr Keeley, who has recently left the FSS but is still working as a scientist, told the appeal court he had answered all questions put to him as an expert witness in the trial. "I did my best at the time," he said. "I was in the witness box for a long time." Asked by William Clegg QC, for George, if, with hindsight, he might have made it clearer that evidence of the firearms residue was "neutral" and "inconclusive", Mr Keeley said: "If it led to a misunderstanding, with hindsight I say I would have done it differently."

While agreeing the "neutrality" of the evidence was not present "in terms" in his witness statement, he added: "What I wrote there was what I believed. I wasn't led in any way ... In hindsight, if it any way it caused misunderstanding or confusion, of course I would have done it differently. I wasn't aware it would have consequences such as it has had in recent reports." He said it was "unlikely but possible" the particle could have survived in George's pocket for a year. Mr Keeley agreed that, after the trial, he had a conversation with a colleague, Ian Evett, and agreed the residue evidence was "neutral". The court has already heard that FSS colleagues were concerned undue weight had been given to the evidence.

Orlando Pownall QC, for the crown, told the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice Simon, that the firearms evidence had been presented to the jury "not as a foundation stone of the crown's case". There had been also been identification evidence which placed George at least three times in the street on which the murder took place. The residue evidence, he said, was never suggested to be freestanding and conclusive in itself. "There was other evidence in abundance." George, who has severe learning difficulties, attended court yesterday in the company of a clinical psychologist.

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