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

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On 5 November 2007 Peter Griffiths of the Daily Telegraph reported “Dando murderer in new appeal”.

He said that the man jailed for life for the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando will begin a second appeal against his conviction today. Barry George, who has always protested his innocence, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2001, two years after Dando was shot on the doorstep of her London home. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) sent the case to the appeal court in June, saying new information cast doubt on crucial firearms evidence at the original trial. It concerns a microscopic particle taken from George's coat, which some experts say may not have come from a gun as was claimed in court.

George's lawyer, Jeremy Moore, said a successful appeal was likely to lead to a retrial. "Even if his conviction is quashed it is our understanding that the Crown Prosecution Service will seek a retrial," he told the Sunday Mirror. The Crown Prosecution Service and Scotland Yard have made no comment before the hearing.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that the rest of the evidence was sufficient to convict George. Dando, 37, was shot in the head outside her Fulham home in April 1999. She was one of the most popular figures on television. Her murder shocked the nation and prompted one of Scotland Yard's biggest murder investigations. Detectives examined a vast range of theories. One theory was that she was killed by a Serbian angry that she had presented a TV fundraiser for Kosovo. Others suggested she was killed by an ex-lover or by an underworld hitman for her work on the BBC's Crimewatch. George, who pretended to be an SAS soldier and liked to pass himself off as a cousin of the late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, lost his last appeal in December 2002.

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