Police should fully reopen the investigation into the unsolved murder of Jill Dando, a key witness and top barrister have said. They were speaking after the Metropolitan Police this week announced that they are re-examining CCTV relating to the shooting on April 26, 1999.
The Mirror revealed in 2024 that facial recognition technology had highlighted a man - dubbed Man X - caught on camera who looked similar to Serbian hitman Milorad Ulemek. A three-year probe also uncovered witnesses who believed they saw Ulemek near the scene of the beloved star's murder.
CCTV re-examination and Man X
Man X was captured on CCTV inside Putney Bridge station shortly after Jill was killed on her doorstep, around a mile away, in Fulham. Local man Barry George spent eight years in jail for the murder before being cleared at a retrial.
The Met Police said last week that "recent advancements in CCTV enhancement technology" has allowed a re-examination of original footage from the station. Ulemek, now 58, led a unit of hitmen who targeted opponents of brutal Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 while being tried for war crimes.
Call for urgent action
The lead barrister in the prosecution of Milosevic has urged the Met Police to take urgent action to investigate the Mirror's findings. Sir Geoffrey Nice KC said: "This case should be reopened with urgency now, be properly resourced in the public interest as well as in the interests of all concerned parties.
"The CCTV from Putney Bridge station may provide the strongest possible evidence that this could be a miscarriage of justice that needs putting right. The police should compare the CCTV of Man X with Ulemek as a matter of urgency and make public - or at least let those of us pursuing the truth know immediately - their conclusion."
Witness account and expert analysis
Detectives were first alerted to Man X by a key witness who came forward on the day of the murder. The woman had been driving on the Fulham Palace Road at around the time of the shooting when she saw a man in a suit "running for his life". A month later, she picked out Man X in the CCTV as the person she had seen.
The woman told the Mirror on Sunday: "I think the police should look at the whole thing again with a fresh pair of eyes. This poor woman was murdered on her doorstep, she was just trying to go into her house and someone has shot her in the head.
"I don't understand what the police have said about the latest technology allowing them to look at the CCTV because it was really clear, it wasn't grainy. You don't need modern technology, you just need a pair of eyes. It's not terribly technical or difficult."
BBC news legend John Simpson has welcomed the new police review into the murder of his former colleague. When she was shot he was reporting from Serbia as Nato bombed the country. John said of the new line of inquiry: "This certainly sounds encouraging. The identity of Jill’s murderer has been hidden for far too long. Her many friends and colleagues will be hoping that the mystery of her death will finally be solved."
Background and ongoing developments
Last year, the Mirror published a newly unearthed picture of Ulemek showing him in an unusual striped tie like one worn by the wanted man. The Met Police said at the time the investigation was inactive and was not subject to reviews but added officers would assess the information to "understand whether it's a new and realistic line of enquiry".
Cold-case officers are understood to have spent the past 10 months locating and digitising the original CCTV of Man X, who was on the gunman's likely escape route around 20 minutes after Crimewatch host Jill, 37, was shot. Ulemek, a former French Foreign Legionnaire nicknamed Legija, is an infamous paramilitary whose units were responsible for atrocities in the Yugoslav wars.
Forensic video analyst Emi Polito told the Mirror in 2024 that Man X and Ulemek have a similar mouth, chin, hairline and right sideburn, while the general shape and sizes of their noses and right ear were the same. He also highlighted a dent on Ulemek's nose that is not visible in the CCTV image but is evident in a police e-fit of a suspect released in 1999, which he had not seen.
The female witness told the Daily Mirror two years ago she was certain it was Ulemek who she had seen sprinting. A second key witness said he was "80%" sure it was the Serb who nearly ran in front of his van on the same stretch of road.
At the time Jill was shot, UK planes were bombing Serbia and she was one of the most famous faces on TV, presenting BBC shows such as Crimewatch and Holiday. Within hours of her murder, the BBC took a call claiming it was in response to a Nato attack on a Belgrade TV station.
It was feared the former Crimewatch host had been targeted because she fronted a charity appeal for Kosovan refugees. In the Disasters Emergency Committee film on April 6, 1999, Jill called Kosovo a "former Yugoslavian region" which would have enraged Milosevic who saw it as the crucible of his nation.
Last year, the Mirror revealed Ulemek's former spymaster admitted dispatching assassins into Europe at the time Jill was killed. Nearly a year after the murder, detectives homed in on George, a local man with severe learning difficulties. George, now 65, was cleared in 2008 after a retrial. The case was moved to "inactive" in 2015 after a forensic review.
Ulemek is serving a 40-year sentence in Serbia after being convicted of helping plan the assassinations of former President Ivan Stambolic in 2000 and of Prime Minister Zoran Didic in 2003. George is facing trial over historical sex charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
