Police consider Dando case future

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Scotland Yard chiefs are to meet and discuss options in the unsolved murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando.

Barry George was acquitted of her murder after a retrial on Friday - ending his eight years in prison for the crime.

Miss Dando was shot dead on her London doorstep nine years ago. The inquiry generated 2,500 witness statements.

Police options include closing the case, holding an internal review, or passing the case to another force.

After the verdict, Scotland Yard said it was disappointed but respected the court's decision.

Simon Foy, head of Homicide and Serious Crime Command, will attend Monday's meeting with assistant commissioner John Yates, head of Scotland Yard's specialist crime directorate, and Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who led the original murder inquiry.

A Met Police spokesman said the meeting would "consider the way forward".

Mr George's sister Michelle Diskin, who led the fight for his release, has said she hoped the police would launch a re-investigation.

Arrest

Mr George, 48, of Fulham, west London, was cleared of murdering 37-year-old Miss Dando, who was killed on 26 April 1999.

He was arrested a year after the shooting and was first convicted in 2001.

A retrial was ordered after doubt was cast on gunshot residue evidence.

Forensic evidence about a tiny speck of gun residue found in Mr George's coat pocket after his arrest helped secure his original conviction.

But last year, the Court of Appeal ruled new scientific doubts over the evidence meant the conviction had to be quashed, and a retrial was ordered.