Judge speaks out for man cleared of Jill Dando's murder
A High Court judge has spoken out against possible police harrassment of Barry George, the man cleared of murdering Crimewatch host Jill Dando in Fulham in 1999.
On Wednesday, Mr George accepted "substantial" libel damages from two newspapers, The Sun and News of the World, after a brief High Court hearing.
News Group Newspapers, which owns the papers, apologised and withdrew "false allegations" which claimed he was a stalker and suggested he had murdered Miss Dando.
Now Mr George, 49, is back in the court fighting a High Court battle over the supervision of his movements by the Metropolitan Police and other agencies.
Mr George was jailed for seven years for the shooting of Miss Dando outside her home in Gowan Avenue, but was cleared at a re-trial last year. He says he should now be free to rebuild his life without constant interference by the police.
The judge spoke out after the police were accused of "unlawfully harassing" Barry George by constantly stopping and questioning him since his acquittal. He said he did not know if these allegations were true but went on: " If he is being harassed by police officers, or anybody else, let it be known I am prepared to say now it should stop."
Mr George suffers from learning difficulties, autism and epilepsy. Ian Glen QC, appearing for him, told the court Mr George was now attempting to re-build his life in the Hackney area, but had been unlawfully stopped on at least 15 occasions.
Mr George is being supervised under a Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement or Mappa, which includes probation officers and the local housing authority, because of fears that he might still pose a public risk.
Lawyers for George asked the High Court in London, in preliminary proceedings, to order the contents of Mappa documents to be disclosed in time for the hearing and to direct the cross examination of witnesses.
Deputy High Court judge Sir George Newman rejected the bulk of the application, saying it was too wide-ranging, and described accusations that monitoring by Mappa had triggered the alleged harassment of Mr George.
However, he did order a statement to be produced to clarify how Mappa operated and its impact on Mr George. A full legal challenge will be heard next March.
December 18, 2009
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