Dando verdict: Single-minded detective who 'solved the puzzle'

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'Why you did it will never be known'

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Deborah Orr: Why was this unstable and messed-up man left largely to fend for himself?

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The Dando case was always going to be the investigation that would make or break the detective in charge of it.

The pressure to solve such a complex and high-profile murder has been immense, but, with yesterday's conviction, Detective Superintendent Hamish Campbell can enjoy the plaudits and inevitable promotion that will follow.

The 44-year-old was sitting in his office in Earl's Court, west London, on 26 April 1999 when a fingerprint officer told him that a woman had been murdered. At that time, he was told she had been stabbed.

It was only while driving the two miles to the scene that he learnt by radio the victim's identity. Within the hour, standing outside the front door of 29 Gowan Avenue, fellow detectives were briefing him.

In the late 1980s he had interviewed Barry George but, despite the one-line reference in police records, Mr Campbell has no recollection of his encounter with the man who was to become his chief suspect.

Mr Campbell was partly chosen for the job of investigating the Dando murder because of his reputation for single- mindedness and dogged professionalism during long and complex inquiries.

He is classed by colleagues as a deep thinker who keeps his emotions and private life close to his chest but he is thought of as a good team player.

Mr Campbell has always been careful to characterise the murder as a puzzle rather than a personal crusade, perhaps mindful of the fate of the officer in charge of the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry. Such was the obsession of Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield that he was moved off the investigation and died a broken man.

Not naturally at ease in the glare of national and international media attention he has struggled to overcome his slightly stilted style. He is better briefing journalists informally and off the record than sitting under the spotlights in a press conference.

Despite his repeated insistence that the inquiry was progressing and that the killer would be caught, the pressure mounted as months of apparently fruitless worked ticked by and the cost of the investigation topped the £2m mark.

One of his jobs had been to keep up the morale and focus of his team of 47 detectives. At one stage, when the investigation appeared to be bogged down and getting nowhere, he told his squad that if any officer thought they were not going to catch their man they should stand down and move to another inquiry. Nobody did.

When the news came through about Barry George's arrest, Mr Campbell's murder squad were jubilant – they were happy they had got their man.

The case had been playing havoc with Mr Campbell's twice-weekly judo training schedule. He is a black belt.

A typical working day for him started before 8am at his office and frequently stretching well into the evening. Balding, 6ft tall and with a rugby player's build, Mr Campbell favours dark suits, white shirts and conservative ties. He is also a dedicated family man.

Of Scottish descent and brought up in a middle-class family in south-east England, Mr Campbell went to a public school but failed to pursue a degree or accelerated promotion early in his police career.

He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1974 and became a detective sergeant in Chelsea five years later before moving to work in criminal intelligence, and then on to the anti- terrorist branch.

In the early 1990s, he received three commendations for his work on murder inquiries, a rape investigation and in the anti-terrorist branch.

Mr Campbell was appointed a senior investigation officer in the murder squad covering central London only a few months before Ms Dando was killed on her doorstep.

At the time of the shooting, he was already having to cope with two other long-running and difficult investigations. One is the hunt for the sex killer of Katrina Koneva, a 12-year-old schoolgirl, who was murdered in Hammersmith in 1997. The second is the case of Gracia Morton, the Argentinian wife of a London businessman who vanished in Notting Hill in November 1997. Both cases remain unsolved.