Dando verdict: George had prepared for murder, seeking an alibi after his mission

The crime

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'Why you did it will never be known'

The Defendant

The Crime

The Theories

The Investigation

The Policeman

The QC

The Victim

The Fiance

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

The Defence

The Lawyer

Jill Dando was woken by her fiancé, Alan Farthing, at 6.45am as he prepared to go to work. While he showered she made him a cup of tea and prepared him a bowl of cereal before falling back into bed and resetting the alarm for 8.30am.

Mr Farthing left for Queen Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, where he worked as a consultant gynaecologist, at 7.25am on that Monday, 26 April 1999.

She had just spent the weekend with Mr Farthing, having been away for several days of filming in Dublin. Dressed in a beige raincoat, red button-up jacket, black trousers and boots, she left his home in Bedford Close, Chiswick, west London, shortly after 10.30am – in her convertible blue BMW – to do some everyday chores.

First stop was the BP garage on the Great Western Road to buy petrol and milk. She then drove the short distance to the King's Mall shopping centre in Hammersmith. She bought some fax paper at Rymans and then went to Dixons in search of an ink printer cartridge.

She failed to get the correct one, before going into a nearby store, The Link. She then returned to her car and drove off at 11.04am. Minutes later a passer-by, Sarah Pusey, recognised Ms Dando as she sat in her car in traffic in Fulham Palace Road. The 37-year-old television presenter smiled back. An excited Ms Pusey rang a friend to tell her whom she had seen.

Around 11.20am she went into Copes Fishmongers on Fulham Road – where the assistant remembered she was "in a happy mood, but seemed to be in a bit of a rush and remarked that her car was around the corner" – to pick up two Dover sole for supper. While there she received a call on her cell phone from the Prince Edward Theatre confirming that she had tickets for the West End show, Mamma Mia! She appeared "excited and bubbly" and told the booking clerk the tickets were a present for her fiancé.

To avoid a bottleneck in the Fulham Palace Road she took a back route to her home in Gowan Avenue.

Ms Dando had then planned to nip back to her house and drop off the fish before going to a charity lunch at 12.30pm with her friend, the fellow television presenter Anastasia Cooke, at the elegant dining rooms of the Lainsborough Hotel opposite Broadcasting House in central London. She parked her BMW outside her home and walked to the front door of her house. It was about 11.30am.

While she had been busy with the chores, Barry George had been preparing for murder. Early in the morning he set off from his ground-floor flat about 500 yards away in Crookham Road. He walked the short distance to his victim's home and spent the morning hanging around Gowan Avenue. The police believe he had probably been hiding in the front garden when Ms Dando walked up the path at 11.30am.

While she was leaning over, possibly to unlock the door, a gun was pressed against her head and she was shot once behind the left ear. The 9mm bullet passed through her skull and came out just above her right ear and embedded itself in the left-hand panel at the bottom of the white door. As she lay, bleeding heavily, surrounded by her shopping, her cell phone rang.

Having completed his mission, George rushed back to his flat and changed – pulling on a yellow T-shirt – before dashing back out to try to establish an alibi. He first went to the Hammersmith and Fulham Action for Disability (HAFAD) centre in Greswell Street, five minutes' walk from the murder scene, arriving at about noon. He argued with staff, who knew him from previous visits, before leaving 15 minutes later. He then made his way to the Traffic Cars taxi offices in Fulham Palace Road, a short walk away, arriving just before 1pm. Then managed to get a free ride to the Colon Cancer Concern in Ricketts Street.

Meanwhile, a young police officer, PC Colin Jones – the first member of the law to reach the scene – was shocked at the huge amount of blood and damage caused by the single shot.

Despite emergency treatment outside her home and at nearby Charing Cross Hospital, Ms Dando was certified dead at 1.05pm.

Minutes later, the newsreader Jennie Bond, a friend and colleague, announces her death on the BBC TV news.

There then followed one of the biggest and most high- profile murder hunts in the history of British policing. It was accompanied by huge national and international press coverage and an outpouring of grief from large parts of a nation genuinely shocked at the brutal crime.

The combination of Ms Dando's public image and the highly professional nature of her murder in a quiet London street was what made the incident so utterly compelling.