Journalists have investigated Jill Dando’s murder more honestly than police, says ross clark |
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Perhaps Scotland Yard should be closed down and all criminal investigations be subcontracted out to Panorama. Reporters at the BBC programme couldn't do worse than the Met's sleuths. In fact, give them a tape recorder and a 60-minute slot and they have a habit of opening lines of enquiry which elude the police for years.
Last night's investigation into the murder of Jill Dando (right) in 1999 reaffirms what many have suspected: that while Barry George, who is serving life for the murder, is an oddball with an unhealthy interest in women and guns, there simply isn't any convincing evidence that he committed the crime.
A juror who helped convict him now says she feels she was tricked by the evidence put before her, while a firearms expert says that evidence linking George to the killing should never have been put before the court.
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| A juror who helped convict Barry George now says she feels she was tricked by the evidence |
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It is thanks to Panorama, too, that we know the extent of police incompetence and malpractice in investigating the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993. They failed to spot that alibis had been fabricated, and it is alleged that one detective was receiving money from the father of one of the suspects.
Investigative journalists are frequently condemned for doing anything to make a good headline. But the police are worse. If a handy suspect emerges for a notorious murder, such as Colin Stagg in the case of the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992, they will go to desperate lengths to try to secure a conviction – in that case persuading a policewoman to pose as a satanic fantasist in a vain attempt to extract a confession.
The bizarre plan to entrap Colin Stagg, which collapsed in court, may have got past headline-seeking bigwigs at Scotland Yard. It certainly wouldn't have got past a sober editor at the BBC. 
FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 6, 2006
 Lawrence: the case that won't go away
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