Jill Dando murder accused Barry George unrecognisable after jail stint

The man who was wrongfully imprisoned for murdering television presenter Jill Dando looks completely different to how he did when he was sentenced in 2001.

Barry George spent eight years in prison before he was unanimously acquitted at a retrial. He makes an appearance in a new Netflix documentary after he was released in 2008.

Footage from police showing him being interviewed was used in the documentary too. It also included footage of inside his home, which was completely cluttered and covered in ants and even excrement.

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There were piles of newspapers and magazines, as well as dirty clothes. There was faeces also found on his bed.

In the Netflix documentary, a contributor says that there were ants on the kitchen surfaces and "piles" of excrement around the flat. "If you put that scene in a movie," he says, "you wouldn't believe it, you'd think it's too much, it's over-exaggerated, but it was real."

Barry, who often went by false names including Barry Bulsara, was arrested almost a year after the killing of Jill Dando. He had previously been convicted of attempted rape and indecent assault, and had history with stalking women.

Police also used a photo found in his flat allegedly showing him in a leather jacket and gas mask with a blank-firing gun to build a case against him. Just days after he was arrested, he was charged with murder and a year later sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty.

Barry made three attempts to appeal the conviction, but they were rejected. However in August 2008, he was acquitted unanimously. A retrial had been brought on after new evidence came to light.

His sister Michelle Diskin, who also appears in the documentary, fought to have his conviction over-turned after he told her he had not been responsible for Jill's death. Following his release, Barry moved to Ireland with Michelle.

Speaking in the documentary, he says: "It makes me angry that they have taken eight years of my life." He still denies having been the killer.

He attempted to claim £1.4million for "wrongful imprisonment" in 2010, however it was denied. Then in 2011, the Supreme Court said a "miscarriage of justice" was evidence "so undermined that no conviction could possibly be based upon it".

At the time, High Court judges Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Irwin said: "There was indeed a case upon which a reasonable jury properly directed could have convicted the claimant of murder." Barry was refused any compensation.

In 2013, he was found to be "not innocent enough" in another appeal for compensation, which was denied. His sister Michelle spoke out against the decision at the time.

"He lost his home, his furniture, his clothing and all of his possessions, his place within his community and his church family," she said. "He has had to rely on his pensioner mother, now deceased, on me, and on the Miscarriages of Justice Support Services, who help those poor, wrongly convicted souls to move back into society.

"Barry is innocent. He deserves a financial settlement to compensate for all that was taken from him – everything he owned and eight years of his life."

Tragic Jill was shot dead outside her Fulham home on April 26, 1999, at the age of 37. The case remains unsolved, with no other suspect ever charged.

Who Killed Jill Dando? is available to stream now on Netflix

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