Police ‘ignored’ calls claiming Jill Dando killing was Serbian revenge hit, claims new documentary

Police dismissed a telephone call claiming responsibility for the murder of Jill Dando in revenge for the NATO bombing of Serbian TV headquarters, a new documentary claims.

It has emerged that a man with an east European accent made a call within hours of the murder of the broadcaster on the morning of 26 April 1999, in which the killing was linked to the bombing in Belgrade three days earlier, when more than a dozen civilians died.

According to a summary of the message found by the ITV documentary the caller said: “Re the murder of journalist tell your Prime Minister in Belgrade 15 killed so 14 more to go.”

It is not clear whether the call was made to the BBC, where Ms Dando worked, but it was passed to detectives by 3pm on the day of her death.

Two further phone calls came in the days that followed, also appearing to claim responsibilty for the murder.

But these appear to have been dismissed or not followed up by Metropolitan Police officers investigating Ms Dando’s killing outside her home in Fulham.

The claims will once again raise questions about the police investigation and the failure to find the killer responsible for her death 20 years on.

Barry George, a local man with learning difficulties, was convicted of Ms Dando’s murder at the Old Bailey in 2001, but had his conviction quashed in 2008 following concern over the quality of forensics evidence.

He told the programme: "My conscience was clear - I knew I hadn't done it ."

There had been theories that the popular TV personality was targeted by a Serb hit squad in revenge for the NATO airstrike on Radio Television of Serbia’s HQ - a theory dismissed by police at the time as not credible - but this is the first time the existence of specific calls appearing to claim responsibility has been revealed.

The ITV documentary, Jill Dando – The 20 Year Mystery, being shown on Thursday night, examined dozens of files from the original investigation.

It found that around 11am on the day after the murder, the man who made the first call is believed to have made another to the BBC, saying: "Yesterday I called to add a few more numbers to the list because your government and in particular your Prime Minister Blair murdered, butchered 17 innocent young people.

“He butchered, we butcher back. The first one you had yesterday. The next one will be Tony Hall.”

Police took this call seriously enough for security around Hall, the then BBC’s head of news, to be increased and for his family to be moved to a safe address.

The same man made another call on April 28, saying: “Listen you and the BBC are the voice of your government that's why your reporter is dead because your government killed 17 innocent people.”

However, it appears police did not connect the second two calls to the one made on the day of the murder.

The ITV documentary also found an intelligence report by the then National Crime Intelligence Service (NCIS), which was passed on to the Met Police, suggesting Ms Dando’s murder had been ordered by the Serbian warlord Arkan, who had close links to the Milošević regime in Belgrade.

The NCIS report said there were similarities between the bullet that killed Ms Dando and those used in political assassinations in Germany. It suggested that a gunman had travelled to Britain through Germany and France.

Philip Ingram, a former Colonel with British Army Intelligence between 1992 and 2000, told ITV there appeared to have been enough credible evidence to warrant the Met following up the Serb connection more thoroughly than it did at the time, particularly the phone calls.

He said: “That’s significant because we would have expected someone to try and claim responsibility on the day of the murder and soon afterwards.”

Mr Ingram, who served in the Balkans, added: “If something that significant, because it happened on the day of the murder, was missed then we have to ask the question ‘what else could have been missed?’ Police officer, like everyone else, are human and mistakes can happen, but mistakes can be significant.”

The documentary also re-examined the theory that Ms Dando, 37, was killed in revenge for her work on BBC’s Crimewatch bringing criminals to justice, with one claim that bullets used by organised criminal gangs in Liverpool were similar to the one which killed her.

The Met Police declined to answer questions about its investigation, but said in a statement: “The investigation into the murder of Ms Dando remains an open investigation, and therefore we cannot comment in any detail other than to say we will always explore any new information which may become available.”