An 83-year-old pensioner, Ken Williams, has come forward with a new claim regarding the unsolved murder of TV presenter Jill Dando more than 26 years ago. Ken, who lives in Fulham, South West London, believes he saw the man responsible on the day of the murder.
Ken says he had just left a bookmaker when he witnessed an athletic-looking man running erratically from Gowan Avenue into traffic, very close—about 300 metres—to where Jill Dando’s body was later found on Fulham Palace Road. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Ken described the man’s behaviour as "mad," running across moving traffic and even spinning off the bonnet of a moving car before grabbing a nearby pole. "He was agile, fit," Ken said. "No ordinary person could have done what he did." He estimates the man was in his late 30s, about 5ft 10 or 11, of medium build with black, collar-length hair, and wearing a dark suit with what appeared to be an inside-out coat or bodywarmer.
Ken first gave this account to police five days after the murder, describing the man as acting strangely and running without apparent reason. He also said the suspect was definitely not Barry George, a local man who was later charged with Jill’s murder but whom Ken had seen around before and believed incapable of the athletic manoeuvres he witnessed.
Jill Dando, who was 37 at the time, was fatally shot outside her home on 26 April 1999. She was a well-known BBC presenter, hosting shows such as Crimewatch and Holiday. Her murder shocked the nation and remains unsolved despite extensive police investigations.
Recently, new attention has been drawn to a Serbian former assassin, Milorad Ulemek, who has been suspected in connection with Jill’s killing. Ulemek, now 57 and serving a 40-year sentence in Serbia for other crimes, led a hit squad during the regime of former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Last year, following an investigation by the Mirror, a forensic facial comparison expert noted a strong resemblance between Ulemek and a man captured on CCTV near the scene of the crime. The newspaper also reported that a van driver and a woman motorist each separately believed they saw Ulemek on Fulham Palace Road on the morning of the murder.
At the time Jill was killed, UK military forces were conducting bombing operations over Serbia, and it was considered that Jill may have been targeted for her prominent role in a BBC charity appeal for Kosovan refugees. Multiple witnesses described seeing a white male in dark, smart clothing—often described as running and sweating heavily—near the murder scene on that morning. British police had compiled an e-fit of a "sweating man" and sought to trace and interview individuals matching that description as part of the enquiry.
Finger and palm prints found on the pole the suspect grabbed have not been identified, and Ken Williams has urged that these prints be compared to those of Ulemek. However, retired detective Hamish Campbell, who led the original murder investigation, has expressed the view that neither the "sweating man" nor the "running man" spotted shortly before the murder were likely the killer, based on detailed analyses of witness sightings.
The Metropolitan Police have stated that no unsolved murder case is ever closed and that detectives remain open to considering any new information that could assist in the investigation.
Ken Williams, who gave evidence during Barry George’s Old Bailey trial, has spoken publicly for the first time since, reaffirming his conviction that he saw the real killer on the day Jill Dando was murdered.
Source: Noah Wire Services