Barry George, who was convicted of murdering BBC television presenter Jill Dando has been cleared after a re-trial in London.
Barry George, who was convicted of murdering BBC television presenter Jill Dando has been cleared after a re-trial in London.
The defence had argued that the 48-year-old lacked the skills, ability, motive and expertise to have carried out the crime.
Jill Dando, 37, who was one of the most popular presenters on British television, was shot in the head at point blank range on the doorstep of her London home in 1999.
Her murder stunned the nation and prompted one of the police force's biggest murder investigations.
Barry George, who stalked women and took thousands of photographs of them as they walked home, was convicted of her murder in 2001.
His first appeal failed, but a retrial was ordered when forensic evidence was called into question.
During the retrial, the prosecution did not use a key piece of firearms evidence that was central to the first conviction.
The importance of the speck of gunpowder residue found in George's coat pocket was discredited at an earlier appeal hearing.
Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told the jury that there was no evidence "directly linking George" to the murder.
With no murder weapon, witnesses to the attack or a clear motive, the case was based on circumstantial evidence which failed to convince the jury.
