I know who killed Jill Dando, says her Crimewatch co-host Nick Ross - and this is why I think Barry George should NEVER have been released

Nick Ross has said he knows who killed Jill Dando on the 25th anniversary of his Crimewatch co-presenter's shocking murder.

The former BBC host has dismissed suggestions that Jill was shot by a Serbian hitman and said Barry George would have an 'uphill task' to prove his innocence if he was granted the new hearing he is demanding.

George is the only person to have been convicted over Jill's murder, although he was later acquitted after experts raised concerns about potential cross-contamination of evidence.

But Mr Ross, whose close friend Jill was just 37 when she was shot in the back of the head arriving at her home in Fulham, West London, in April 1999, says he thinks the prime suspect in her death should never have been released.

The radio and TV presenter says that George - who has repeatedly protested his innocence - has five questions he should have to answer before people take him for his word.

Mr Ross had written an open letter in 2007 to judges at the Court of Appeal saying he was 'confident' George was guilty, although the convicted sex offender would have his murder conviction overturned.

He would later be found unanimously not guilty in a retrial in 2008, seven years after George was originally convicted of her murder. 

Writing in The Times today, Mr Ross  said that the 64-year-old 'would need to explain a damaging series of coincidences' in order to convince him of his innocence.

These include him being spotted on the road where Dando lived before her death and again in an agitated state after she had been shot.

He added that George had a history of sexual violence against women, including convictions for sexual assault and attempted rape, and had been known to stalk people including Princess Diana.

Mr Ross added that recent theories that Jill had been killed by a Serbian hitman in revenge for her coverage of gangs on Crimewatch did not match the evidence that 'almost every element of the crime had the hallmarks of an amateur'.

He claimed that Jill's killer had 'waited conspicuously outside her house' before committing the act in the street where people could hear the gun, itself a modified starting pistol prone to jamming, and press the weapon itself against her head potentially leaving behind evidence.

He wrote: 'The forensic psychologist who analysed the murder quickly concluded that any three of these features would suggest that the killer was not only an amateur but was taking ill-considered risks. 

'He advised that the murderer would be a classic loner with a severe personality disorder. 

'Indeed, the closest parallels to Dando's murder - famous people shot dead on their doorsteps such as Gianni Versace and John Lennon - were carried out by people uncannily like George.'

Mr Ross said he felt the basis for overturning George's original conviction - that there were doubts over the reliability of evidence over gunshot residue found in the defendant's coat pocket - was weak.

He claimed that the 'second thoughts' displayed by forensic scientists over the forearm discharge residue 'misunderstood the play of chance', adding: 'The appeal should have been disallowed, there should not have been another trial, and George should not have been released.'

The former lead detective in her murder investigation told the Mail last week Jill's killing 'had the hallmarks of the loner acting because of a political motivation, anger, or just an obsessive personality'.

Former Met Police DCI Hamish Campbell said: 'The rationale for the gangland theory, the Russians, the Serbs, the Adams, anyone from Crimewatch, was just never viable.

'I wrote in my personal notes, in earliest weeks, that I considered the killing to be the work of the loner or the obsessive. Many months later I recorded that I still feared the loner or an ill man was responsible.

'Twenty-five years later, there's still nothing from the vast criminal networks. No one emerging. So it must have been a loner, or at least someone acting on their own initiative. That I feel sure of.'

He added 'George was a convicted sex offender [he had several previous convictions for sexual assault and attempted rape]. He was a prolific stalker of female strangers for years. He accosted numerous women in the street and outside their homes. He was violent. The list goes on. He had the access to firearms - and had owned some - and he was fixated on celebrity.'

George himself has demanded police investigate whether Jill was killed by Serbian hitman Milorad Ulemek.

A facial comparison expert gave 'limited support' to the theory that twice-convicted killer looks like an unidentified person spotted along the gunman's likely escape route that night.

This is the second lowest on a subjective scale range from 'no support' to 'powerful support'.

At the time of Jill's death, the 56-year-old hitman led a squad of assassins targeting those opposing dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

The journalist made an appeal for Kosovan refugees dying at the hands of his forces, and within hours of her passing, a call claimed the hit was in response to British planes bombing Serbia.

George wants this line of inquiry investigated, and if the assassin is found to be the person responsible, wants him 'brought from Serbia to the UK' so he can be held accountable.

Speaking to The Mirror, George said the hitman should 'face the full letter of the law' if he's found to have murdered the beloved journalist.

But he said he thinks a 'fresh Crown Prosecution Service' should bring the case and 'not anyone who's worked on the previous Dando case'. 

He said he is 'concerned' about the fact the police didn't take any action over a mystery man spotted on CCTV in the area at the time of the murder for almost a year.

He told The Mirror: 'It reinforces that they weren't doing their job properly.'

George wants the mystery man to be looked into 'very heavily' and 'questioned'.

And his loyal sister Michelle, who stood by him when the nation believed him culpable, said it was 'appalling' the CCTV was 'sat on' by police for so long.

She claimed: ' We have spent 24 years trying to fight the British justice system that still wants Barry George in the frame for this.'

George agreed, adding that he believed he was used as a 'scapegoat' and demanded a formal enquiry take place.

The Serbian assassin's lawyer said his client is 'not interested in participating'.

Scotland Yard told The Mirror the investigation into Jill's murder is in an inactive phase but 'no unsolved murder is ever closed'.