Barry George cleared of Jill Dando murder

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Barry George was freed from prison after eight years on Friday after being cleared of the murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando at a retrial.

Dando, 37, was shot with a gun pressed against her head on the doorstep of her London home in April 1999. Her murder stunned the nation and prompted one of the police force's biggest murder investigations.

George, 48, was arrested a year later and convicted in 2001. He was a loner who stalked women and took thousands of photographs of them as they walked home, but always maintained he did not kill Dando.

He bowed his head, took a deep breath and his eyes filled with tears as the not-guilty verdict was delivered, according to Susan Young, a clinical psychologist sitting next to him in the dock.

"I am overwhelmed," George said in a statement read outside the Old Bailey in London by his solicitor Jeremy Moore. "I want to thank my family and legal team."

His sister Michelle Diskin, who has campaigned for his release and was in court to hear the verdict, punched the air and cried "yes". George was driven from court in a black taxi.

Defence lawyer William Clegg had argued in court that George lacked the skills, ability, motive or expertise to have committed such a crime.

During the retrial, the prosecution did not use a key piece of firearms evidence that was central to the first conviction.