George reveals stalking alibi over Dando murder

LONDON (Reuters) - Barry George says he could not have shot BBC presenter Jill Dando as he was following another woman at the time of the murder.

George, 48, was freed on Friday after eight years in prison when a jury cleared him of Dando's murder at a retrial.

Speaking to British newspapers after his release, he revealed how he had been stalking another woman on the day of Dando's death nine years ago.

"I walked with her for a bit and from her perspective, maybe it was unwanted attention," George told the News of the World.

"But she didn't make that clear. It didn't seem like she was telling me to go away. If she'd told me to leave I'd have done so straight away."

Prior to his arrest in May 2000 a police surveillance operation watched George approach 38 women over three weeks, but he insisted he was now a changed man.

"I don't want to spend any more time in any of Her Majesty's holiday camps," he told the Sunday Mirror. "I won't follow women anymore. I know it's wrong.

"I will be vigilant from now on. I am never going to give anyone the chance to send me away again. I have changed."

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.