Barry George loses legal compensation bid over wrongful conviction of Jill Dando murder
THE man wrongly convicted of the murder of TV presenter Jill Dando, has lost his legal battle for compensation as a victim of a "miscarriage of justice".
Barry George deserved up to £500,000 after wrongly spending eight years in jail, his lawyers argued at the Court of Appeal today.
However, Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Irwin rejected his claim that the Justice Secretary unfairly and unlawfully decided he was "not innocent enough to be compensated".
They ruled that the Secretary of State was "entirely justified in the conclusion he reached".
The latest legal move at the Court of Appeal followed the dismissal of his claim by two High Court judges in January.
Lord Justice Richards, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, today rejected an application by Mr George for permission to challenge the January decision.
He announced that the 53-year-old - who was present in court for the ruling - had "no realistic prospects" of success on appeal.
Barry George claimed he deserved money as a victim of a "miscarriage of justice"
Mr George went to the High Court seeking a reconsideration of his case which could have opened the way for him to claim an award for lost earnings and wrongful imprisonment.
It was argued on his behalf that the decision to refuse compensation was "defective and contrary to natural justice".
But Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Irwin ruled that he had "failed the legal test" to receive an award.
The judges said it was reasonable to convict him on the basis of the available evidence at the time of Dando’s murder.
Mr George was originally convicted of Miss Dando's murder in 2001 after a gun discharge particle found in his coat matched samples on Miss Dando.
After his conviction in July 2001, Mr George, of Fulham, was acquitted of killing the 37-year-old BBC presenter at a retrial in August 2008.
Miss Dando was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, west London, in April 1999 – no one else has been convicted over the shooting of the Crimewatch presenter.
