Scotland Yard probes new Serb hitman story

London: Scotland Yard is examining new claims that TV presenter Jill Dando was killed by a Serbian hitman.

Detectives are to interview witnesses who say they heard a man confess during a drinking session in a Belgrade bar.

Crimewatch presenter Miss Dando, 37, was shot dead as she walked from her car to the front door of her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham in April 1999. She was shot in the head with a single bullet.

The Serbian man is said to have taken a theatrical bow in front of drinkers after he boasted about the shooting. He also claimed the killing was in retaliation for a Serbian TV singer who was killed in the Nato bombings of Belgrade.

Barry George, a local misfit with a history of sex offences and stalking women, had been convicted of Miss Dando's murder in 2001. A key piece of evidence - gunshot residue which was found in the coat he had been wearing on the day - was later ruled inadmissible and George was acquitted at a re-trial last August.Since then detectives have launched a major review of the Dando case.

This includes undertaking a full review of the forensic evidence using new scientific techniques which were unavailable at the time of the original inquiry. Items, including the clothes worn by Miss Dando and those recovered from Mr George, are being minutely examined for possible new evidence.

A £50,000 (267,540) reward from the Crimestoppers charity still exists for information that leads to the conviction of Miss Dando's killer. The theory that the TV presenter was assassinated by a Serb hitman, in revenge for the death of a singer during the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999, had been considered by the original team of detectives but was dismissed due to lack of any evidence.

As a result of a call to Crimestoppers, Avon and Somerset police went to Leyhill prison in Gloucestershire to interview Christopher Barrett-Jolley, a former cargo aircraft captain jailed for smuggling £22 million worth of cocaine into Britain in 2002.

Barrett-Jolley, 61, who is said to have been one of the witnesses to the alleged Belgrade confession, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was caught with 600 pounds of the drug on a flight from Jamaica to Southend. At the time he claimed he had been working for the CIA airline Air America.

Reports say that two other witnesses have confirmed the pilot's account of the confession in the Portobello bar.

Police sources however, say that detectives reviewing the case today have received dozens of calls and e-mails from people claiming to have new information.