Mr George, 41, unemployed, form Fulham, West London, denies murdering Miss Dando, 37, outside her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, in April 1999.
The court has been told that she was killed with a single shot through her head, probably as she crouched at her killer’s feet with the handgun pressed hard against the left side of her head. There are no witnesses and the murder weapon was never found.
Mr Pownall said that the particle found in the inside right hand pocket of the coat probably came from the percussion primer residue from a primer cap in the base of a bullet casing.
The residue found after the firing of the sort of round used to murder Miss Dando, a Remmington 9mm short, comprised lead, antimony, Barium and aluminium, he said. Similar residues are found in about twenty percent of primer caps.
A forensic expert found that the particle from the coat contained Barium, aluminium and a trace of Lead. The three particles from the hair and the particle from the coat could have originated during the firing of the bullet recovered from the murder scene. Mr Pownall said.
He added that the absence of elements such as Magnesium and Sulphur suggested that it was not caused by fireworks, and a test firing of a bullet with a primer cap identical to that in the round that killed Miss Dando produced residue that was “exactly the same” as that in Mr George’s coat.
Mr Pownall told the jury how there was no fault as it would have been difficult to contaminate the coat deliberately with so small a particle/.
The police wore overalls and latex gloves and the coat was sealed in a bag. It is no coincidence that this defendant happens to have a particle in the inside pocket of his coat which he admits he might have been wearing that day. This aspect of the case provides compelling evidence of his guilt.
Mr Pownall said the residue particles can remain in pockets “indefinitely” and are resistant to water and cleaning agents.
The prosecution concluded “whatever notional category of potential assassin might be speculatively identified in the course of this trial, you can be sure the components I have endeavoured to supply are collectively unique.
Although he might have no rational motive this defendant short Jill Dando.”
I think it is amazing how little evidence it takes to prove someone innocent or guilty. In this case it only took a spec of residue one thousandth of a millimetre to prove him guilty. Long awaited was this prosecution for the murder of the celebrity Jill Dando.
I think it is good that it takes so little to prove the guilty party guilty but in taking so little evidence there must be some errors. It says that the same sort of residue is found in 20 % of other gun residue and therefore must cut it down but is it enough to put a person in prison for life with no gun or witnesses. Also the gun residue could have been from another time as a member of the forensic team said that this residue an stay there in definitely, this means it could be from any of the blank firing replica guns he had. Mr George was said to have been seen hanging around the area. This all could be a series of coincidences but there seems to be too many of them in this case for it to be.