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Friday, 1 August, 2008

Brian Thornton | 17:52 UK time, Friday, 1 August 2008

Here is Kirsty's look ahead to tonight's programme:

"Hello to viewers,

Barry George spent eight years in prison for the murder of the TV presenter Jill Dando, a murder he did not commit. Today after he was found not guilty in a retrial he simply said "I am overwhelmed.". Barry George was convicted of Jill Dando's muder in 2001.
The jury found that he did not have the cognitive abilities to have carried out the crime - according to the clinical psychologist who was by his side throughout the trial Barry George suffers from various medical and psychological problems - including cognitive impairment, anxiety and panic attacks and epilepsy.
His character was at the centre of the retrial. A change of the law allowed the prosecution to introduce "bad character" - the prosecution tried to use the fact that he was regarded as "the local nutter", a loner and a fantasist, against him, - but that backfired and the tactic is now the subject of debate. Is there a danger that the use of so called "bad character" singles out "vulnerable people" for no good reason other than their "vulnerable" behaviour? Tonight we'll discuss the treatment of Barry George.

Also today a jury failed to reach a verdict on the only defendants accused of involvement in the 7/7 bombings. The three men, Mohammad Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali were charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in London in July 2005, the capital's worst peacetime attack, which left 52 dead. We'll hear from our reporter Richard Watson, who's been covering the case, on what happened today, and what the trial revealed about the bombings.

And something altogether different - have you noticed a shortage of broad beans in the shops? We'll explain later.

Do join us."

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    On Barry George my view is whenever the police (who obviously have a very difficult job and deserve our support) everywhere have a high profile case they tend to jump at the easy solution and screw up.

    OJ - though I think he actually did do it the "glove" was not a great idea.

    Murat and the McCanns got shocking treatment.

    Birmingham 6 and Guildford Four etc

    With George lessons have to be learned. The gunpowder particle evidence was thin in the extreme. I think in the first trial it was alleged he reduced the gunpowder in the bullet to suppress the noise. Except he didn't have any real experience with guns it turns out. He also didn't have the capability to work the bullets.

    I can see why he was a suspect but not charged.

    But for me the thing is if the killer was a "hitman" and Dando went home unexpectedly how would they know? If the killer had followed her then that would have been seen on the CCTV images of her I assume.

    Therefore wouldn't the killer have to be local or to have known she was returning home?

  • Comment number 2.

    My opinion of the Police has taken a blow, after hearing their remark about Barry Georges win. 'We regret the decision'. Eight years in Prison and all that, thst entailed. I think it would have been better if they had not said anything, at least until after a reasonable time had passed. Deservable or not, his appeal was successful and he should have been left alone.
    Michae
    Abergavenny

  • Comment number 3.

    re- BAD CHARACTER

    This new 'defence' reminded me that some time ago, when the human genome debate got under way, there was mention of the possible discovery of genes that may predispose individuals to crime and/or violence and some debate about whether this and other 'hard-wired' conditions, such as excessive production of certain hormones, might be used in defence, or at least in mitigation, in criminal trials. Has there been any further research into this?

    Whilst accepting the jury's verdict in the case mentioned, if I were a cynic I might begin to think that these 'excuses' are dreamed up by overpaid defence lawyers and pusillanimous libs who continue to excuse unacceptable behaviour by criminals and discourage prosecution of offenders.

  • Comment number 4.

    I hate broad beans - they taste fowl :p

    However, the shortage, according to today's Daily Telegraph, is because "Britain in the grip of a national shortage of broad beans because of the effects of last year's floods and an invasion of African beetles."

    Source:

  • Comment number 5.

    There are must be thousands of people called loners, and nutters up and down the width and Breadth of the country, some of them ARE working in the Judicial system. Why haven't we banged up some of them? Instead some of them have allegedly gained peerages etc.
    It's incredible that such emotive language is allowed before a jury.
    Being a loner is not a crime, as for being a nutter; I'm sure if you had a poll of which politicians the public thought was a nutter. Most of them would already be running the country! followed closely by those who would like to be!

  • Comment number 6.





  • Comment number 7.

    well first of all, from one neibourhood 'nutter' to another, Id like to congratulate Barry George and his family, his legal team, and everyone involved in fighting his corner. As someone that is also looked upon as 'odd', that does NOT us guilty of a crime, and im willing to bet that YOU THE NORMAL people are FAR more weird than we are, you just hide it better.

    id also like to ask the BBc why newsnight is turned into a fashion show whenever theres a female presenter? Newsnight is not the right place to show off your new blouse. why did kirsty wark feel it was appropriate to wear a rediculously loud blouse tonight (with, I suspect, one eye on newsnight review at the end) when the lead story was as serious as it was?

    Im getting increasing bored of this Ö÷²¥´óÐã, sort it out.

  • Comment number 8.

    I am glad for Barry George as there were always doubts about his conviction. If the theory about 'whackoes and nutters' has any merit we could all be contenders and certainly most politicians. I never thought enough attention was given to the 'foreign hitman' as we were in a war in the Balkans and together with her Crimewatch duties there were enough people out there to warrant a more ernest approach to a more sinister involvement. Jill was high profile and although she reads autocue she could be interpreted as the 'enemy' by the twisted logic of some demented people. I sincerely hope that the authorities excercise the same zeal as they did in the wrongful conviction of Barry George.

  • Comment number 9.

    Someone on the Newsnight team is really having a laugh at Kirsty's wardrobe poor camera man tho'

  • Comment number 10.

    I've just seen Kirsty on iPlayer. What's wrong with Kirsty wearing Pucci prints for goodness sakes? It's summer - it's normal to wear colourful! :p

  • Comment number 11.

    How about a writeup on the apparent coup going on in the Newsnight empire?

    Monday morning, went to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Blogs listing, chose the entry for Mark Urban's blog - and got directed to Michael Crick's blog. Reported the bad link to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã web team, noticed it was still busted on Wednesday, reported it again, and almost a week after the first report - it's still directing to Michael Crick's work!

    It's time for Mark Urban to worry, Clearly the Crickites (Crickets?) are taking over and the Urbanites are being removed from history in a Ö÷²¥´óÐã version of Stalinist revisionism. Either that or Mark U has upset someone in the web team...

  • Comment number 12.

    Goodness, Il Barone turns all sparkly!

    The regeneration has started....

  • Comment number 13.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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