Dando accused was 'acting suspiciously outside her house hours before she was killed'

The man accused of Jill Dando's murder was seen 'staring' at her home just hours before she was shot dead on her doorstep, a court heard yesterday.

A neighbour of the BBC presenter told the Old Bailey she saw Barry George looking at the house that morning.

City trader Susan Mayes picked out George, 48, in a video ID parade 18 months later. 'I saw the defendant,' she told jurors yesterday. 'I was certain that was the person I had seen.'

She said that when George realised she was watching him, he looked at the ground and tried to hide his face.

Later that day Miss Dando, 37, was shot dead outside her home on Gowan Avenue in Fulham, South-West London.

George, a former BBC messenger of nearby Crookham Road, denies murdering the former Crimewatch host.

Miss Mayes was going to work around 7am on April 26 1999 when she spotted a 'scruffy' man on the opposite side of Gowan Avenue.

'I saw the defendant,' she told the court. 'He was standing on the north side of the road next to a car that was double parked.'

She went on: 'When I first noticed him he was staring at the houses on the left hand side of the road. I recall he was looking at the houses either side of him.

'I remember him turning round to look at the houses on my side of the road.

'As I got nearer to him he started cleaning his windscreen in a strange way. He was looking at the ground.'

'Suspicious': Barry George was allegedly spotted lurking outside the London home of TV presenter Jill Dando, left, hours before she was shot dead

She showed how he covered his face with his arm, and was not looking at what he was cleaning, nor using a cloth.

'I thought this man doesn't want to be seen. I thought it was odd.

'As I drew up alongside him I was looking at him and carried on looking at him for a few seconds afterwards.'

Miss Mayes said the man was around 5ft 10in tall, stocky, of 'Mediterranean' appearance, with shoulder length black or dark brown hair.

She said he wore a dark suit, white shirt with an open neck and no tie. 'I got the impression he was quite scruffy.'

Miss Mayes picked George out of an identity parade in October 2000.

She admitted having seen e-fits of the wanted man on Crimewatch after the killing, and in at least one newspaper.

This is George's second trial for the murder. The prosecution alleges George was a loner who had obsessions with celebrities and guns, and a grudge against the BBC.

The trial continues.