Female diplomat in tears as she tells court: 'I was chased and grabbed by Dando killer'

A diplomat broke down in tears yesterday as she recalled the moment she was grabbed in the street by the loner accused of murdering Jill Dando.

Claudia Casey, 40, sobbed as she described how she was forced to jump into a passing car to escape from Barry George.

The Old Bailey was told how the former BBC messenger approached her as she walked home in Fulham, South West London, on a Sunday night in 1995.

The retrial has heard that the 48-year-old allegedly targeted a string of women, photographing their movements and following them home, before he shot Miss Dando on her Fulham doorstep in 1999.

Miss Casey, who works for the Foreign Office in London, told the jury: 'I felt there was someone following right behind me and he caught up and started talking to me and I just ignored him.

'He kept saying, "I would like to talk to you, I want to talk to you."

'I completely ignored him the first time, but when he continued I said, "No, thank you." Alarm bells were ringing because he wasn't going away.

'He handed me a business card and it said Freddie Bulsara. I knew that was Freddie Mercury's real name, so I realised there was something very strange about this guy.'

Miss Casey told jurors that she noticed he was wearing a bomber jacket with 'Freddie Mercury' stitched on to the back.

An artist's impression of Claudia Casey in the dock at the Old Bailey where she gave evidence against Barry George

'That's when I knew I had to get away from him. I think I started running and that's when he grabbed my arm,' she said. 'I just tried to shake him off. I ran and somehow I half-pushed, half-shoved him at the same time.

'He just kept saying, "I only want to talk to you, I only want to talk to you." He had hold of me for about ten seconds.'

Miss Casey said she ran past her home so George would not know her address and crouched beside a parked car to think .

She said when a car appeared she leapt in front of it.

'I just opened the passenger door and jumped in. I didn't know who was in the car, I just got inside it because I thought it would be safer.'

Armed: Barry George, holding a gun, poses in a gas mask in a photograph found on undeveloped film at his flat

The jury of eight women and four men heard that the driver took her home, where she phoned her mother. The court heard Miss Casey failed to identify George after his arrest - the prosecution said he had grown a thick goatee beard.

George was not present while the evidence was being given.

A second witness, Angela Gordon, told how in around 1985 a neighbour tried to kiss her. The prosecution claim the neighbour is Barry George.

The witness said that she was opening the door to her block of flats when the man appeared.

'He asked me if I lived here. He told me he was in the SAS and asked if he could kiss me. I said no. Obviously I was trying to get the key in the door. He asked again if he could kiss me and I said no,' Mrs Gordon added.

Barry George is on trial for the 1999 murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando

She said the man might have made a third request to kiss her and wanted to know in which flat she lived. She pointed to one of the top flats, although she actually lived on the ground floor.

Mrs Gordon said that she saw him again about 18 months later in the street when she realised that he lived opposite her.

Margaret Milortholland also described encounters in 1992 with a man she later identified as George.

She said he followed her from a Tube train and subsequently turned up at her flat in Fulham.

The first incident had been on the train, where he stared at her, and later realised he was following her.

Despite trying to lose him, he caught up with her and asked her out to dinner. She said: 'My heart was pounding, I was petrified.'

Six months after turning up on her doorstep, she said George pressed his thigh against her on a bus.

After leaving the bus, George tried to talk to her, but she said she told him to go away and he shouted abuse before finally storming off.

It is claimed Miss Dando, 37, was killed by George because he hated the BBC and had a fascination with women living in the Fulham area.

The presenter was shot dead on her doorstep in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, on April 26, 1999.

George denies murder. The trial was adjourned to Monday.