Jill Dando 'murderer' Barry George was wrongly convicted, says jury foreman

Speaking for the first time, the anonymous juror said that, without crucial evidence which has now been declared 'inconclusive', George would have been acquitted.

He was jailed for life in 2001 for shooting dead the 37-year-old TV presenter outside her home in Fulham, South-West London, two years earlier.

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According to BBC TV's Panorama, a report by the Criminal Cases Review Commission stated that the forensic evidence - a speck of gun residue - was 'inconclusive' and 'should not have been admitted' at George's trial.

The foreman tells the programme tonight: 'It was a key piece of evidence.

'If the trial was to go ahead again tomorrow in exactly the same way but without that evidence, then the verdict would be very different.'

He adds: 'Personally, if it was my decision whether or not to have another trial ... without the firearms evidence, I would say no.

'There's no point in having the trial because there isn't enough evidence to prosecute.'

The review commission has referred the case to the Appeal Court - a step it can only take if it believes there is a realistic chance of a verdict being overruled or found unsafe.

Panorama will feature two jurors from the original trial arguing that if the gun residue had not been shown as evidence in court, they would have found George, 42, not guilty.

Juror Janet Herbert, who first went public with her concerns over the trial last year, says: 'I felt that maybe a wrong decision had been reached ... and however many years we are later I still feel quite strongly about it.

'I felt that one particle was insufficient to prove somebody's guilt of murder.'

The prosecution claimed in 2001 that the residue - discovered on George's coat - was similar to that found on Miss Dando's clothes and hair, as well as the cartridge found at the scene.

Forensics expert Robin Keeley said at the time of the trial: 'It was only one particle but none the less it was there and one couldn't ignore it.

'Now it could be that the wearer of that coat fired a gun.'

New tests show, however, that the residue could have come from one of 230million cartridges sold in the UK that year.

In a report for the review commission, a senior scientist with the Forensic Science Service admitted that he had 'a vague unease' with the way forensic evidence from the first trial was presented in the media.

The service has changed its policy since 2001 and a single particle of firearms residue is now regarded as 'inconclusive' in court.

George's appeal is due to begin on 5 November.

An earlier appeal was rejected in June 2002.