Dando case jury misled, court told

George, now 47, was in the dock of the London courtroom to hear argument on his behalf that too much weight was placed during his 2001 Old Bailey trial on the significance of the finding of a single particle on his coat following his arrest.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice Simon, are being asked to rule that George's conviction is "unsafe" in the light of fresh scientific evidence.

His QC, William Clegg, told the Court of Appeal that new expert evidence relating to the finding of the speck of firearm discharge residue (FDR) - which cannot be seen with the naked eye and was "one two thousandth of an inch in size" - was that it was "inconclusive" and could offer no assistance to a jury in assessing guilt.

Mr Clegg told the packed court, where George's sister Michelle Diskin sat watching proceedings: "Although there was clearly other important evidence in addition to the FDR the effect of neutralising the FDR evidence must be to render the conviction unsafe."

It is George's second appeal over a jury's verdict that he shot the 37-year-old BBC News, Crimewatch and Holiday presenter on the steps of her home in Fulham, south-west London, in April 1999.

George, wearing a blue shirt and dark jacket, spoke only to answer to his name as he was brought into court at the start of the estimated three-day hearing.

He was sentenced to life in July 2001 after being found guilty by a majority of 10 to one and his first challenge to his conviction was rejected by the Court of Appeal in July 2002.

The latest conviction challenge follows a decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, to refer George's case back to the Court of Appeal after a "thorough and intensive review".

The prosecution claimed at trial that the residue linked him to the shooting, but his defence team said the particle was completely unreliable as evidence. George, who lived about half a mile from Miss Dando's home in Gowan Avenue, has always denied being her murderer.