Second Jill Dando murder witness claims ruthless assassin is the mysterious Man X
A witness driving close to the home of Jill Dando the night she was shot and killed has said they think they may have seen a ruthless assassin running near to the scene
Years on from the murder of beloved BBC presenter Jill Dando, a van driver who claims he saw a man running from the scene has now said he thinks they saw a ruthless assassin.
The key witness was driving close to Jill’s home in Fulham Palace Road in southwest London the night she was shot dead on April 26, 1999, aged 37. They said they saw a man in a dark suit who sprinted in front of his Ford Transit without looking.
After seeing pictures of ruthless Serbian assassin Milorad Ulemek, the witness told the Mirror “he does look like the man I saw”.
The former van driver said he is "80% sure" it was Ulemek who he came within feet of running over soon after the star was shot on her doorstep.
Last year, a female witness said she was certain she had seen Ulemek sprinting along the same stretch of road at around the same time.
Ulemek, now aged 57, was the head of a unit of hitmen who targeted opponents of brutal dictator-president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic.
Milosevic died in 2006 while he was being prosecuted for war crimes. The lead prosecutor in that case was Sir Geoffrey Nice and he thinks Ulemek should be investigated over the Jill's murder in light of what the witnesses have said.
British planes were bombing Serbia amid the raging Yugoslav war when Jill was shot. Hours after Jill was killed, the BBC took a call claiming the death was in response to the attack.
The van driver has said police should investigate Ulemek, who is currently serving 40 years in jail in Serbia as a twice convicted murderer.
The man contacted police once he heard of Jill’s murder, which took place around 600 metres away.
He said: "I had a good clear look at this male as he was about two or three metres away from me, and was in my sight for about five seconds, I would possibly recognise him again."
The former van driver said recently: "Anyone else would have said f*** off or sorry but he didn't say anything, he just wanted to get away and that's what made me suspicious. It looked like he was running from something. If I had known I would have got hold of him."
The suspect was around five feet 10 or 11, in his late 20s or early 30s and wearing a dark "suit-type jacket" with matching trousers. They also had a medium build and short black hair that was longer on top.
At the time of Jill’s death, Ulemek was 31, of a similar build, height and hair colour and the description matched that given by a female motorist.
She said last year that she believes Ulemek was the man she saw sprinting. Police files reveal she picked him out as "Man X" caught on CCTV in a nearby tube station.
The man in the CCTV is known as ‘N6814’. A facial comparison compiled by expert Emi Polito last year compared N6814 to Ulemek and found they had a similar mouth, chin and hairline to Ulemek
In 2008, local man Barry George had his murder conviction quashed after he was found guilty of the murder. George, who has severe learning difficulties, spent eight years in jail.
In light of the information from witnesses, Fulham MP Ben Coleman, veteran BBC correspondent and Jill’s friend John Simpson and former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal all called on the findings to be reviewed.
The Met said the investiagation is in an "inactive phase" but that "no unsolved murder is ever closed and detectives would consider any new information provided to assess whether it represented a new and realistic line of enquiry".
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