Jill Dando could have killed because she was mistaken for BBC colleague, claims whistleblower

JILL Dando could have been killed by mistake because she lived near a BBC colleague of similar age and looks, it is claimed.

A hitman may have kept watch on Dando and followed her home believing she was reporter Lisa Brinkworth.

Rex

Crimewatch host Dando, 37, was shot dead in 1999 on her doorstep in Fulham, South West London — just a 35- minute walk from fellow blonde Brinkworth’s flat in Holland Road.

It is claimed in court papers in France that fashion guru Gerald Marie may have ordered Vitali Leiba to assassinate ex-undercover reporter Brinkworth, who was then 32.

She was working on a Donal MacIntyre exposé of alleged abuse of models at Marie’s Elite agency.

Agency whistle-blower Omar Harfouch said it was “possible” Leiba blundered.

He said: “If I was Vitaly then . . . I’d go to the BBC and stay for two weeks.

“Then I’d say: ‘She’s blonde, she works at the BBC. I think this could be Lisa’. Then you follow her home.”

MacIntyre rejected talk of a link. Brinkworth did not comment.

Marie, said to be in hiding in Ibiza, has called the claims “fanciful nonsense”.

Barry George, 62, spent almost eight years in jail for Dando’s murder.

He was cleared at a retrial in 2008.

PA:Press Association

The Crimewatch presenter was shot dead outside her home in Fulham in April 1999[/caption]