Cleared Jill Dando murder suspect Barry George in court fight for compensation The Ministry of Justice refused a £1.4 million compensation claim by Mr George - a convicted sex offender with a history of stalking women - in 2010. He sought a pay-out for lost earnings, wrongful imprisonment, stress and destruction of character but the MoJ said he had no reputation to damage and police had found no evidence pointing to a new suspect in the notorious case. Mr George was found guilty of Miss Dando's murder in 2001 - two years after the television presenter was shot on her doorstep in Fulham, west London. The Court of Appeal quashed that verdict after ruling that a speck of gunpowder in Mr George's coat pocket, which had been crucial in securing his conviction, had no evidential value. He was granted a retrial in August 2008, at which the judge ruled out the firearms residue evidence and the prosecution presented a circumstantial case against him. The trial heard evidence from 14 women who said George had followed them or frightened them as they walked home. A jury of eight women and four men unanimously cleared George. After the verdict, which the Metropolitan Police called "disappointing," a review of the case failed to unearth a new suspect.