April 26, 1999. 37-year-old BBC reporter Jill Dando, voted Personality of the Year by her employer two years earlier, is shot dead outside her home in Fulham (west London). Although her stalker Barry George was convicted of the murder in 2001, he was later acquitted. The investigation has been stalled ever since.
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BBC journalist Jill Dando was murdered in 1999. — © AP
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Though that may now be about to change. The lawyers of Lisa Brinkworth, a former colleague of Dando, have now submitted documents to a court in Paris that would show that not Dando but Brinkworth was the intended victim.
Undercover for documentary
Everything would revolve around Gérald Marie, the 72-year-old former boss of modeling agency Elite Model Management and the ex-husband of top model Linda Evangelista. According to the documents, Marie, who is accused by several women of sexual abuse, would have hired a Russian hitman to kill Brinkworth (55 in the meantime).
The reason for that? Brinkworth claimed she was abused by Marie in 1998 after she went undercover for a documentary exposing sexual abuse in the fashion industry. “Former Elite CEO Omar Harfouch witnessed when Marie ordered a member of the Russian mafia to to tackle a problem† Shortly afterwards, a BBC journalist died,” the documents read.
Was the hit man mistaken about the victim? Dando and Brinkworth already looked alike: they were both in their thirties, blond, and they had the same build. On top of that, they also practiced the same profession and lived in the same part of London. Dando’s fiancée, Alan Farthing, also turned out to be Brinkworth’s doctor.
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–A photo of Gérald Marie from 2007, alongside model Vanessa Hessler. — © ISOPIX
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“Exploring new information”
It is not yet clear what will happen to the documents. In France, there is a 20-year statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims. However, Lisa Brinkworth’s lawyers believe that this term does not apply here because their client has had to fear for her safety for years. After Dando’s murder, Brinkworth was placed in safe houses for years and, in her own words, was discouraged “by her employer” from taking legal action against Marie.
The documents have also been passed on to London Police Scotland Yard, who have claimed that “new information about the case will always be investigated”.
After the broadcast of the documentary, Gérald Marie sued the BBC for defamation. The fashion magnate demanded 1.7 million pounds from the British public broadcaster and would eventually reach a – for him – successful amicable settlement. As part of the deal, the BBC also promised not to rebroadcast the documentary.
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