Police Information

NCF Support for Jill Dando Enquiry.

Thu, September 13, 2001

Source: National Crime Faculty

Details of the support given to the Jill Dando enquiry by the National Crime Faculty

 

For the first time a member of The National Crime Faculty has talked about the support given to the Jill Dando Murder enquiry, in an interview with BBC Documentary makers producing a programme called Jill Dando ‘The Story of an Investigation’. 

In response to a request from Detective Chief Inspector Hamish Campbell, the NCF provided a team to assist the investigation into the murder of BBC television presenter Jill Dando.

 Clinical Psychologist Dr Adrian West and Investigation Support Officer & Behavioural Investigative Advisor Detective Inspector Simon Wells, visited both the incident room and Gowan Avenue – the murder scene. They were asked to provide hypotheses about why the murder might have occurred and prioritise a list of possible motivations.

 In his interview with the BBC Dr West described his approach and initial findings during the first weeks of the enquiry. He took advice from experts all over the world and used the relevant research literature to develop inferences as a guide to the enquiry. He went on to explain his close working relationship with the team built up during the course of the enquiry, and how he fully supported the 360° approach to the investigation. 

In his first television interview Dr West described his initial thoughts after visiting the scene. 

“My impression, together with Simon was that whilst this had the appearance of an efficient execution, however difficult this might be for people to comprehend, but what appeared to be an efficient execution could have been just an instance where somebody had got it right, in a very lucky way. The way that she was killed had more hallmarks of being dramatically inspired rather than being professionally directed.”