Jill Dando memorial garden repeatedly trashed by mindless vandals
Jill Dando memorial garden faces being closed permanently after being repeatedly trashed by mindless vandals
- Memorial garden in Weston-Super-Mare was erected after Jill Dando’s killing
- It is filled with her favourite flowers and was designed and constructed by BBC
- However, on Saturday night, the garden was brutally torn apart by vandals
A garden created in memory of murdered TV presenter Jill Dando has been trashed by vandals – and may have to be closed permanently.
The garden in Grove Park in Weston-Super-Mare where Jill was born and raised was created in 2001 after her death, which remains unsolved.
It was designed and constructed by the BBC’s own Ground team as a tribute to Jill.
The garden featured a host of plants and colours which were special to the presenter, including roses, clematis, lavender and various trees and climbers.
But the garden was vandalised on Saturday night, leaving the volunteer organization that cares for the park shocked and appalled – and having to repair all the damage.
A garden created in memory of murdered TV presenter Jill Dando has been trashed by vandals
The garden in Grove Park in Weston-Super-Mare where Jill was born and raised was created in 2001 after her death
Organisation Friends of Grove Park who help maintain the Somerset Park have said they may remove the memorial to curb the damage.
Johnny Boxhall, 54, from Weston-super-Mare said: ‘It’s mindless. We’ve repaired and patched it up countless times now.
‘It’s got to the point where we don’t see the point in doing it anymore as the bunch of feral f***wits will just tear it apart again’.
Several small trees were snapped in the attack, including a dwarf acer and a cherry laurel, and various wooden pagodas were senselessly destroyed.
With damage often taking a long time to repair, and at a cost, Johnny wonders whether the time has come to change approach.
Johnny said: ‘There’s so much time and effort which goes into repairing it that I think it’s time it has to come to an end. Hopefully we can replace it with an iron structure of some sort.
‘We don’t want to get rid of it. There will always be a memorial to Jill Dando but this just can’t go on. They just do it for the heck of it and it’s just such a shame.
BBC Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando, 37, was shot dead outside her west London home in April 1999
‘Why you would rip it apart it beyond me. Truth be told I’d love to take a baseball bat to them but I’m not allowed.’
Police have attempted to confront the issue, with officers patrolling the area in case of any further attempts to vandalise the park, but do not patrol the site in the evening when the vandals seem to strike.
‘We tell the police and the PCSOs about the anti-social behaviour to the garden but they turn up at the wrong time.
‘They work a 9-5 so popping over at 9am and another visit at 4pm isn’t going to sort out the feral teenagers.
‘We’re going to have to act on it ourselves which will more than likely mean removing it and replacing with an iron structure.’
Anyone with information about the vandal attack should contact police on 101.
Journalist and presenter Jill, who was murdered in 1999 outside her home, started her career working for the BBC in Devon.
She became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985 and that year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West.
In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight before being transferred to London the following year where she went on to achieve national fame.
The popular TV presenter was shot dead on Monday, April 26, 1999, outside her home in Fulham, West London.
A man named Barry George was charged and convicted of the murder in July 2001.
After an appeal, and a retrial at the end of 2008, he was found not guilty.
Despite extensive investigations and countless theories, her murder remains unsolved.
What happened to Jill Dando?The theories behind the unsolved murder
Journalist and presenter Jill started her career working for the BBC in Devon.
She became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985 and that year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West.
In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight before being transferred to London the following year where she went on to achieve national fame.
The popular TV presenter was shot dead on Monday, April 26, 1999, outside her home in Fulham, West London.
The murder shocked the nation and has never been solved – making it one of the most infamous cases in Britain.
A man named Barry George was charged and convicted of the murder in July 2001.
After an appeal, and a retrial at the end of 2008, he was found not guilty.
Despite several theories, the murder remains unsolved.
The theories:
IRA revenge killing
One theory is that the IRA targeted the BBC broadcaster because of her links to police through her work presenting Crimewatch
Wayne Aird was serving a life sentence in prison for killing a man two months after Jill Dando was shot
He claimed the IRA was responsible for her death but had not been brought to justice due to concerns it may jeopardise the Northern Ireland peace process
Paedophile ring
In 2014, an anonymous source who is believed to have worked with Jill Dando revealed she was trying to expose a VIP paedophile ring just months before her death
The friend reportedly told the Daily Express: ‘I don’t recall the names of all the stars now and don’t want to implicate anyone, but Jill said they were surprisingly big names.’
Stalker
Dando had a large following due to her TV career, leading the police to believe an opportunistic individual may have been responsible
The police identified 140 people who were ‘obsessed’ with the star. Adding to the theory, one of Jill’s neighbours revealed he had seen a sighting of the possible killer – a 6ft white man aged around 40. In the statement he said he heard a surprised cry from Jill ‘like someone greeting a friend’, suggesting she may have known her murderer
Joe the barman
In 1996 Kenneth Noye was sentenced to life in prison for a road rage killing with the help of a Crimewatch TV appeal – could this have been an act of revenge?
Serbian mafia
15 days before Jill’s murder Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija was shot dead outside his home in Belgrade
Detectives were informed Serbian mobsters who were residing in the UK plotted the assassination over drinks at a nightclub
A message sent to detectives claimed they carried out the hit in revenge for the Nato-led bombing of a Serbian TV station – but this theory has since been discredited by the Daily Mail
A professional hit
Barry George, 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001, but was acquitted seven years later after his conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered
After his release, a review suggested the killing had signs of a professional hit – particularly the ‘hard contact execution – which involves pressing the gun against the head to silence the shot and minimise the blood on the killer’s clothes
An intelligence report identified two suspects from a known London crime family, suggesting the murder could have been in retaliation for a Crimewatch investigation
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