Barry George accepts libel damages

Barry George, who was cleared of murdering TV presenter Jill Dando, accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages today over claims that he had pestered women he was obsessed with.

Mr George, who was acquitted of the crime after a retrial in August last year, was at London's High Court with his sister Michelle Diskin, who led the campaign to prove his innocence after his 2001 conviction, for the brief hearing before Mr Justice Eady.

He said afterwards: "I am pleased that the matter between myself and News Group Newspapers has been amicably settled following a successful mediation without the need for litigation."

His counsel, Gordon Bishop, told the court that Mr George had brought the action over a number of articles in The Sun and the News of the World between August and November last year.

He said that News Group had withdrawn the "false allegations" and apologised for making them.

It had agreed to pay him substantial damages and all his legal costs.

Mr Bishop said that immediately after his acquittal, Mr George was interviewed by News of the World reporters and the following day by Kay Burley for Sky TV.

"Mr George agreed to give those interviews because he knew there would be a clamour from the press for his story and he wanted to satisfy the demands of the press as quickly as possible in the hope that he would then be left in peace to move on with his private life."

On August 2 2008, The Sun published articles about the retrial and Mr George, which described a number of matters that had been kept from the jury during the retrial.

Counsel said that News Group now recognised that those articles would have been understood to mean that there were grounds to suspect Mr George of the murder despite his acquittal.

"The defendant accepts that the verdict of the second jury in acquitting Mr George was correct and it apologises to Mr George for any suggestion otherwise."

The following day, the News of the World carried a report of the interviews given by Mr George in which he stated that at the time of the murder he was in a disability centre.

Mr Bishop said: "He also said that an hour later he was in conversation with a woman in the street who became a prosecution witness.

"Although he accepted he was paying possibly unwanted attention to her, she never expressed that to him.

"The headline for the article was 'I didn't kill Jill Dando... I was stalking someone else at the time". The defendant accepts that Mr George never made that statement."

Mr Bishop said various allegations were made in both newspapers in October 2008.

These included that Mr George had become obsessed with Kay Burley, that he pestered a woman whose advert about a dog he had answered, and that he became obsessed with Pam Wright, fiancee of Steve Wright, the Suffolk Strangler.

"The defendant now accepts that, although on one occasion Mr George did cycle to Sky TV studios to try to collect a tape of his interview with Kay Burley, Mr George did not pose a threat and was not obsessed with her, nor did he pester any woman who had a dog for sale, nor did he become obsessed with Pam Wright."

News Group's solicitor Ben Beabey said: "The defendant takes this oppportunity to correct matters and to apologise to Mr George for any hurt and distress he has felt."

Ms Diskin said outside court: "The war was won last August. There may be a few battles to come, but the war has been won. We are happy about that."

Her brother has launched separate High Court proceedings challenging the continued surveillance of his movements, despite his acquittal.