Dando accused 'approached women'

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Two woman have told the jury at the Jill Dando murder trial about encounters they had with a man the prosecution says is the defendant.

Claudia Casey said late one night a man had approached and given her a calling card bearing the name Freddie Mercury.

And Margaret Milortholland said a man she later identified as Barry George followed her from the Tube to her flat.

Mr George, 48, denies murdering Ms Dando, who was shot dead outside her home in west London, in April 1999.

He was originally tried for her killing in 2001.

Ms Casey wept as she recalled the experience, which took place some years before the television presenter was shot a few streets away. She said she had stepped in front of a passing car in order to escape.

Ms Casey later failed to identify Mr George after his arrest when, the prosecution says, he had altered his appearance by growing a goatee beard. I was walking very, very fast and I started to run and that is when he grabbed my arm Claudia Casey

Mr George, who was not in court after saying he was feeling unwell, was said to have often told people he had been related to the late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, whose real surname was Bulsara.

Ms Casey told the court she had been returning home to Lambrook Terrace, Fulham, in the winter of 1994/95 when she had been followed by a man.

She said: "He grabbed my left arm after he had been talking to me for quite a while, walking beside me.

"I completely ignored him the first time but when he persisted, I said, 'No thank you' because alarm bells were ringing.

"When I started walking faster and he kept up with my pace, then I told him to piss off." Ms Dando was due to marry in September 1999

Ms Casey began to cry as she continued: "He handed me a business card and it said 'Freddy Bulsara' on it and I knew it was Freddie Mercury's real name.

"I realised there was something very strange about this guy. I think he might have said, 'I am Freddie Mercury' and then he handed me the card.

"This is when I knew I had to get away from him. I was walking very, very fast and I started to run and that is when he grabbed my arm."

"He kept saying, 'I only want to talk to you'. He kept holding on to me as I was running."

Ms Casey also said the man wore a red or maroon bomber jacket, which may have had the name "Freddie Mercury" on the back.

My heart was pounding, I was petrified Margaret Milortholland

Margaret Milortholland described encounters in 1992 with a man she later identified as Mr George.

She said he followed her from an Underground train and subsequently turned up at her flat in Fulham to ask her out to dinner.

He told her: "Now I know where you live", she told the court in a statement.

'Abuse'

She said: "My heart was pounding, I was petrified. I remember I was really scared."

Six months later, she was "terrified" on an empty bus when George pressed his thigh against her and then followed her off the bus, she said.

She shouted at him to leave her alone and he became very angry, hurling racist abuse at her before storming off, she told the court.

Earlier another witness, Angela Gordon, told the Old Bailey that a man had asked to kiss her on her doorstep in the same road where Mr George lived.

The trial continues.