TWO things bother me about the Jill Dando court case. The first is a fear for future justice. After Barry George was convicted, the statements by Miss Dando's family and friends were refreshingly restrained and compassionate,

certainly compared to the sickening response to the release of the James

Bulger killers.

No one condemned George as 'sick' or 'evil', or suggested he should burn in

hell. The victim's fianc merely called him a "misguided individual"; her

brother said he "had no feelings" about the murderer. Nick Ross, meanwhile,

paid tribute to the jury for convicting George on an "edited" version of the

facts. Miss Dando's co-presenter on Crimewatch UK said he was privy to much more information than the jury, and was therefore able to say with certainty that their decision was right.

Mr Ross's comments seem to support the Government's plan to let juries hear more evidence about a defendant's previous convictions. This is only one of many dangerous Labour "reforms" that will load the dice against defendants.

After George's conviction, we were all let into the secrets that Nick Ross

already knew. We know George had previous convictions, one for attempted

rape. We know he was once found in bushes outside Princess Diana's Kensington Palace home with rope and a knife. These details were kept from the jury under the rules preventing disclosure of previous convictions. The judge does have some discretion to admit a defendant's "form" in open court, if it is so relevant as to outweigh any prejudicial effect. But Labour seems to want to make this disclosure routine.

Mr Ross implies that had the jury been given more information about George's record, they would have come to the same verdict, only sooner. But his previous convictions for assaults on women were a long time ago, did not involve firearms and were sexually motivated. There was no evidence of a sexual motive for him shooting Jill Dando.

The evidence against George was circumstantial. His conviction on that evidence will be tested on appeal. But it was delivered on the facts of this case alone. Had the jury found him guilty largely because of his previous convictions, that would have been a very unsafe verdict.

All this is hypothetical. But it could become a reality if Labour goes ahead

with a reform described by Liberty as "a fundamental attack on the presumption of innocence".

The Dando trial also left me feeling uneasy about the use of closed circuit television. Again and again we saw those pictures of the television

presenter shopping in London shortly before her death. The release of this

footage to broadcasters seemed to serve no useful purpose other than to satiate a public desperate for more sensation.

Detectives watched much more CCTV film than we saw, of course. It failed to

throw up any leads. More often than not, this seems to be the case. CCTV as a crime-fighting tool is overrated. As a method of intruding into people's lives, it is second to none.

IT must be fun being a Greenpeace campaigner. All that gung-ho stuff trampling GM crops in spacesuits and hanging on to oil tankers while making live broadcasts to radio and television networks.

The fact that they marched

into Menwith Hill yesterday to the tune of Mission Impossible makes me think

they are suffering from the mass delusion that they are Tom Cruise

starring in an Hollywood movie, rather than serious-minded souls worried about the planet.

While they grab all the publicity, remember that people such as Anni Rainbow and Lindis Percy have been arrested many times during their

dogged campaign for more accountability at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales.

They won't go away like the Greenpeace stuntmen.