TELEVISION presenter Jill Dando was today said to have been killed by a celebrity-obsessed loner who stalked women.

And the Old Bailey was told that the man accused of her murder, Barry George, approached women in west London where he and Miss Dando lived and tried to find out their addresses. George who was first tried for her killing in 2001, denies murder.

Today, as his retrial got under way, the judge told the jury they should try the case only on the evidence they would hear in court.

George, 48, sat in the dock with a clinical psychologist by his side.

Mr Justice Griffith Williams added: "The defendant suffers from epilepsy and has psychological problems which may make it difficult for him to follow the proceedings. She is there to assist him in that regard."

Miss Dando, 37, was shot in the head at close range as she arrived at her home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, in April 1999.

She had become one of the best known people on television, presenting the BBC news, Crimewatch and the Holiday programme.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, told the court George had a fixation with celebrities and lived out his fantasy by pretending to be Queen singer Freddie Mercury's cousin.

He said Miss Dando's death was the result of the actions of "a loner, a man acting alone with no rational motive to kill".

He added: "The defendant took photographs of female news presenters on his television.

"He would hang around the BBC offices at White City, and there was also an occasion when the defendant had expressed a dislike of the BBC because of the way he thought the organisation had treated Freddie Mercury."

Mr Laidlaw said the "obsessive aspects" of George's behaviour might provide a reason why he might have formed some irrational plan to kill Miss Dando.

The court was also told that six witnesses had made positive or partial identifications of George as being in Gowan Avenue on the morning of Miss Dando's death.

George had an interest in guns, and had also had possession of a gun which could have been converted into the sort of weapon used to kill Miss Dando.

The prosecutor said the combination of evidence and its cumulative effect provided a "compelling" case against George.

The case continues.