TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered by a military-obsessed gunman with a grudge against the BBC and a fascination for celebrities, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Barry George disliked the BBC because he believed that the corporation had mistreated his idol, Queen singer Freddie Mercury, the court was told.

The prosecution says he fired a single shot through Miss Dando's head as she returned to her £400,000 home in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, west London, on April 26, 1999.

Her blood-soaked body was found in the doorway of her home after a neighbour heard her screams, lasting up to five seconds, at about 11.30am.

Orlando Pownall, prosecuting, told the court that George had repeatedly lied and tried to cover up his tracks with an alibi.

Although no one had seen the attack, witnesses recounted spotting the defendant close to Miss Dando's home in the hours before killing.

When police eventually raided his untidy flat in Crookham Road, only yards from Miss Dando's home, they found a number of books about the military as well as a photograph of George wearing a military respirator and holding a pistol.

There were other photographs taken of the television while newscasters and presenters were appearing, said Mr Pownall.

George had obsessive aspects to his personality, which were significant and relevant to the case, according to the prosecution.

He had allegedly changed his name a number of times and once called himself Steve Majors after the actor Lee Majors, from the Six Million Dollar Man, and the character in the series, Steve Austin.

Mr Pownall said he had also told people that he was Freddie Mercury's cousin and called himself Barry Bulsara - Bulsara was Mercury's real name.

He also called himself Thomas Palmer after an SAS hero involved in the Iranian embassy siege, the jury was told.

Unemployed George, 41, denies murdering the presenter.

The court was told that George appeared to have a particular interest in the BBC and told one woman that he disliked the corporation "because of the way it had treated Freddie Mercury".

George bought regular copies of the Radio Times and documents seized from his flat contained references to telephone numbers at the BBC.

Photographs of presenter Anthea Turner were also seized, the court was told.

Mr Pownall said: "In interview he suggested that he had not heard of Jill Dando before her death and did not know what she looked like. Such a suggestion was patently false."

George, said Mr Pownall, had even asked his local council to erect a memorial in tribute to the Crimewatch presenter after her death.

A letter of condolence was also recovered from George's flat in which the defendant falsely claimed he had been present when Freddie Mercury had been interviewed by Miss Dando.

"When arrested, he claimed that he would not have recognised her if he had seen her in the street and yet before the shooting, he told a woman that he knew somebody famous in Gowan Avenue, 'a very special lady'," said Mr Pownall.

"Whether he harboured a hidden grudge against her (Miss Dando), believing her to have wronged him, or figures he idolised such as Freddie Mercury, is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty."

Although during police interviews George played down his knowledge of firearms, Mr Pownall said there was a number of illustrations of George's "exaggerated interest" in guns.

Mr Pownall told the court that the gun that shot Miss Dando was never recovered.

He told the jury: "You will examine this evidence dispassionately and ask yourselves whether the Crown has proved that this defendant killed Miss Dando.

"It is not for the Crown to prove a motive.

"Why would anyone wish to kill Jill Dando?"

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.