HE was everyone from Gary Glitter to the Six Million Dollar Man, and everything from a world-record breaking stuntman to an SAS soldier.

However, despite the apparently harmless fantasy world in which Barry George lived, his lonely lifestyle also featured a chilling obsession with guns and with celebrities, including the Princess of Wales, who bore a striking resemblance to his victim, Jill Dando.

His reputation as an oddball, not to mention his criminal record, marked him out for police attention long before Miss Dando's murder.

When he was 22, he was convicted at the Old Bailey of attempting to rape a language student, and in 1988 he was questioned about a series of rapes.

A few years later, he was a suspect in the hunt for the murderer of Rachel Nickell, who was stabbed 49 times in front of her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common in 1992. He was eliminated from the inquiry.

Miss Dando was among a string of women stalked by George. One resident of Fulham, west London, endured weeks of fear and desperation as the obsessive loner followed her home virtually every night, sometimes even inviting himself into her flat.

George - also known as Barry Bulsara, the real surname of Freddie Mercury, his idol - was once arrested in combat gear outside Princess Diana's former London home.

During her funeral in 1997, he stood among mourners and proudly held up a poster dedicated to his ''Queen of Hearts''. He signed the placard ''Barry Bulsara, Freddie Mercury's cousin''.

Just hours after he had shot Jill Dando dead on the doorstep of her home, he mingled with mourners in the quiet street in Fulham and even brought his own flowers.

Saying he felt ''concern and remorse'' at her murder, he picked his way through genuine well-wishers to lay a bouquet at the cordon police had set up around the crime scene.

Why he decided to shoot her remains a mystery but there is no doubt that George had an unhealthy obsession with women celebrities. Police searching his dingy flat after Miss Dando's murder found registration numbers of two of Diana's cars. They also found he had collected hundreds of pictures of famous people, as well as a large number of books and magazines relating to guns and the military.

A blurred and shaky video tour of the cramped flat in Crookham Road, just 500 yards from Miss Dando's home in Gowan Avenue, gave the jury an insight into the loner's life.

Bulging bin-liners lined the walls, and debris and dirt were so thick on the floor that it was virtually invisible. Detectives searching the flat faced such a challenge that they videotaped the hunt as a training guide for future search teams.

His bedroom was a shrine to Mercury, the late Queen singer, and piled high with Queen memorabilia.

On the anniversary of Mercury's death, George hired a white stretch limousine and turned up outside the gates of his idol's former home in Kensington to pay his respects.

The Old Bailey was told that George was also fascinated with the army and firearms. He called himself Thomas Palmer after one of the SAS soldiers involved in storming the Iranian embassy in London to end a terrorist siege.

On December 5, 1981, he enlisted with the Parachute Regiment, in the Territorial Army, using the name S F Majors. He completed 29 voluntary training days, learning how to fire, strip, and assemble self-loading rifles and machine guns.

However, he was denied the chance to complete his basic training, being discharged on November 17, 1982, because, according to army records, ''it was decided he would not make an effective soldier''.

In the meantime, however, he had become a probationary member of the Kensington and Chelsea Pistol Club.

The jury was told he joined under the name of Steve Majors, thought to be after the actor, Lee Majors, and Steve Austin, the character he played in the television show The Six Million Dollar Man.

After attending eight pistol practice sessions, he applied for full membership. The club rejected his application.

However, correspondence found in his flat showed he had re-applied to join the army, by trying to join the Royal Greenjackets and the Field Ambulance Volunteers.

He told neighbours he was still in the Territorial Army and serving in the SAS.

Neighbours who had seen George strutting up and down leafy Crookham Road in a string vest doing Freddie Mercury impressions were astonished when he was arrested for Miss Dando's murder. Several spoke of him being a harmless and even lovable eccentric.

One neighbour said: ''One day he came down the stairs wearing army gear and with a plastic machine gun in his hand. He wasn't shooting anyone or anything, he just said that he was on his way to work - that was Barry for you.''

Other neighbours told how George was desperate to take a music degree at university but had no talent.

He once jumped four double-decker buses on in-line skates.

George was married once but his Japanese wife, Itsuko Toide, soon left him, apparently unable to cope with his bizarre lifestyle. On his marriage certificate he listed his occupation as ''stuntman''.

Born on April 15, 1960, at Hammersmith Hospital, three miles from the flat in Crookham Road where he lived for more than 10 years, George was the youngest of three children.

His father, Alfred George, a retired police officer, and his mother, Margaret, who are now separated, spoke of their sense of disbelief when he was arrested and later charged.

''We love Barry, support him, and stand by him without reservation,'' the family said after his arrest.

''Barry has good and close friends and we, his family, love him very much. We believe in Barry's innocence.''

Although the motive for the murder is still unknown, a forensic psychologist last night said Miss Dando's similarities to Princess Diana may have appealed to George's psychosis leading him to stalk her.

Dr J Reid Maloy said the on-screen personalities of women such as Miss Dando and the princess allowed viewers to form a relationship which left them vulnerable to stalkers.

Detective Superintendent Hamish Campbell, who led the murder inquiry, said George had distinct ''difficulties'', suffering from low self-esteem and isolation. According to medical reports, he also had trouble relating to women.

The detective said George's decision to kill Miss Dando was possibly a blurring between his feelings about women and fixation with celebrities.

Mr Campbell said that, despite the apparent professionalism of the attack on Miss Dando, it was ultimately disorganised - meaning that ultimately George was simply lucky to have been able to carry it out.