Dando Shooting: Faked images of Dando abound on the Net

JILL DANDO was not only a regular visual visitor to millions of homes around the country, she was on-call day and night at the mere touch of a button.

A plethora of images of her, both innocent and obscene, were depicted on the Internet - available to devoted fans as well as those with a more sinister motive.

Yesterday, as detectives investigating her murder continued to explore the option that she may have been killed by a stalker, it was evident that such a murderer would have had ample cyber-material to fuel his fantasy.

Her unofficial home page, which closed down on Monday, was the most regularly accessed site on the Celebrity Webring, which attracts more than 100,000 hits a month.

And this was just one of many offerings which either eulogised the television star or reduced her to a pornographic fantasy by superimposing her face on a naked body.

Yesterday many of these sites fell quiet out of respect but dozens more continued to display photographs of Ms Dando without any reference to the horror which had cut short her life.

The BBC Online page was one of several sites to carry genuine tributes to the star from fans, colleagues and charities. Acting as an impromptu book of condolence, it was receiving e-mails expressing sympathy at the rate of four a minute yesterday.

But they provided a sharp contrast to others such as Nude Television Stars & Celebrities which boasted blue movies or other sites which offered fake "hardcore pictures" of everyone from Elizabeth Hurley to Carol Smillie.

Yesterday Dr Sidney Crown, a consultant psychotherapist to the Royal London Hospital who regularly deals with stalking victims, said: "It (a website) provides a lot of scope for potential stalkers. There are always vulnerable people who are borderline who can be pushed over the edge by such things.

"Although a sophisticated person who saw a celebrity's face superimposed on a naked body would not give it any credibility other more vulnerable people may choose to believe it is real. The images fuel their own fantasy of that person undressing."