Nikki Allan Death: David Boyd lured the girl to her death in 1992, the jury told.
More than 30 years ago, a man led a young girl out of her house at the age of seven, the jury told.
In an abandoned building in Sunderland, Nikki Allan’s body was discovered in October 1992 with 37 stab wounds and other wounds.
Image Credit: Express
David Boyd, 55, of Stockton-on-Tees’ Chesterton Court, denies being the murderer.
He is the second individual to be accused of killing Nikki, Newcastle Crown Court was informed.
Jurors at Leeds Crown Court in 1993 exonerated George Heron of murder, and prosecutor Richard Wright KC stated they were “right to do so.”
Skipping Nikki Allan to death
Nikki Allan was kidnapped from outside her apartment building in Wear Garth, Sunderland, at 21:43 BST on October 7, 1992, according to Mr. Wright’s opening speech.
Jurors were told that she was not kidnapped but rather “lured” when a witness saw her “skipping” to keep up with a male.
She was knowingly skipping towards her demise, according to Mr. Wright.
Nikki Allan was struck on the head, causing her to bleed, and was then taken to a wasteland near to the River Wear.
Then, the man “beat her about the head with a brick” to crush her skull as he forced her through a gap in a boarded-up window in the Old Exchange Building.
She was then repeatedly stabbed through the heart, lungs, and chest.
She had “blunt force trauma” to the head, which most likely knocked her unconscious before she was stabbed, according to a post-mortem examination, Mr. Wright said.
He said that screams heard by witnesses at around 22:00 “fixed the time of the killing.”
“Circumstantial but compelling”
Image Credit: Andy Commins / Daily Mirror
Evidence led two volunteers who had joined the search for Nikki to find her body the following day, which had been deposited in a basement chamber.
David Boyd, who was 25 at the time and also went by the names David Smith or David Bell, was identified as the murderer by the jury.
According to Mr. Wright, the evidence against the defendant was “circumstantial but compelling” because his DNA was later discovered on Nikki’s clothing.
They informed the court that Mr. Boyd, who shared a floor at Wear Garth with Nikki’s grandparents, was “well known to the family” and that Nikki’s babysitter was his girlfriend.
The defendant resided on the third floor, while Nikki shared a ground-level apartment with her mother, stepfather, sister, and two half-sisters.
The jury was informed that he “knew the layout” of the Old Exchange and had admitted to police that he had used the same window a few days prior when he had taken a kid there to look for pigeons.
The accused, according to Mr. Wright, “bore a striking resemblance” to the man observed with Nikki and was the “same age” as him.
“Only the murderer knows the motive”
The jury was informed that he was the “last man” to report seeing Nikki alive at around 21:35 and that he made up an elaborate lie about his movements at 22:00.
“Bearing in mind at the time he made the lie, only the killer would have known at what time he had killed Nikki Allan and would have appreciated [22:00] was an important time,” Mr. Wright stated.
Only the murderer knows with certainty why he did what he did to Nikki, he continued, adding that the prosecution was under no obligation to present a motive.
Nikki was spotted playing with other kids the night she was killed near the apartments, as well as around 21:43 outside the Boar’s Head pub.
According to Mr. Wright, it is “not unusual” for kids to be playing unattended outside after dark.
“No alternate candidate”
Image Credit: Express
The “science [was] in its infancy” in 1992, according to Mr. Wright, but modern DNA profiling techniques have come a long way since then.
Four locations on Nikki’s clothing, including the hip of her shorts and under the sleeve of her T-shirt, had a profile that matched Mr. Boyd.
The jury was informed that the defendant was not a “born and bred” Sunderland resident and had no local relatives.
No other profile among the hundreds of other guys tested matched the DNA on the garments.
The prosecution claimed that Mr. Boyd was the likely suspect due to a number of indicators, including the fact that he “knew the girl” and the murder scene “well” and that he was a “dead-ringer” for a sketch of the guy seen with Nikki.
“No other credible candidate for the murder who fits the wider criteria has been identified,” Mr. Wright stated.
“Spitting off the balcony,”
According to Mr. Wright, Mr. Boyd was not thought to be a suspect in 1992 but was detained in April 2018 on suspicion of murder as a result of the DNA findings.
During his arrest at his house, which was captured on camera, Mr. Boyd claimed he had nothing to do with the murder but then questioned the jury, “What evidence have you got anyway?”
Mr. Wright urged the jury to take into account his motives for asking that question and whether they might be those of a murderer who had gotten away with his crime and was now curious about the evidence the police had against him.
When questioned by authorities about the DNA found on Nikki’s clothing, Mr. Boyd claimed that there were discrepancies between his and other witnesses’ descriptions of his activities that evening. He also claimed that he may have hit Nikki with spittle while spitting off his balcony.
Mr. Boyd claimed Nikki may have rubbed her hands in his saliva and then spread it on her clothes when the police said the DNA was on her garments below her coat, the court heard.
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