A paedophile was finally brought to justice today for the 1992 murder of seven-year-old Nikki Allan.
Serial sex offender David Boyd, 55, had escaped suspicion for three decades thanks to Northumbria Police’s fixation with a different, entirely innocent man.
The real killer – who fantasised about sexually abusing young girls – was so cocky that he would never be caught he even gave a statement to police used in cleared George Heron’s 1993 trial.
But at Newcastle Crown Court today the jury got the right man, finally identifying Boyd as the brute who stabbed Nikki 37 times after bludgeoning her with a brick.
Boyd, now of Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, had cased out his killing site at the abandoned Old Exchange Building in Hendon, Sunderland three days before he enacted his evil plan.
Police footage shown to jurors captures the moment David Boyd was arrested at his home
Seven-year-old Nikki Allan was brutally murdered in 1992, a crime Boyd has been found guilty
Boyd was brought to justice by a combination of Nikki’s mother Sharon Henderson’s refusal to let the case be forgotten. Ms Henderson seen here outside court during the trial.
Then on the night of October 7, 1992, he lured Nikki – who he knew through his babysitter girlfriend Caroline Branton – away from her Garths housing estate home.
Heartbreaking CCTV which was too grainy to identify faces showed her skipping happily along with the man she thought she could trust.
Once they reached wasteland near the empty building he hit her and dragged her though an opening in a boarded-up window.
Inside he beat her around the head with a brick, shattering her skull.
Boyd then reached for a knife he had brought with him and stabbed her 37 times through her chest and into her heart and lungs.
David Boyd in 1992, which has been shown to the jury and the photofit of Nikki’s killer
Police outside the Sunderland warehouse where the body of schoolgirl Nikki was found
Screams were heard at around 10pm as he carried out his horrific murder.
Prosecutor Prosecutor Richard Wright KC told the jury at the start of the trial: ‘He lifted and dragged her downstairs into the blackness of the basement.
‘No doubt knowing his way around, navigated the series of rooms, dragging her with him, and dumping her body in the corner of an end room, where he must have hoped she would remain undetected, but where in fact she would be found the next morning by two of the many local residents who were desperately searching for her.’
Mr Heron was later arrested and put on trial, then cleared by a jury at Leeds Crown Court.
But in the end Boyd was brought to justice by a combination of Nikki’s mother Sharon Henderson’s refusal to let the case be forgotten and new DNA techniques.
In 2017 she had a meeting with Northumbria Police’s Chief Constable Steve Ashman and begged him to make sure the case was reopened by a new team before his retirement as top cop.
A mannequin showing the outfit that Nikki was wearing when last seen alive, which was shown in court in the case of David Boyd
This picture dated October 10, 1992, showing police outside the building where Nikki was found
As the cold case team harnessed new advances in DNA technology, Ms Henderson continued her own enquiries.
She gradually got closer to Boyd’s ex girlfriend Caroline Branton and her daughter, Caroline junior.
She even moved across Sunderland from her native Hendon to within a few doors of the Brantons in the former pit village of Ryhope.
Sharon learnt of Boyd’s true identity at around the same time as Northumbria Police zoned in on him.
Boyd was tracked down to an upstairs flat in central Stockton-on-Tees.
He was DNA tested and found to be a one in 28,000 match for microscopic samples found at four sites on two items of Nikki’s clothing.
The DNA was on the waistband of her cycling shorts and under the armpits of her T-shirt, which itself had been under her coat. It would be the decisive factor in his trial.
Boyd’s girlfriend at the time, Caroline Branton, told police she babysat for Nikki and her sister when their mother Sharon was out
Pictured: An aerial view of the East End of Sunderland, which has been shown to the jury during the trial of David Boyd
Boyd – who refused to give evidence – claimed through his lawyers it was there because he would spit over the veranda outside his upstairs flat and that Nikki must have been hit by it earlier in the evening that she died. The jury saw through the lies.
How he was missed by police seems unthinkable following harrowing details revealed during his trial.
So-called ‘bad character’ evidence allowed to be put before the ten women and two men of the jury showed his true nature in horrific detail.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Boyd in fact had a history of sexual offences against girls.
They included a sexual assault against a young girl in a park in 1999, which prompted a confession of sexual interest in children to a probation worker, Gillian Dixon.
Boyd told Ms Dixon: ‘I would think about young girls being naked, touching their body and having intercourse with them.’
He said it was ‘a phase’ he went through when he was aged around 22.
Heartbroken parents Sharon Henderson and David Allan attending the funeral of their seven-year-old daughter
The crime scene in the Old Exchange Building in Hendon, Sunderland where Nikki Allan was murdered in 1992
Boyd lured Nikki away from her home then hit her and dragged her inside this building to kill her
At the time of Nikki’s murder Boyd was 25. Prosecutor Richard Wright, KC, took the jury through Boyd’s previous convictions as the prosecution case had neared its conclusion.
In September 1986, six years before the murder, Boyd was summonsed to appear before Chester-le-Street magistrates for an offence of committing a breach of the peace in Sacriston, County Durham.
Mr Wrights said: ‘David Boyd approached a group of four children aged between eight and 10, took hold of a girl by the arm and asked to kiss her. He held her for a few moments and let go of her. He told the children not to tell anyone.’
On March 20, 2000, he was convicted of indecently assaulting a female under the age of 14, an offence that happened the previous year on April 8.
Mr Wright told jurors that two girls aged nine and 12 were playing in Primrose Hill Park, Stockton-on-Tees, where they were approached by Boyd.
He said: ‘David Boyd did not know either girl. He asked what they were doing and they told him they were looking for their friends.
‘He took hold of one girl’s shoulder and told her not to scream. He asked the other girl if she had any knickers on.’
Boyd then touched one of the girls before running off, leaving the terrified children to race off to find help.
He was arrested and convicted after undergoing an ID parade and was referred to probation officer Ms Dixon, who was tasked with preparing a pre-sentence report on him.
He told Ms Dixon that on the day he committed the sexual assault he had argued with his girlfriend and because it was the day his benefits were paid he’d drunk 12 cans of extra strong lager.
In a statement she said: ‘He first denied ever having sexual thoughts about young children but he subsequently informed me that when he was approximately 22 he began to fantasise about both adults and children, in particular young girls.
‘He would think about young girls being naked and touching their body and having sexual intercourse with them. He described at as a phase he was going through and something he would grow out of.’
As they were about to learn on Boyd’s past, trial judge Mrs Justice Lambert warned jurors they should not convict Boyd on the strength of his previous convictions.
She said: ‘You must not convict the defendant wholly or mainly on the basis of the evidence you are about to hear.’
