On 7 October 1992, Nikki Allan, a seven-year-old English girl, was

murdered Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

by David Boyd who "beat her about the head with a brick" shattering her skull and stabbed her multiple times, inside the derelict Old Exchange Building in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, England. The following day, Allan's body was found in the basement room. George Heron was acquitted of the murder in 1993. Boyd was found guilty of Allan's murder in 2023 and was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

with a minimum term of 29 years.

Background

Nikki Allan was a seven-year-old English girl who lived on a council estate in Wear Garth, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear,

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

, with her mother Sharon Henderson, stepfather, sister and two half-sisters.

Murder

On 7 October 1992, Allan was walking home from her grandfather's flat on the same estate when she disappeared. She set off at 8:30pm. When Henderson arrived home, Allan was nowhere to be seen. More than 100 neighbours helped to search for Allan. The following day, Allan's shoes and coat were spotted outside the nearby derelict Quayside Old Exchange building in High Street East, Sunderland. Her body was found inside the basement of the building with 37 stab wounds and her head had been bludgeoned by a brick.

Legal proceedings against George Heron

In late 1993, George Heron, a young man who lived near Allan's home, stood trial at

Leeds Crown Court Leeds Crown Court, more accurately the Crown Court at Leeds, is a venue of the Crown Court in West Yorkshire, England. The buildings are situated on Westgate in Leeds city centre, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts. Notable cases As Leeds As ...

for Allan's murder. A knife matching the stab wounds was found in Heron's lodgings. Blood splatters were also found on Heron's shoes and clothing. Heron's sister told police that after he had returned home on the night of the murder he had gone straight to the bathroom for a "good half hour", something which Heron would not usually do. He had gone to the bathroom to wash both himself and his clothes. Heron had denied being out on the evening of the murder, although four witnesses said that they had seen a man at the Boar's Head pub and the Clarendon pub who matched his description. He was seen buying cheese and onion

crisps A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or app ...

, which were Allan's favourite crisps, and police believed that he had used these to lure Allan into the building. After three days of questioning, Heron confessed to the murder, although he had previously denied the murder 120 times. The evidence against Heron was circumstantial. However, police believed that a conviction would be secured. The case against Heron collapsed after the judge ruled that Heron's taped confession to the murder was inadmissible in court. The judge blamed "heavy-handed police tactics" for this outcome. Heron was found not guilty of Allan's murder and was given a change of identity and was moved out of Sunderland. In 1994, Henderson brought a

civil case - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

against Heron. She charged Heron with, "battery on a child, resulting in her death." A court found this to be in her favour and ordered him to pay her more than £7,000. He was unable to be traced which meant that the money was never paid. In May 2023,

Northumbria Police Northumbria Police is a territorial police force in England. It is responsible for policing the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and the City of Sunderland, as well as the ceremonial county ...

apologised to him.

Investigation

In February 2014, imprisoned

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

Steven Grieveson Steven John Grieveson (born 14 December 1970) is a British serial killer known as the Sunderland Strangler, who murdered four teenage boys in a series of killings committed between 1990 and 1994 in Sunderland, England. Convicted of three counts ...

was arrested on suspicion of Allan's murder. He was questioned and was later told that he would face no further action. In May 2016, a woman contacted Henderson claiming to have new information about the murder. The woman, who was twelve years old at the time of the murder and had been

babysitting Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child. Babysitting can be a paid job for all ages; however, it is best known as a temporary activity for early teenagers who are not yet eligible for employment in the general economy. It provides auton ...

nearby at the time Allan disappeared, spoke to police. In September the same year, Henderson called for a full reinvestigation of the crime. She launched an online petition urging

to carry out a "top-to-bottom" review of the case. This petition attracted more than 500 signatures in less than 24 hours. The following month, Henderson contacted Grieveson, asking him to share anything that he may know about Allan's death. In April 2017, Henderson met Northumbria Police Chief Constable Steve Ashman and Detective Chief Inspector Lisa Theaker. They restated their determination to "bring Nikki's killer to justice." In October 2017, police said that they had successfully recovered a DNA sample from an unknown male. On 17 April 2018, Northumbria Police raided a house in the Stockton area of

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

and arrested a man on suspicion of Allan's murder. Two years later in April 2020, Henderson was contacted by a stranger saying that she could have information about Allan's murder.

Arrest and trial of David Boyd

The man arrested in 2018 was charged with the murder in 2022. He was named as 54-year-old David Thomas Boyd. He appeared at

Newcastle Crown Court Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England * Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastl ...

on 24 May 2022 and was

remanded in custody Remand, also known as pre-trial detention, preventive detention, or provisional detention, is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is held i ...

. On 20 June 2022, Boyd appeared at Newcastle Crown Court via videolink and pleaded not guilty to the murder. On 20 April 2023, the trial of Boyd began at Newcastle Crown Court. The prosecution alleged that he had lured Allan to some wasteland next to the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through th ...

, where she was struck in the head, causing her to bleed. A witness stated that they did not see Allan being abducted, but that she was "skipping" to catch up with a man. The prosecution then said that the man had then forced Allan through an opening in a boarded up window of the derelict Old Exchange building. The man had then "beat her about the head with a brick" and had shattered her skull. She was then subsequently stabbed multiple times through her chest, heart and lungs. A

post-mortem examination An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any dis ...

revealed that Allan had suffered "

blunt force trauma Blunt trauma, also known as blunt force trauma or non-penetrating trauma, is physical traumas, and particularly in the elderly who fall. It is contrasted with penetrating trauma which occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue ...

" to the head which was believed to have knocked her unconscious before she was stabbed. A witness said that at around 22:00 he had heard a loud scream which "fixed the time of the killing." Allan's body was found the next day dumped in the basement of the building, the body was discovered by two volunteers who had joined the search for Allan. During the trial, it was reported that at the time of the murder, David Boyd was known as David Smith or David Bell and was aged 25. At the time of the murder Boyd had been the partner of Caroline Branton, who occasionally babysat for Allan. The case was described as "circumstantial but compelling" due to the fact that Boyd's DNA had been found on Allan's clothing. Boyd suggested to police that the DNA may have been there because she had wiped her hands in his saliva and had smeared it onto her clothes after he had spat off his balcony that night and that it may have hit Allan. It was also reported that Boyd "knew the layout" of the Old Exchange building and that he had used the same window a few days before when he took a boy there to search for

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

s. Boyd had misled police about his whereabouts on the night of the murder, claiming he had gone to the fish and chip shop an hour before he actually had, and was said to physically resemble the sketch of the man eyewitnesses had seen walking with Nikki Allan. David Boyd had been convicted in March 2000 of

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broad ...

of a young girl at a park in Stockton that took place on 8 April 1999. Boyd had also been convicted of breaching the peace in 1986 in which he had approached four children in

Sacriston Sacriston is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in County Durham, England, situated north of the city of Durham, England, Durham. Although the area has been populated since the Bronze Age, the first recorded settlement dated ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

and grabbed a ten-year-old girl. Boyd furthermore admitted to harbouring a paedophilic attraction towards young girls. During the trial, the defence alleged that the "various strands of evidence don't prove" and that they were the "result of innocent coincidences." The defence also highlighted the fact that the murder showed no evidence of a sexual motive, making Boyd's prior convictions and admitted sexual interest in young girls irrelevant to the case. Mrs Justice Christina Lambert told the jury that the case relied on "circumstantial evidence" and that there was "no direct evidence" of Boyd's guilt. Later on in the trial, it was reported that Boyd would not be giving evidence. On 12 May 2023, Boyd was found guilty of the murder of Allan. It took the jury of 10 women and two men two and a half hours of deliberating to convict Boyd. Henderson spoke to

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

about the 30-year wait for justice. On 23 May 2023, Boyd was sentenced to

with a minimum term of 29 years before becoming eligible for release on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

. Boyd will become eligible to apply for parole on 16 August 2049. In August 2023, it was reported that Henderson was to sue Northumbria Police over her 30-year wait for the conviction of Boyd. In September 2023, it was reported that the police investigation which took 30 years to identify Boyd as Allan's killer would be the subject of a review by either the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) or another police force. It was also reported that Boyd was to appeal his conviction and sentence.

References