Nikki Allan murder trial: Man charged is ‘not killer of Sunderland girl’, court told

David Boyd took Nikki Allan to the Old Exchange Building in Sunderland, where he beat her with a brick and shattered her skull before stabbing her multiple times, it is claimed.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC has told jurors Nikki “skipped to her death” as she was lured away by Boyd, who she knew, from the block of flats where she lived close to the River Wear late in the evening on October 7 1992.

She was found dead the following morning inside the derelict Old Exchange.

Boyd, now 55, of Chesterton Court, Norton, Stockton, denies murder and is being tried by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court.

Boyd did not go into the witness box to give evidence.

Today his barrister Jason Pitter KC, during his closing speech, said the prosecution case against Boyd is “blinkered” and a different man, named George Heron, was accused before.

Mr Pitter told jurors: “When the prosecution say, with force and the attractive charm of Mr Wright, you can be sure David Boyd was the man who took her into the Old Exchange building, you can be sure that’s not the first time that assertion has been made - the difference then is it was in respect of George Heron.”

Mr Pitter added: “Just because they say it, it doesn’t mean they are right.

“You have to follow your own assessment.

“You have to ask yourself are you sure it was him because that’s what this case is about.

“This case is based on entirely circumstantial evidence.”

Mr Pitter said Boyd’s defence team agree that the person seen walking with Nikki shortly before she vanished was likely to be her killer.

But Mr Pitter added: “We say whoever that was, it was not David Boyd.”

Mr Pitter said the jurors should “be very careful” when they consider Boyd’s history.

He added: “Do not make the leap to think he’s committed those offences so must have committed this. It is dangerous and it is wrong.”

Mr Pitter said there is no evidence to suggest there was a sexual component in the killing of the schoolgirl and added: “You are being invited to conclude that must be it but there is no real evidence to suggest it was.”

He concluded: “It is for the prosecution to make you sure the strands of evidence and inferences are not just reasonable, don’t just create the suspicion, but prove so you are sure he is the killer of Nikki Allan. “Absence the nudges and winks and theorising, they must eradicate the doubt, the possibility, it might have been someone else.

“You have to decide whether it was him. Whether you are sure it was him - not probably, not likely, not suspect, not any of those. And if it is any of those things, he is not guilty.

“And we urge you to take off the blinkers and reach that conclusion.”

The trial continues.