By Lucy Caulkett-
The Mother of murdered seven-year-old Nikki Allan to take legal action against Northumbria Police
The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) has launched legal action against Northumbria Police over claims of “historical failures” in the investigation into the 1992 murder of seven-year-old Nikki Allan.
In October 1992, schoolgirl Nikki Allan was lured to a derelict building in Sunderland and was stabbed and hit with bricks by David Boyd, now aged 55, and left dead or dying in the basement. Northumbria Police charged innocent George Heron with the crime only for the trial to collapse when the confession they gained after three days of questioning was deemed inadmissible.
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Her body was discovered the next morning.
The CWJ, which is acting on behalf of Nikki’s mother Sharon Henderson, said that following an initial murder investigation, Northumbria Police “arrested the wrong man” and claims it “forced a confession from him”.
“When the confession was thrown out by the judge at a trial in Leeds Crown Court in 1993, the wrongly accused man, George Heron was acquitted,” the CWJ added.
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In 2018, Boyd, now 55, who lived three doors away from Nikki’s family, was arrested following a DNA breakthrough and “tireless police work”.
In May this year he was convicted at Newcastle Crown Court of the girl’s murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 29 years.
During the trial, the court was told forensic advancements proved crucial as police – using new techniques – were able to detect a DNA profile on Nikki’s clothing that matched Boyd shortly after the case was reviewed in 2017.
The senior investigating officer in the case, Detective Chief Superintendent Lisa Theaker, said after the trial that since 2017, it had taken “more than 1,200 statements with 2,500 documents produced and over 5,500 actions created”, adding: “The team has obtained DNA from more than 800 men – travelling the length and breadth of the country to ultimately prove Boyd was responsible.”
Ms Henderson is now demanding a “full inquiry” into the original investigation into her daughter’s murder 31 years ago.
The CWJ said she has started the process of holding Northumbria Police accountable for its “failures to adequately investigate the crime which led to them initially jailing the wrong suspect while leaving the man responsible for her murder free to continue offending”.
On Wednesday (August 9) Ms Henderson’s solicitor, CWJ director Harriet Wistrich, said she has written to Northumbria Police Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine to notify her of the intention to pursue litigation and take other action to hold the police force accountable.
Ms Wistrich said she has separately written to the Northumbria police and crime commissioner Kim McGuinness to invite her to conduct a full formal inquiry.
The CWJ said it took Northumbria Police 25 years to commence a full review of all the evidence available at the time of the murder, after Ms Henderson “begged them to properly resource the investigation”.
At the trial this year, in addition to the new DNA evidence that linked Boyd with the crime, the Crown relied upon “significant evidence” that had been available since 1992.
The CWJ said this included:
Boyd lived three doors away from Nikki’s family and knew Nikki, as his partner had occasionally babysat for her (the circumstances of the offence were such that the offender was likely to have known Nikki);
He had a previous conviction from 1986 for breach of the peace the circumstances being that he had approached three children aged eight to ten, and grabbed one of them trying to kiss her and telling her not to scream;
Boyd closely fitted the description of a man an eyewitness described leading a little girl to the direction of the murder scene at the relevant time; and provided a false alibi of his movements when questioned by the police during the original investigation.
“Boyd’s account was contradicted by others who knew him,” said the CWJ. “Basic detective work relating to Boyd’s movements in 1992 would have identified the evidence that undermined his false alibi.”
The CWJ added that evidence showed Boyd had “close associations” with the derelict building where Nikki’s body was found, having taken another child there days earlier to “look at pigeons”.
“The opportunistic nature of the offending in relation to Nikki was consistent with the offender being familiar with the derelict building to which Nikki was taken,” the CWJ said.
Ms Wistrich said: “Sharon and her daughters have suffered immense pain and damage as a consequence of historical police failures.
“She never gave up on her attempts to secure justice for Nikki. Now the murderer has been convicted, she wants answers and a full inquiry into the historical failures by Northumbria Police.”
In a statement, Northumbria Police said it “would not be appropriate for us to comment in relation to any intention to bring legal action against the force”.
“We have today received correspondence which indicates the intention to issue legal proceedings,” it added.
Boyd was the boyfriend of Nikki’s babysitter, lived in the same block of flats as her and told officers he had seen her on the night she disappeared.
He was never treated as a suspect, even after he was convicted of a child sex offence in the late 1990s, and remained at large until the DNA breakthrough in 2017.
After Boyd was sentenced, Harriet Wistrich, director at the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “Now, Sharon demands that Northumbria police are held accountable for their historic failures that allowed a 31-year wait until the right man was convicted of Nikki’s murder.
“The full extent of the failures remain unknown and therefore we are demanding a public inquiry to examine the historic investigation which led to the wrong man being prosecuted and the police failing to consider alternative suspects until over 20 years later.”
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