Nikki Allan: Jurors shown footage of 'final tragic glimpse' of schoolgirl, 7

Jurors in the trial of a man accused of murdering a seven-year-old girl have been shown footage of what lawyers claim is a "final tragic glimpse" of the youngster.

David Boyd denies the murder of Nikki Allan, from Sunderland, in 1992.

He is standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court, where jurors have been shown images and footage.

The material includes an artists impression put together from details given by a witness in the nineties who claimed to have seen a man with a girl in the area where Nikki vanished, as well as CCTV.

Witness Margaret Hodgson saw a girl skipping to catch up with a man walking ahead of her in the area on the night of October 7 1992, jurors were told.

Four days later, Mrs Hodgson helped a police artist to produce a sketch of the man.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC, when he opened the case last Thursday, said the sketch bore a “striking resemblance” to photos of Boyd taken around the time.

CCTV played to the jury has also been released to the public today, which lawyers claim shows a “final tragic glimpse” of Nikki before her murder.

The grainy footage shows a  figure walking ahead of what the jury was told appears to be a smaller figure which the prosecution claim is Nikki Allan.

Boyd was 25 at the time of the alleged murder.

Now 55, he is accused of luring Nikki to the scene where she was hit with a brick and stabbed 37 times.

Boyd, of Chesterton Court, Stockton, Teesside, is alleged to have murdered the schoolgirl in a derelict building near the flats where they lived separately in Hendon, Sunderland.

On Monday, Mr Wright read a statement from the defendant’s mother, in which she described how Boyd, also known as Smith and Bell, came to be photographed in a family setting when he was around 18 and at a Christmas gathering when he was about 25.

The jury has previously heard that Boyd was not considered a suspect at the time, and that another man was prosecuted and cleared of Nikki’s murder.

The trial continues.

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