Nikki Allan murder trial: Witness heard 'piercing' screams during the night of schoolgirl death

A witness who lived close to the abandoned building where Nikki Allan was found dead has recalled the "piercing" screams she heard on the night of her death.

The body of Sunderland schoolgirl Nikki, 7, was found with 37 stab wounds in the derelict Old Exchange building in October 1992.

David Boyd, 55, of Chesterton Court, Stockton-on-Tees, denies murder.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that Carol Osborne lived near the building and was reading a book during the night of Nikki's disappearance, when she heard distressing sounds.

In a pre-written statement read out to jurors, she said: "It was a piercing scream which I took to have been made by a little girl."

The court also heard from a teenager who helped with the search for Nikki Allen.

Andrew Maven, who was 16 at the time, was in the Old Exchange building when he followed "drag marks" into a room.

"I then saw what looked like a heap of rags in the corner of the room. Then I saw two bare feet sticking out from what I thought was a pile of rags and I realised it was Nikki.

"I was deeply shocked and ran and was crying hysterically", a statement from Maven read.

A witness who helped police draw a sketch of a man suspected of murdering Nikki described the moment she saw the schoolgirl skipping down a street, just hours before she was found dead.

In a written statement, Margaret Hodgson thought the pair were father and daughter, when she spotted them as she sat in a car waiting for her mother.

"They were walking together but not hand in hand. At intervals the little girl would drop behind and then skip to catch up. They appeared to be father and daughter", she said.

Prosecutors also played CCTV footage which they claim is of Nikki and her killer, as they walked down High Street East close to the Garths where she lived.

The court heard that Boyd admitted to police that he knew the seven-year-old and had seen her at 9:30pm on the night she disappeared.

It also heard that during a house to house enquiry David Boyd - then known as David Smith - told an officer he knew how to get into the derelict Exchange Building where Nikki's body was found. He had visited it just days earlier with a 12-year-old boy, to look for pigeons.

The trial continues.

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