A mother struggled to contain her emotions in court today as she faced the man accused of murdering her seven-year-old daughter 30 years ago.
Sharon Henderson, 56, sat across the same court room and at one stage appeared to be in tears as the process of selecting a jury to try David Boyd, 55, for the murder of Nikki Allan began.
Mrs Justice Lambert told prospective jurors at Newcastle Crown Court it was a ‘serious and important’ case that concerned the murder of seven-year-old Nikki in Sunderland in October 1992.
She said the defendant David Boyd was ‘in the past also known as David Smith and David Bell’ and has been ‘accused of killing Nikki Allan.
The judge told them: ‘This will be the most important public duty you will ever be asked to do in your life.’
To ensure jurors have no previous knowledge of the case, prosecuting barrister Gillian Batts read out the names of people who will feature in the trial.
She also told them another man called George Heron was ‘prosecuted for the murder of Nikki Allan’ at Leeds Crown Court in 1993.
The murder of the innocent schoolgirl shocked the nation at the time. Nikki disappeared walking the short distance from her grandparents’ flat to her own in the same apartment block.
A massive search was launched and her body was discovered the next day in a nearby derelict building. She was found with multiple stab wounds.
The trial started on Thursday, and it is expected to last up to five weeks.
