The mum of a murdered seven year-old has vowed to watch the killer face justice this week – but wants to sue the police for “mistakes” that left the monster on the loose for more than 30 years.
Nikki Allan was bludgeoned with a brick and stabbed 37 times by David Boyd in October 1992. But the child killer was not convicted until Friday – three decades after he took the little girl’s life.
Nikki’s mum Sharon Henderson has vowed to be in court on Tuesday when Boyd, 55, is due to be sentenced.
She said: “He should never be let out, I just wish there was still the death penalty.
“I couldn’t sit through the whole trial, I was told some of the details were so bad it would be better if I left.
“But I will be there this week. I won’t look him in the eye. I can’t even bear to look at the man.
“I thought I was brave for all those years when I was fighting for justice. I always said I wanted to look him in the face and tell him what I thought of him.
“But how do you look at someone who murdered your bairn in the face?”
Boyd murdered Nikki after luring the youngster to the Old Exchange, a derelict building in Sunderland.
Sharon says there were “too many failures, too many mistakes” in the murder investigation carried out by Northumbria Police.
She said: “I’ve known a lawyer for years and we’re looking at taking legal action against the police. They need to be held to account.
“I’m angry. The police knew he’d committed crimes before in the 1980s, and they would have taken a statement off him when Nikki was killed. But they didn’t put the pieces together.”
In 1992 Boyd was 25 and lived three doors away from Nikki’s grandparents. His girlfriend at the time was the little girl’s babysitter.
Sharon said: “They had a baby in a pram at their flat and all the kids, including my Nikki, used to talk to the baby in the buggy. She was familiar with him and his girlfriend.”
She believes Boyd should have been a suspect from the very start.
She said: “On day one, after Nikki was murdered, they should have looked at him. “When someone is killed, the first people the police look at is family, then the people they know or trust. Why didn’t they haul him in?”
In 1986, eight years before he killed Nikki, Boyd was convicted of breaching the peace – after he approached four children aged eight to 10, grabbed one and asked for a kiss.
Seven years after the murder, in 1999, he was convicted of indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl.
Sharon said: “He was on their files and lived nearby. How did they miss him? His first crime was in the 80s. They should have gone to him first.
“When he assaulted that poor girl, why didn’t they make the link then?”
The force has apologised to Sharon’s family as well as a man falsely accused of killing Nikki – neighbour George Heron, who was prosecuted but cleared of murder in 1993.
Assistant Chief Constable Alastair Simpson said: “I am truly sorry for mistakes that were made in the 1992 investigation and I am sorry for the length of time it has taken to get justice for the family.
“I cannot imagine the impact on them over the...last 30 years.”
Sharon wants the force to launch a full investigation into Boyd’s activities.
She said: “The police should be looking at where he’s worked, where he’s travelled, where he’s been on holiday. You don’t do something like that, kill a little bairn, and just stop.
“He stole Nikki’s life and I know he’s lived his thinking he’d got away with it. But I’m more concerned about how he lived his life.
“There will be more victims out there. I honestly believe he was part of a paedophile ring. We need to get the rest of them.”
Boyd was finally arrested in 2018 after police relaunched the murder investigation and found new forensic evidence – traces of his DNA on tragic Nikki’s shorts and T-shirt.
During his three-week trial, Boyd tried to explain it by saying he had spat from the balcony of his flat while Nikki was playing below.
But the jury at Newcastle Crown Court didn’t believe him – and took just 90 minutes to find him guilty.
Sharon, who has three other daughters, said “life went downhill” when they lost Nikki but the family keep each other strong.
She said: “I’ve got four grandchildren and they’ve brought us happiness. We are all there to support each other.”
