The victim, Nikki Allan, was only seven years old when she was hit with a brick and repeatedly stabbed in Sunderland’s Old Exchange building in October 1992.
In a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, jurors heard that a girl who was found with a man’s DNA on her clothes may have wiped her accused killer’s spit on herself. The victim, Nikki Allan, was only seven years old when she was hit with a brick and repeatedly stabbed in Sunderland’s Old Exchange building in October 1992.
David Boyd, who was a neighbor of Nikki’s family at Wear Garth and known as David Smith at the time, denies murder.
In police interviews that were read out in court, Mr. Boyd said that he had been spitting off his third-floor veranda the night Nikki went missing and it may have landed on her. The court has heard that DNA matching Mr. Boyd’s was found under the right armpit of Nikki’s T-shirt and on the waistband of her leggings, the areas where her killer may have grabbed to lift her into the Old Exchange through a broken boarded-up window.
The court also heard that Mr. Boyd knew the Old Exchange and had used the same window several days before Nikki’s killing to get in, as her attacker would have done. Detectives said there were inconsistencies in the accounts of his movements that night.
Mr. Boyd was arrested and interviewed in April 2018 and April 2019, during which he was asked how DNA matching his could have ended up on Nikki’s clothes. He told officers that the “only way” he could explain the DNA was that he had been spitting off his veranda and she must have walked underneath. He also suggested that she could have wiped her hands on the spit.
Forensic scientist James Chapman previously told jurors that he did not find evidence of saliva on Nikki’s clothes, but that saliva does not contain DNA, although cheek cells could be part of a person’s spit.
The trial previously heard that a girl was seen walking with a man from the flats towards the derelict building shortly before 22:00 on 7 October 1992, with a scream heard moments later. Nikki’s body was found in the building’s basement the following morning by people searching for her.
The trial continues
