Mum of murdered Sunderland seven-year-old Nikki Allan believes her killer had accomplices

The mum of murdered seven-year-old Nikki Allan believes her killer had accomplices who helped him on the day she died.

It has been 32 years since Sharon Henderson lost her little girl at the hands of a sadistic killer. Only now, a year after he was finally brought to justice, has she been able to cry and grieve properly for her precious daughter.

The campaigning mother, of Sunderland, turned detective to track down David Boyd. The jobless drifter was finally found guilty of Nikki's murder a year ago, 31 years after he stabbed the girl 37 times, gaining her confidence because he knew her family's babysitter.

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Boyd, who had a long history of sexual offences, also attacked the defenceless schoolgirl with a brick. The twisted killer used seven different names to evade justice during 25 years at large.

Sharon tracked him down and gave two of those identities, David Smith and David Bell, to Northumbria Police. He was finally arrested at his home in Stockton on Tees on April 17, 2018.

But her search for justice goes on. She believes Boyd had accomplices who helped him on the day of the murder and assisted in covering his tracks. She is still fighting for police to reopen the case and says the owner of a mystery man's bracelet, found in the lining of Nikki's coat, has still not been properly identified.

"I am still so angry about the original police investigation," she said. "I gave Boyd's name and the other names he used to police and it took the cold case review to finally get his DNA.

"But that should have been done a long time before that. The main thing for Nikki is that we find the things that went wrong so that others do not go through what we have been through.

"I forced myself to listen to some of the evidence in court and learned things about her death for the first time. I had to leave for some of the evidence. My daughter Stacey stayed and is still dealing with it now.

"I feel like I am crying properly for Nikki for the first time as all the emotions are coming out. I am truly grieving after all this time. At first it was just anger and wanting to catch the killer. Now I just sit and think of Nikki. It is horrendous, the loss."

She went on: "I want the case reopened because I believe that Boyd had accomplices in the murder. There were people who should have been interviewed by police at the time.

"I still believe there were a number of people who knew what Boyd was doing on the day Nikki died, who covered up for him. There was this group who lived close to each other and I believe they were part of a paedophile ring."

Sharon, 57, is also working with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) as they examine the original investigation into George Heron, the man who was cleared of Nikki's murder in 1993. Once that inquiry is concluded, it is likely that Sharon will be entitled to substantial compensation.

But she has "no interest" in any likely pay out, and says she will give it to her three surviving children, and four grandchildren. "They have had more than 30 years of their mother's struggle, they have seen their mum on medication and in a mental hospital," she added.

"There has been no real justice for them because this went on for so long. They found a man's gold bracelet in Nikki's coat and that could have been vital evidence.

"But it was missed and no checks were done for DNA. I have asked about that, I want answers. What if it belonged to someone other than Boyd?

"There were so many mistakes made. If I get compensation, I will give it to the kids. It will not change my life."

Northumbria Police declined to comment on Sharon's claim for compensation while the IOPC probe was ongoing. Boyd, now 56, was found guilty of the murder of Nikki following a 31-year quest for justice by Sharon.

He made up an alibi given to cops when Heron was wrongfully accused of Nikki's murder in 1992. By the time he was cleared a year later, Boyd had moved on, and used different names to evade justice.

In the years following the murder, he was known as David Thomas Boyd, Jason Branton, John Eastman, David Smith, David Bell and David Thomas Smith. An alternative spelling of his name also appeared on his file which he later claimed was 'misspelt'.

Police were guilty of a series of blunders in helping him to escape justice. Boyd admitted having a "phase" when he was aged about 22 where he "began to fantasise about both adults and children, in particular young girls".

He had a conviction for breaching the peace from 1986 when he approached four children in Sacriston, County Durham, and grabbed a 10-year-old girl. Boyd asked her for a kiss before letting her go and ordering the children "not to tell anyone" what he had done. In 1999, convicted of indecent assault, he told a doctor he had been "drunk, depressed, acting on impulse" when he assaulted the girl.

In a report prepared ahead of sentencing in March 2000, probation officer Gillian Dixon said Mr Boyd told her he began to have "dirty thoughts" when he saw the girls and felt "excited" about touching them. Boyd told Ms Dixon: "I would think about young girls being naked, touching their body and having intercourse with them." She said he claimed to immediately feel "disgusted and ashamed" after grabbing the girl.

Police never made the connection between him and Nikki until 2018, more than quarter of a century after the 1992 murder in a disused Sunderland warehouse. Sharon had been granted a meeting with then Northumbria Police chief constable Steve Ashman, who agreed to the cold case review.

A DNA link was then made from a sample taken from the coat Nikki was wearing on the night she died, and Boyd. After 25 years hiding his horrific crime, he was finally brought to justice, and locked up for 37 years.

Harriet Wistrich, Solicitor and Director of the Centre Women's Justice, said: “It is extremely concerning that a child murderer who lived only three doors away from Nikki’s home, failed to come under the spotlight of the police for nearly three decades.

"Instead the police insisted their prime suspect had been acquitted on a technicality and failed to explore other suspects. It is outrageous that the bereaved mother should have suffered any blame.

"She had to take increasingly desperate measures to get the police to do their job. I hope the IOPC will leave no stone unturned in exposing incompetence and wrongdoing."