A murder trial jury was told a seven-year-old girl was seen skipping as she accompanied the man who was to kill her, minutes before the concerted fatal attack took place.

Prosecution counsel Richard Wright KC was outlining the case against defendant David Thomas Boyd to a trial jury at Newcastle Crown Court, where he stands accused of the murder of Nikki Allan.

The 55-year-old defendant, of Chesterton Court, Norton, near Stockton, who denies murder, lived in the same Wear Garth flat building in Sunderland as Nikki’s family, at the time of her death in October 1992.

Her blood-stained body was found dumped in the corner of a basement room in the disused Old Exchange building, off High Street East in Sunderland, on October 8, 1992.

Read more: Sunderland schoolgirl Nikki Allan 'stabbed through heart'

The court heard that she appeared to have been punched on a wasteland courtyard area at the rear the derelict building, before she was lifted and pushed through a gap in a boarded-up window, the only point of access.

Inside the building the defendant is said to have bludgeoned Nikki with a brick, shattering her skull, before stabbing her up to 37 times, then dragging her body and dumping it in the basement room.

Mr Wright told the jury that the defendant benefited from the fact police focussed their inquiries at the time on another man, George Heron.

He went on trial charged with her murder at Leeds Crown Court, in 1993, but he was cleared by the jury.

Mr Wright told today’s jury: “They were right to do so.

“George Heron was not the killer of Nikki Allan. The killer was David Boyd.”

Mr Wright said the defendant was known to Nikki and, on his own admission, was the last male witness to see her alive before her disappearance.

The prosecution said she was seen sitting on a wall outside the Boar’s Head pub, opposite Wear Garth, at about 9.43pm that night, before she was “lured away” by her killer and led along nearby Low Street to the rear of the Old Exchange building.

Mr Wright said Nikki was clearly familiar with the defendant and seemed to be “comfortable” as she walked with him.

Read more: LIVE: Man stands trial for murder of Sunderland schoolgirl Nikki Allan

A witness waiting to collect her mother from work at a nearby fish factory said she saw the pair walking along the road, with Nikki occasionally skipping to catch up the male, and she was under the impression it was a father and daughter.

Mr Wright told the jury: “She was plainly happy enough to be skipping along behind the man, we say, was to kill her.”

He said an artist’s impression of the man based on the witness’s description bore a “striking resemblance” to a photograph of the defendant from about the time.

But the court heard Boyd was never a suspect in the case until a fresh investigation was conducted by a different police team, using up to date DNA profiling techniques, in 2017.

A sample was taken from him for dna testing purposes, in October that year.

It revealed what the prosecution claim are 28,000 to one positive profiles of the defendant’s dna on the clothing Nikki was wearing at the time of her death.

He was first arrested on April 17, 2018, when he told police: “I haven’t got any involvement in it.”

Mr Wright said Nikki was known to Boyd, who was 25 at the time, and the defendant was familiar with the lay-out of the building where her body was found.

He said Boyd matched a description of the man seen walking with her minutes before her death and his DNA profile was found on several areas of her clothing.

Mr Wright said Boyd came up with various, “untruthful inventions” to try to counter the evidence against him, including suggesting he may have spat from the balcony outside his flat at Wear Garth, as Nikki was playing below, offering it as a possible explanation for the presence of his DNA on her clothing.

“Who recalls sitting and spitting from a balcony 30 years ago, something he never mentioned until 30 years later?”

Concluding his opening, Mr Wright told the jury: “The only issue is whether or not we have made you sure David Boyd killed her.

“If you are sure he did, David Boyd is guilty of murder.

“If you are not sure, he’s not guilty of murder.”

Read next:

* Nikki Allan: Jurors in Sunderland murder trial selected

* Nikki Allan: Murder trial is due to start on April 20

* Man denies murder of Sunderland schoolgirl Nikki Allan

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The trial judge, Mrs Justice Christina Lambert, adjourned the case.

She asked to jury not to return to court until Monday (April 24), when the first live prosecution evidence will be given.

Proceeding.