Distressing details of how seven-year-old Nikki Allan’s body was found in the basement of a derelict building have been read to the jury as part of a murder trial more than 30 years after her death.
Newcastle Crown Court has been told the youngster was found with severe head injuries and 37 stab wounds the morning after she disappeared near her home in Sunderland in 1992.
Former family friend David Boyd, now 55, from Stockton, is currently on trial for murder and the court heard he told police he was buying fish and chips for her uncle at around the time she vanished.
Read more: Sunderland schoolgirl Nikki Allan 'stabbed through heart'
Nikki had been playing outside her home in the Garths area with other youngsters and her family raised the alarm shortly after 10pm on Wednesday, October 7, 1992.
Dozens of people from the close-knit community spent the night looking for her to no avail and the following morning the search reached the old Exchange building.
The court heard how John Pennock found Nikki’s purple coat and red shoes in the grounds of the building, which is a short walk from where she was last seen.
Andrew Maven, 16, at the time, searched the upstairs of the building with Mr Pennock, before returning with his stepfather, George Newsome, and Nikki’s uncle, Terry Clarke, who was friends with the man accused of killing her.
In his statement to police at the time Mr Newsome said he and Andrew searched the building using torches before heading into the basement while Mr Clarke waited outside.
He said: "I shone my torch around. I saw what at first appeared to be a bundle of rags. I could make out a pair of light-coloured socks and legs leading to a torso lying on its right side, bent over.
"I got closer and it appeared to be the body of a little girl.
"I looked at the face and saw it was covered with either blood or dirt."
Andrew Maven told police he saw what looked like two drag marks before he saw the girl’s feet.
He said: “I saw it was Nikki. I touched one of the feet and it was freezing cold. My father said: 'Here is the bairn'."
In a later statement taken in 2017, Mr Maven said he was mistaken about touching the feet and said he ran out when his dad told him she was dead.
He said: "I screamed. I was deeply shocked and was acting hysterically.
“I ran straight to the window to get out, crying hysterically.”
The jury has been shown a video from inside the building shot by police on October 8, 1992, the day Nikki's body was discovered.
The film shows the outside and inside the derelict building with police tape around it, what appear to be blood stains and Nikki's body, which was pixelated, in the basement.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC read a statement made to police by Margaret Hodgson who had driven to the nearby MacFish factory to collect her mother at the end of her shift at around the time Nikki went missing.
Mrs Hodgson said she saw a man walking past the factory with a young girl at precisely 9.51pm, which she knows is accurate because she checked her watch to tell her niece when her grandma would be finishing work.
She said they had the appearance of being father and daughter and the young girl would drop behind and then skip to catch up.
She was able to describe the man as being about 27 years of age, perhaps 5ft 7ins or 8ins tall, with a growing out skinhead haircut and she thought he was clean shaven.
Mrs Hodgson, who later described the man to police artists, also believed that he was wearing a white shirt and jeans.
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Patricia Irwin, who had been working the same shift at the MacFish factory, was walking with workmates for the bus when she became troubled by strange noises from the old Exchange building.
In her statement, Ms Irwin said: "I was just outside when I heard the sound, either a cat wailing or a howling wind. This unnerved me and my suspicions were aroused. I remember saying to the others 'listen to that' and they said 'it will just be a cat'.
"I thought it was a different sound, but I couldn't place it."
Carol Osborne, who lived in a block of flats called River Garth, overlooking the High Street and the Exchange Building, distinctly remembered hearing a girl’s scream coming from the direction of the building.
She said: "I heard the sound of someone screaming. It was quite a piercing scream which I took to come from a girl.
"As local kids are always playing in the area and it only lasted a couple of seconds I took no notice. I went back to my book. I didn't look out of the window."
Regarding hearing a second scream Ms Osborne said: "It sounded like the scream was made by the same person."
Boyd told police at the time Nikki disappeared he was getting fish and chips for her uncle Terry and said he saw her as her made his way to his flat.
He said he was wearing blue denim jeans and multi-coloured rugby top at the time.
In a statement to police in 1992 Boyd said: "I was made aware that Nikki had been found dead in the old white building on the High Street.
"I know this building as I have been inside in on many occasions trying to catch pigeons.
“The last time I was in the building was a week previous to this incident.”
The trial continues.
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