The jury in the trial of the man accused of the killing of Nikki Allan was told he did not have “the courage” to answer questions about her death from the witness stand.

It followed defendant, David Boyd’s decision not to give evidence in his trial, in which he is accused of the seven-year-old schoolgirl’s murder, in 1992.

Richard Wright KC, summing up the prosecution case in the trial of now 55-year-old Boyd, told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court that the defendant lacked the “courage” to face up to scrutiny on the witness stand.

Nikki’s battered, and multiply-stabbed body was found dumped in the basement of the derelict Old Exchange Building, in Sunderland, on October 8, 1992.

Read more: Video shows moment Nikki Allan Sunderland murder accused is arrested

During his trial the jury has heard that Boyd, then known as Smith, was never a suspect in Nikki’s killing at the time, as police focused their investigation on another local man, George Heron, who was subsequently cleared of her murder, in a trial at Leeds Crown Court, in 1993.

The defendant in the latest trial was aged 25 and living in the same Wear Garth flat complex, off High Street East, Sunderland, as Nikki’s family at the time of her death.

He knew her and her elder sister, as his then girlfriend would babysit for Nikki’s mother.

On his own admission to police in inquiries in the aftermath of her killing he may have been the last male to see her alive, having spotted her playing at the foot of Wear Garth flats at 9.35pm on the night of her disappearance, on October 7, 1992.

It is the prosecution’s case that Nikki went out of Wear Garth and was seen sitting on a wall outside the Board’s Head, opposite the flats, waiting for her mother coming out of the pub, at 9.43pm.

But Mr Wright, in summing up, said she appeared to have been lured away by someone who knew her and who she was familiar with, as she was seen skipping behind a male on nearby Low Street minutes later.

Witnesses reported hearing a scream and whaling noise coming from the disused Old Exchange Building, which backs onto Low Street, at about 10pm that night, when the prosecution believes she was killed.

Her abandoned blood-soaked body was found in the disused building’s basement by local searchers, at 9am the following morning.

As part of a subsequent re-examination of the still unsolved case, dna samples, including one from Boyd, were taken by police in 2017 and four matches, bearing his profile, were found on the clothing Nikki was wearing on the night of her murder.

In interviews following his arrest in April 2018, when the new forensic evidence was put to him, Boyd suggested the presence of his dna on her clothing may have been from him spitting over the balcony outside his second-storey flat at Wear Garth, as Nikki was playing below.

Following the conclusion of the prosecution case in the third week of the trial, Boyd’s counsel, Jason Pitter KC, told trial judge, Mrs Justice Christina Lambert, that his client did not wish to call any evidence.

The judge said the jury would be entitled to, “draw inferences” from that decision.

Mr Wright then began his summing up in which he spoke of all the evidence which pointed to the defendant as, “being the man” who the jury could make the “common sense” conclusion was responsible for Nikki’s killing.

He said the defendant knew her, was familiar with the area and the lay-out of the Old Exchange Building, while he matched the description of the man seen walking with her shorty before her death and he was unaccounted for by other witnesses from 9pm until after 11pm on the night of her disappearance.

In his own witness statement to police at the time, when he returned home that night he took a bath, before reports reached the flats of Nikki’s disappearance and other people from the complex, but not Boyd, went to search for the missing little girl.

The court has heard of Boyd’s previous convictions for offences in which he indecently assaulted a young girl in 1999, having breached the peace by kissing another young female in 1986.

Prior to his court case in 2000 for the 1999 indecent assault, Boyd told a probation officer he had fantasised about naked young girls, describing it as, “a phase he was going through”.

Read more: Man accused of murdering Nikki Allan ‘admits fantasies of young girls'

Mr Wright said Nikki's killer must have taken her to the rear yard behind the Old Exchange Building “with sinister motive” in mind and something then happened which meant she could not be kept alive.

Referring to Boyd, Mr Wright told the jury: “He may not have the courage to make the walk from the dock to the witness box, but he was the man who walked from the Boar’s Head, down Low Street and into the Old Exchange Building, where he murdered Nikki Allen, in October 1992.

“He doesn’t make the walk to give evidence in this trial, so I can’t ask him about the timings and explain how it is he told all his lies in 1992 and why he told them.

“He sits in silence because he knows those (lies) can be unpicked within seconds.

“The killer must have had sinister motive and David Boyd was that man,” added Mr Wright.

Read next:

* Nikki Allan murder trial jury hears of find of new DNA evidence

* Nikki Allan: Jury in David Boyd murder trial told how body was found

* Nikki Allan: Jurors see photos and sketches of suspect David Boyd

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Mr Pitter will give the defence closing speech to the jury tomorrow (Thursday May 11), followed by the judge's summing up of the evidence in the case.

The defendant, of Chesterton Court, Norton, Stockton, denies murder.

Proceeding.