Nikki Allan: Sister remembers 'very creepy' killer as a child

Stacey Allan said she had been waiting for the word "guilty" for 30 years

The sister of a seven-year-old girl murdered in 1992 said she remembers her killer as "very creepy".

David Boyd, from Stockton, has been jailed for a minimum of 29 years for luring Nikki Allan to a derelict building in Sunderland, and beating her and stabbing her 37 times.

Nikki's sister, Stacey Allan, said she remembered seeing Boyd a few times near Wear Garth flats where they lived.

"All of the kids were wary of him, he was a very creepy character," she said.

Ms Allan, 39, said finding her sister's body "affected everybody" because she was so loved.

"Nothing made sense after that," she said.

"Without Nikki - she was like my little sidekick - nothing was ever the same after that."

Nikki Allan's sister said she was "very funny"

Ms Allan said, as a child, she was "always with" her sister, who was very funny.

"Like a stand-up comedian - she used to make me laugh all the time," she said.

When Nikki went missing "I got the shock of my life, I'd never seen anything like it", she said.

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"I remember my mam waking me up and there were just loads of people there," Ms Allan said.

"That was what scared me the most - she was frantic.

"I think at that point she just knew that something wasn't right."

Stacey Allan, right, said she needed to look after her mother, Sharon Henderson, left

Her mother, Sharon Henderson, has spent the past 30 years waiting for Tuesday's sentencing and was "going to be in shock", Ms Allan said

"My mam is one of my main concerns," she said.

"She's not going to be all right."

Ms Allan is critical of the police and the time it took to bring her sister's killer to justice.

"I've been waiting for the word guilty for all my life," she said.

"It's ruined all of our lives, hasn't it?

"I've been through hell and back."

David Boyd admitted to having sexual fantasies about young girls

Nikki's death led to behavioural problems and a refusal to go to school, Ms Allan said.

Later she turned to drugs and started going to raves.

"I just spiralled out of control," she said.

After trying and failing to get clean a few times, "one day I'd just had enough - could see death near," she said.

• David Boyd jailed for 29 years

• Police sorry for family's 31-year wait for justice

• David Boyd guilty of killing Nikki Allen

Ms Allan is now a drug and alcohol recovery worker and qualified boxing coach and has a two-year-old son who is the "spitting double" of her sister.

She wants to run her own gym and help keep young people off the streets.

Thinking about what her sister might have been doing, had she lived, is "what pains me the most", she said.

"I day dream all the time [about it]," she said.

"She would have been a right character."