Innocent man whose life has been ruined by ‘stitch-up’

GEORGE Heron’s life has been ruined by the suspicion that he got away with murdering Nikki Allan in 1992.

The 23-year-old lived in the same block of flats as the schoolgirl when he was hauled in by police.

Mr Heron made 120 denials over three days of ‘oppressive’ questioning before finally making a ‘confession’ in which he said Nikki was strangled when in reality she was stabbed.

Despite the huge hole in his story, police and prosecutors put Mr Heron on trial for murder in 1993 only to see him cleared by a jury, after his taped admission was ruled inadmissible by a judge.

But Nikki’s mother Sharon Henderson was convinced he was the killer and won an uncontested £ 7,000 damages claim against him.

The furore and threats that followed his acquittal effectively forced Mr Heron into exile and for the best part of three decades he has been estranged from his family, probably living under a new name in an unknown location.

Yesterday’s guilty verdict against David Boyd means the 53-year-old is safe to reveal his whereabouts if he wishes. Police have been in regular contact with him in recent years and he is set to receive a formal apology.

Mr Heron’s family lost touch with him, fearing he was a killer.

A relative, who asked not to be named, told the Mail: ‘When I first heard about his arrest, I hoped it wasn’t true but we heard he had confessed so thought it may be that he did it, after all... His siblings were very emotional. They had death threats, people were threatening their children.

‘That part of the world is quite brutal, especially if a person is accused of such a crime.

‘For him to live through that, it must have been so hard, even for his mum who stuck by him.’

The relative blames police for finding ‘the first person they could blame and causing that person’s life to be utterly ruined’.

Mr Heron, who had moved into his sister’s flat three months earlier, knew Nikki and a knife at his home was said to be consistent with wounds on her body. There were also suggestions bloodstains were found.

But the evidence against him was flawed and he was effectively stitched up by incompetent police. After being found not guilty of murder at Leeds Crown Court in 1993, Mr Heron, a Roman Catholic and bachelor who was described as a ‘ loner’, said: ‘ I did not kill Nikki.’

Adding that he remained in fear of his life, he said: ‘I’m glad to be free, but I will still be living in fear for a long time yet. I watch every face and I am still very unsure of anyone I don’t know.’

In 1996 a newspaper tracked him down to Reading where he was working as a hostel care worker.

He insisted he had been falsely accused and said: ‘There were times I wondered if I had killed Nikki. So many people said I had that I started to doubt myself.

‘I confessed because the police put me under so much pressure.’

Nothing has been heard of him publicly since.

‘Set to receive a formal apology’