Fresh Crimewatch appeal in bid to catch killer of girl, 7, who was stabbed 37 times more than two decades ago

Victim: Nikki Allan was killed just yards from her home in Sunderland in 1992
Detectives investigating the unsolved murder of a seven-year-old-girl who was stabbed 37 times and battered with a brick more than two decades ago are to make a fresh Crimewatch appeal tonight.

Schoolgirl Nikki Allan was just seven years old when she was brutally killed just yards from her home in Sunderland in 1992 and her body dumped in a derelict warehouse.

But no-one has ever been convicted of the murder and Northumbria Police hope that appearing on the BBC1 show may uncover new clues.

Detective Superintendent Roger Ford, who leads the force’s Major Crime Teams, will appear on the show along with a reconstruction of Nikki's death.Nikki was found dead on October 7, 1992, in the then-derelict Old Exchange Building, near to her family home at Wear Garth, Sunderland.

A number of people were arrested in connection with the investigation but no one was convicted.

Detective Superintendent Ford said: 'This was an extremely brutal attack on a defenceless seven-year-old girl and 21 years after it happened it’s still talked about in Sunderland and the local area 'Nikki’s family have been left devastated by what happened and we will never give up trying to find her killer.

'Technology and forensic investigation techniques are improving all of the time and it’s our hope that these advances along with new information from the public could lead to us finding out who murdered her.