The investigation into the murder of Nikki Allan was derailed as police "built a case" around the wrong man.
George Heron was a "weirdo and a loner" to neighbours in Wear Garth, Sunderland, where Nikki and her family lived.
But he was not her killer.
He was cleared in court as his confession was ruled inadmissible by the 1993 trial judge, sitting in Leeds.
It meant David Boyd, a neighbour of Nikki's grandfather Dickie Prest, slipped through the net despite his history of sexual offences involving children.
Heron's life was ruined and he was forced to leave Sunderland, and England, to begin a new life in Ireland. He was still under threat even there - reportedly receiving threats from the IRA.
A man called Steven Heron, 25, had the misfortune of being remanded to Durham jail on burglary charges on the same day that George Heron was taken into custody.
He faced threats from prisoners who thought that he was accused of the murder of Nikki. He told his family that he had to convince inmates that he was not a murderer.
But he still could not escape those false accusations, first slashing his wrists before he was found hanged.
He was said to have been 'in the wrong place at the wrong time' when he was arrested on suspicion of burglary - with his legal team convinced of his innocence.
Richard Wright KC prosecuting said that the original investigation into Nikki's murder "built a case" around George Heron.
Opening the case, he told the jury at Newcastle crown court: "In 1992, the police inquiry into the murder of this child identified George Heron as a suspect and built a case around him.
"In contrast, in this recent re-investigation of the case the Police have gone to significant lengths to investigate all identifiable potential suspects without making any assumptions.
"That process has identified just one man who knew this child, knew the murder scene intimately, saw her just before she was lured away, lied about where he was at the time of the killing, who matches the description of the killer, and whose DNA profile matches a DNA profile found at multiple sites on her clothing."
He said that Nikki may have been murdered because she was able to identify Boyd as the man who had lured her away.
Boyd was today found guilty of murdering Nikki 30 years ago, and the verdict was met with huge cheers from the public gallery.
The original investigation, led by Detective Superintendent George Sinclair, now dead, failed to pick up on Boyd's two previous convictions at the time Nikki was murdered.
In 1986 he was convicted of causing a breach of the peace by approaching a group of young children aged between 8 and 10 in Sacriston, County Durham.
He seized one girl by the arm and asked her for a kiss, warning them not to say anything before he left. He had a further conviction, also from 1986, for indecent exposure against an adult woman who was out jogging when he encountered her.
Boyd lived just three doors away from Sharon's father Dickie Prest and step-mother Jenny Prest and he knew the family. His partner Caroline Branton Sr was a babysitter for Nikki and her three sisters and NIkki had occasionally spent time at the flat she and Boyd shared in Sunderland's Wear Garth housing complex.
It meant she was comfortable enough with him to follow him away from Wear Garth, skipping happily behind him to her death at the Old Exchange Building, a derelict warehouse on the city docks.
In the statement taken from Boyd he was identified as the last adult male to see Nikki alive by his own admission and he still was not treated as a suspect.
A young boy from the estate told police he had been in the building where Nikki's body was found with Boyd the previous Sunday, just three days before the murder on October 7th 1992.
Boyd explained that he and the youngster, who was 12, had been looking for wood to build a pigeon hut. But he knew the building and how to enter it via a boarded up entrance at the back.
As years went on, Boyd continued to offend but there was no cross-referencing between his child sex offences and the murder of Nikki - even after he confessed to a sexual interest in young girls at the relevant time.
In 1997 he exposed himself to three young girls in a park, one of whom he knew. He told police he didn't know why he had done it.
Then in 1999 he approached two girls aged nine and 12 in Primrose Hill Park in Stockton on Tees. He admitted he would think about 'young girls being naked, touching their body and having intercourse with them.'
He said it was "a phase" he went through when he was aged around 22. At the time of Nikki's murder Boyd was 25 but no connection was made between him and her murder after his disclosures.
But for years after he was cleared, police saw George Heron as their only suspect. He was charged with murder in 1992 - a mob tried to get him in the dock at court - before he appeared for trial at Leeds Crown Court in 1993.
However, the case was halted by the trial judge, Mr Justice Mitchell, after he heard the police interviews of Heron, which lasted three days.
He ruled the interviews were "oppressive" and that Heron was hectored into making a confession to something he knew little or nothing about.
The judge said that the police had misrepresented evidence in their interviews with Mr Heron. He said that two witnesses had given police descriptions of a man and there were striking differences between them.
Neither witness was able to pick out Mr Heron in an identity parade.
He went on to criticise the police methods of questioning, saying that their manner was 'oppressive' as they told the accused that they believed he was the killer despite his constant denials.
Heron was cleared at the judge's direction but his life was ruined. He moved away under an assumed name, first to the south of England and then to Ireland. He was described by the prosecution in Boyd's trial as "an innocent man."
In his police interview Mr Heron guessed at what officers wanted him to say, offering answers, only to be corrected with "howay George" said repeatedly by the interviewing officers.
One section of the interview tape reads like this: Heron: “Picked up the nearest thing and hit her with it.”
Detective: “And what was that?”
Heron: “A brick”
Detective: “Where did you hit her, George?”
Heron: “On the head.”
Detective: “How many times can you remember?”
Heron: “No”
Detective: “How many times do you think?”
Heron: “I lost count”
Detective: “That’s not all you did, George is it? Howay you have told us the truth we are just about there George we are nearly finished alright. Did the brick knock her out George?”
Heron: “There was blood.”
Detective: “Did that kill her George with the brick? George, it did, didn't it, George?” There’s more isn’t there George?
“Howay you have told us there was blood all over the place what else did you do. George we know what’s happened, we know what’s happened, so you know you are not holding anything back by not telling us.
"George, what else did you do?”
“George howay son, just finish it off and tell us what else you did. George …”
Heron: “Went to throttle her”
Detective: “You went to throttle her, what with?”
Heron: “Me hands”
Detective: “But you hit her with something else didn’t you George?”
Heron: “Don’t remember”
Detective: “George, think, I know it’s not very nice son, but just think what did you hit her with. Eh George?”
Heron: “Fist”
Detective: “What else? Howay George you used something else didn’t you? George we know, howay George what else did you do? Come on.”
Heron: “Piece of metal”
