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| Man guilty of 1982 child murder | Man guilty of 1982 child murder |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A man has been found guilty of murdering his former partner's daughter nearly 25 years ago. | |
| Nicholas Byard, 46, of The Common, Barwell, Leicestershire, had denied murder and claimed three-year-old Lisa Jayne Pegg died in a fall in 1982. | |
| He was living with the child's mother, Julie Pegg, in Burbage, near Hinckley, when the child suffered head injuries. | He was living with the child's mother, Julie Pegg, in Burbage, near Hinckley, when the child suffered head injuries. |
| A jury returned a unanimous verdict at a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Byard will be sentenced on Thursday. | A jury returned a unanimous verdict at a trial at Nottingham Crown Court. Byard will be sentenced on Thursday. |
| Byard had told the court the child suffered fatal internal injuries by falling down the stairs at the couple's home in Banky Meadow, Burbage. | |
| Lisa Jayne Pegg died from severe abdominal injuries | |
| But the prosecution alleged they were inflicted by him. | |
| Byard, a mechanic, told the court: "I saw her with her face on the landing and with her legs up on the stairs at the bottom of the stairwell. | |
| "She was just lying there and, as I picked her up, she started crying. | |
| "Lisa had a graze on her forehead and nose and a red mark on her stomach." | |
| The little girl died later in hospital. | |
| Lack of evidence | |
| Peter Joyce QC, prosecuting, told the court the evidence was "consistent with assault". | |
| Police investigated her death but the case was not pursued after the Attorney General deemed there was a lack of evidence. | |
| But it was left on file after the coroner in her inquest recorded an open verdict. | |
| In 2002, the child's father, soldier Alan Pegg, asked police to reopen the probe into his daughter's death. | |
| A review and fresh advice from medical experts suggested the toddler's injuries were too severe to have been suffered in a fall. |