Father who fatally stabbed daughter during kitchen ‘play-fight’ jailed for life

A father who stabbed his 14-year-old daughter in the heart while they were “play-fighting” in the kitchen has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years after he was convicted of her murder.

Jurors found Simon Vickers, 50, guilty after they heard how he had given three different accounts of what happened in the seconds before he plunged a kitchen knife 11cm into his daughter Scarlett’s chest.

Her mother, Sarah Hall, was the only other person in the kitchen of their Darlington home at the time and she stood by her partner of 27 years, telling Teesside Crown Court that Vickers loved their only child and would never harm her.

But last month a jury took 13 hours and 21 minutes to convict him of murder by a majority of 10-2, rather than the less serious alternative of manslaughter, or to clear him.

After Vickers was sentenced, the Crown Prosecution Service said exactly what happened may never be known.

Christopher Atkinson, Head of the Complex Casework Unit for CPS North East, said: “It is difficult to understand what motivated Simon Vickers to take the life of his daughter, Scarlett.

“In the absence of any plausible explanation on his part, we may never fully understand the circumstances which led to her tragic death.

“What is abundantly clear is that the account provided by Simon Vickers was wholly inconsistent with the forensic evidence in this case.

“Crucially, the medical expert we instructed to examine Scarlett’s injuries made it clear that they could only have been caused had the knife been firmly gripped as it made contact.”

During the trial, Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, said that Scarlett’s death was not an accident.

Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton explained that the way the knife went into Scarlett’s chest meant it must have been held in a hand, with force.

In his closing speech Mr McKone said the prosecution accepted that Vickers was “devastated” and loved his daughter.

But the blow could not have been caused by it being accidentally swiped across a work surface and so deeply into her body.

Before the jury was sent out to consider their verdicts, Mr McKone said: “If you accept that Mr Vickers has lied about how Scarlett was killed, this must be because he has something important to cover up.

“This suggests that he does not have a truthful account which he considers to be innocent for you to even consider.

“In other words, Mr Vickers has not got an innocent explanation for wounding Scarlett when the knife was held in Mr Vickers’ hand.”

Nicholas Lumley KC, defending, said Vickers “will bear moral responsibility for his daughter’s death for the rest of his life” but he denied acting unlawfully.

Vickers had been drinking wine, watching the Euros football tournament on television and had smoked cannabis that day.

Ms Hall was making spaghetti bolognese for the family and, when Scarlett came down from her bedroom, they threw grapes at each other for fun.

The mother said she then snipped at her partner with tongs and when he complained that it hurt, their daughter made reference to him being “wimpy”.

Ms Hall said she turned away to serve the meal and then heard Scarlett say “ow” and the mother immediately saw that their only child was pouring with blood.

Ms Hall made a 999 call and told the operator they had been “messing about” and that her partner had thrown something at their daughter “and he didn’t realise”.

Vickers told a paramedic that his daughter had lunged towards him during a bout of play-fighting, the court heard.

Scarlett died at the scene.

Giving evidence in his defence, Vickers insisted it had been a “freak accident”.

He claimed he had swiped what he thought were tongs along a work surface, into her chest, and never realised it was a knife.