A father who claimed his daughter was stabbed to death in a tragic kitchen play-fight has been found guilty of her murder.
Simon Vickers, 50, insisted that his only child Scarlett, 14, died in a ‘freak accident’ at their home in Darlington, County Durham, after he ‘accidentally’ swiped a knife.
But the prosecution alleged he ‘deliberately’ stabbed his daughter because the 11cm wound to her chest was ‘too deep’ to have been caused accidentally.
Schoolgirl Scarlett died from rapid blood loss on June 5 last year after the blade pierced her chest and her heart.
A jury at Teesside Crown Court convicted Vickers of murder by a majority. He will face life imprisonment when he is sentenced on February 10.
Inconsistent
The Crown Prosecution Service said Vickers’ account of his daughter’s death was ‘wholly inconsistent’ with the evidence, saying the wound could only have been inflicted if the knife used was ‘firmly gripped’.
Emergency services were called to the family’s semi-detached home in Geneva Street shortly before 11pm on July 5 last year.
Scarlett was found by paramedics bleeding to death on the kitchen floor and was unable to be saved.
Vickers told police that the pair had been ‘just mucking around’ while his partner of 27 years, Sarah Hall, cooked spaghetti bolognaise.
He said: ‘We were cooking tea, we were mucking about playing around and started throwing objects at each other.’
Post-morterm
Vickers, who worked at the 3M manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, insisted through his trial that he did not deliberately pick up a knife but accepted he must have caused Scarlett’s fatal injury.
Jurors heard how he told police upon his arrest: ‘I must be the unluckiest man in the world’.
Dr Jennifer Bolton, a forensic pathologist, who carried out a post-mortem on Scarlett’s body told the court the possibility of an accidental stabbing was ‘practically impossible’.
She said the knife must have been ‘held firmly’ to pierce through Scarlett’s pyjamas and chest.
No motive for the killing was put forward by the prosecution but Mark McKone, KC, said Vickers ‘must have been lying’ to police because his account did not tally with the pathologist’s findings.
Scarlett posted a tragic final TikTok video showing her posing in her bedroom mirror just hours before she died.
She is seen wearing a black outfit and playing with her hair as she holds her phone up in the clip, which is captioned: ‘Ignore the mess pls.’
Vickers, who admitted drinking four glasses of red wine and half a cannabis joint before the tragedy, denied deliberately harming his only child.
He said the family had been in a ‘happy’ mood and were looking forward to a summer holiday in Gran Canaria.
Harmless fun
Vickers told the jury of a ‘theory’ that Scarlett may then have accidentally come onto the knife after it ‘hit the side of the hot-plate and stuck out over the side of the counter’.
Vickers said: ‘I hadn’t done anything unlawful. I had thrown a pair of tongs as far as I was aware. We were mucking about, harmless fun. There was no knife in any equation whatsoever.’
He added: ‘The police assume that I have held a knife and stabbed my daughter which is something that just wouldn’t happen.
‘Why would I harm my daughter? If someone held a gun to my head and told me to stab my daughter, I would be shot.’
In a 999 call made by Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, told an emergency operator: ‘We were messing about, having a fun-fight. My partner threw something and he didn’t realise.’
Ms Hall said in the frantic call: ‘My daughter, she’s on the floor, she’s losing quite a bit of blood. I don’t know what happened.
‘She’s going in and out of consciousness.’
Vickers could be heard in the background screaming: ‘Scarlett, Scarlett, talk to me Scarlett. ‘Oh my God, she’s gone blue.’
He later told police, recorded on a body-worn camera: ‘I was mucking about. There wasn’t any effort into it. ‘What the f*** is going on? ‘We were mucking about. This is unreal.’
The prosecution alleged Vickers could not have thrown or swiped a knife into her chest.
Mr McKone suggested he could have been ‘irritated’ with Scarlett after she and her mother were throwing grapes in the kitchen.
He said in a closing speech to jurors: ‘This has gone beyond horseplay and Mr Vickers could and should have realised there was a risk in that small kitchen of causing serious injury with a knife.’
Nicholas Lumley, KC, defending Vickers, claimed Scarlett’s death was a ‘tragic, tragic accident’ and that there had been ‘no hint of disharmony’.
He said: ‘She was was their only child. He had no wish or desire to harm her in any way at all. All three of the family had been having a normal Friday evening at home.
‘They had been messing around in the kitchen in a normal, playful way, when Mr Vickers suddenly realised that Scarlett had been injured.
Outpouring sorrow
‘Her body must have come into contact with a sharp knife and she quickly died as a result.
‘He, Simon Vickers, will bear moral responsibility for his daughter’s death for the rest of his life.’
Scarlett’s death sparked an outpouring of sorrow with her headteacher, Su Gill, of Haughton Academy School, describing her as a ‘lovely, respectful and polite girl’.
‘Scarlett was a lovely girl and an important member of the Haughton Academy community,’ Ms Gill said.
‘She was always immaculately turned out, respectful and polite.
‘A very friendly girl, with a great sense of humour, she was popular with her friends and will be greatly missed by everyone at school.’
The statement continued: ‘A very friendly girl with a great sense of humour, she was popular with her friends and will be greatly missed by everyone at school.’
Anna Barker, Senior Crown Prosecutor with CPS North East, said: ‘The account provided by Simon Vickers about how his daughter, Scarlett, sustained a fatal injury is wholly inconsistent with the forensic evidence in this case.
‘As part of our case against him, the Crown Prosecution Service instructed a medical expert, whose analysis made it clear that the nature of the wound sustained by Scarlett could only have been caused if the knife used had been firmly gripped as she was injured.’
‘We have worked closely with Durham Police to meticulously piece together the tragic events which led to Scarlett’s death. Our thoughts remain with her family, for who this must remain a difficult time.’
