A father who stabbed his 14-year-old daughter in the heart while they were play-fighting in the kitchen is to be sentenced for her murder.
Simon Vickers, 50, was convicted last month following a trial after jurors heard how he gave 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 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.
Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, had told jurors earlier that Scarlett’s death last July was not an accident.
Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton explained to the jury 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.
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”.
Following the conviction, 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.”
