In a harrowing case that has shocked the community, Simon Vickers, 50, has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison for the murder of his 14-year-old daughter, Scarlett. The tragedy unfolded last June at the family home in Darlington, County Durham when Vickers allegedly plunged a knife 4 into Scarlett’s heart after “mucking around” in the family kitchen.
Expert witnesses dismissed Vickers’s claim that the fatal injury was accidental. They maintained it was “practically impossible” for such a deep wound to occur by chance. “He must have been holding the knife with a ‘firm grip’ to pierce her pajamas and chest,” experts stated, emphasizing the deliberate nature of the act. Despite these strong professional opinions, Vickers’s family remained united in his defense during the sentencing hearing.
Vickers’s father, Barrie, 78, told The Sun: “He would never in a million years have hurt her deliberately. Scarlett was his life. Simon would have killed himself before he laid one finger on that girl. And I’d be the first one not to speak to him again had I thought for one second he did it. We know Simon wouldn’t have killed her. We know the truth. It was an accident.”
Barrie’s impassioned defense reflects the profound grief and confusion that has engulfed the family. Vickers’s partner, Sarah Hall—Scarlett’s mother—was described as “absolutely broken” by the court. Despite her personal loss, she has chosen to stand by her partner, a decision that has added another layer of complexity to the case.
At Teesside Crown Court, prosecutors failed to offer any clear motive for the killing. In his defense, Nicholas Lumley, KC, argued: “Each of those left behind by Scarlett have been serving life sentences of their own from which none of them will ever be free. Both of Scarlett’s parents could not believe that their only child had died that night. And Sarah Hall remains resolute in her belief that the father of their only child did not intend Scarlett any harm and his parents are of the same view.”
However, Judge Mr Justice Cotter delivered a scathing rebuke of Vickers’s inconsistent accounts. He said:
“You’ve given different accounts of what has happened, specifically that she was stabbed by accident, that you’d been throwing knives, that you’d thrown a spatula or tongs, that Scarlett lunged towards the knife. Indeed, the unconvincing and wholly implausible version of events you gave to the jury involved you swiping tongs along the kitchen surface before them flying up into the air, and that you’d not even been aware of a knife before or after Scarlett suffered injury. Indeed, you said the knife wasn’t in any equation except when Sarah had been cutting onions.”
He continued, “Given the evidence of the pathologist, this was clearly untrue. She came by that fatal injury through your hand.” Later, he added, “Exactly what happened, only you know. Although you have accepted it was your actions that caused her death, your beloved daughter deserved the truth but you have not given it.”
The court heard that Vickers had been drinking wine and smoking cannabis at the time of the incident and claimed that he and Scarlett were just “messing about” when he accidentally threw the blade at her. Vickers also had a previous conviction from 1993 for attacking a man with a Stanley knife. Prosecutor Mark McKone, KC, asserted that the 11cm wound was too deep to have resulted from a playful act and must have been inflicted deliberately.
The Crown Prosecution Service, working closely with Durham police, expressed their condolences to Scarlett’s family, acknowledging the emotional toll of this tragic case.
