Father allegedly stabbed daughter to death during kitchen play-fight, court hears

A father accused of stabbing his 14-year-old daughter to death has said the pair were simply ‘play-fighting’ while making tea, a court heard.

Scarlett Vickers suffered a 4in (11cm)-deep wound to her chest at her home in Darlington last July and bled to death shortly afterwards.

Her father Simon, 50, denies murder and manslaughter and instead told the court he was simply ‘mucking about’ with his daughter.

He told police who arrived at the scene that they had been playing one minute and the next blood was gushing from her chest.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Mark McKone KC said Mr Vickers and Sarah Hall, Scarlett’s mother, were the only people in the house at the time of the incident and were the only two people who could present an account of what happened.

The court heard that Scarlett and her father were ‘play-fighting and chucking knives at each other’ while Ms Hall made tea. The parents were said to be ‘intoxicated’ after a ‘nice day’ watching football.

Mr Vickers told detectives that while his partner was cooking, Scarlett threw some grapes at him, he threw some back and he threw some tongs at her.

But Vickers said he now knew that he picked up the blade by mistake, although he did not see it at the time.

Mr Vickers said Scarlett then ‘lunged’ towards him and the blade of the kitchen knife ‘just went in’, the court heard.

‘It wasn’t even hard, it was nothing,’ Mr Vickers reportedly told officers, before adding: ‘There wasn’t even any effort into it.’

Neither parent realised Scarlett was hurt until she yelled, the court heard.

After he was arrested, Vickers said at the police station: ‘We were just playing in the kitchen, I don’t know how this happened, one minute I was cooking, next there’s blood gushing out of her chest.’

Asked in a police interview if he was responsible for his daughter’s death, Mr McKone said Vickers replied: ‘I must be.’

He told police he asked his partner to ring 999 when Scarlett collapsed because he could not manage it.

Simon Vickers claims he was play-fighting with his daughter when a tragic accident occurs (Picture: North News & Pictures)

Scarlett was then declared dead at her Geneva Road home shortly before midnight, about an hour after paramedics arrived.

Mr McKone said: ‘He stated that he has a good relationship with Scarlett and that they are always play-fighting and messing on so to play fight like this is quite normal.’

However, he added: ‘The prosecution says that the wound is too deep to have been caused accidentally.’

Pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton carried out a post-mortem examination and found that the kitchen knife breached the chest wall between the fifth and sixth ribs, went through her lower lung and passed into the left ventricle of the heart.

The level of penetration suggested a stabbing motion had been used, they added.

Nicholas Lumley KC, representing Mr Vickers, said both the defendant and Ms Hall ‘loved their daughter with all their hearts’ and he had ‘no desire or wish to harm her in anyway at all.’

Mr Lumley said the defendant would bear ‘moral responsibility’ for the death of the couple’s only child ‘for the rest of his life’ but he denied doing anything unlawful or deliberate.

The trial has been adjourned until Thursday.

Thomas Brown