Simon Vickers stabbed 14-year-old Scarlett with a knife while they were ‘mucking about’ in the kitchen. A father who murdered his teenage daughter by stabbing her with a knife while they were “mucking about” in the kitchen has been jailed for life. A high court judge, Mr Justice Cotter, said Simon Vickers, 50, would serve at least 15 years in jail for killing 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers. Vickers, of Darlington, County Durham, had denied charges of murder and manslaughter and gave different accounts of what might have happened on the night Scarlett died. He categorically denied intentionally or knowingly inflicting the wound that killed her.
![[Simon Vickers]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ef2fec1e18f42f3d78e0bc33a09aa7fe92fbe012/81_197_566_708/master/566.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The only other person in the house that night was Scarlett’s mother, and Vickers partner of 27 years, Sarah Hall. She gave evidence for the defence, saying Vickers would never harm their only child. A forensic pathologist told a trial at Teesside crown court in Middlesbrough that Scarlett’s fatal injury, a stab to the heart, could only have been caused by a knife that was held and used with force.
After more than 13 hours deliberation the jury found Vickers guilty of murder by a 10-2 majority. The prosecution did not offer a motive for the murder. Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, said Vickers was lying to the jury and that he may have been “irritated” by his daughter’s behaviour that night. The court heard Vickers had smoked a cannabis joint and drunk four glasses of red wine at the family home on 5 July. After watching football on the TV he was in the kitchen with Scarlett and Hall when they started “mucking about”. The horse play began with throwing grapes, became tickling and then nipping with kitchen tongs.
In the course of this Scarlett was stabbed, suffering an 11cm wound to her chest. She bled to death at the scene. Vickers initially told police that he must have accidentally thrown the knife at her, thinking he had something else in his hand. Giving evidence, he said that was not what had happened and that it may have been a freak accident with him accidentally swiping the knife along a work surface and it somehow going into her chest.
