Dad accused of murdering daughter, 14, said it was 'accident' while playing with spatula
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A dad accused of murder claimed that he was play fighting when he "accidentally" killed his teenage daughter with a knife blow to the heart, a court heard on Tuesday. Scarlett Vickers, 14, suffered an 11cm (4.3in) stab wound to the chest in the kitchen of the family home in Darlington, Co Durham. Her father Simon Vickers, 50, told police and paramedics that he and Scarlett had been "messing around" as he prepared food.
He told police: "One minute I was cooking, then next there was blood gushing from her chest." He also claimed he had picked up a spatula to throw at his daughter and did so without realising he was also holding a knife. The force of the blow to the left ventricle of her heart caused her to fall to the kitchen floor with blood pouring from a chest wound, Teesside crown court heard. Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, said that a pathologist report had established that the force of the blow was such that it went deep into Scarlett's chest, and "must have been held firmly in the defendant's hand".
It meant that the injury "was too deep" to have been caused accidentally, and that Simon Vickers was guilty of murdering his daughter, because he intended to cause 'serious harm', the jury was told. Mr McKone KC said: "Dr Jennifer Bolton conducted a postmortem. Scarlett died as a result of a stab wound to the left side of the chest.
"This had breached the chest wall between the fifth and sixth ribs, going through the lowermost point of the upper lobe of the left lung, before passing into the left ventricle of the heart where it ended. This has been associated with blood loss into the left chest cavity, and it is this blood loss which has ultimately resulted in her death.
