Dad says he's 'unluckiest man in the world' after killing daughter while 'mucking around'
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A dad who claims his teenage daughter was accidentally killed when he threw a knife her at while play-fighting told police he was the "unluckiest man in the world", a court has heard. Simon Vickers, 50, is accused of murdering 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers at their home in Darlington, Durham, on July 5 last year after she died from catastrophic blood loss. The blade penetrated 11cm deep into her chest and pierced her heart.
Prosecutors claim Vickers must have stabbed his daughter "deliberately with the knife". Vickers, who denies murder and manslaughter, claims the pair were just "mucking around" when tragedy struck. In a recorded police interview, played to the jury at Teesside Crown Court, Vickers told officers he believed he had thrown a pair of kitchen tongs at Scarlett, after the pair were "messing about" throwing grapes at each other. He said: "We were horse-playing. I must be the unluckiest man in the world.".
Vickers said he and Scarlett were "throwing grapes" at each other, while her mother Sarah Hall was cooking spaghetti bolognese for dinner. He told interviewing officers: "Sarah was cooking tea. We have a breakfast table the other side. Scarlett was sat on one side, I was sat on the other.
"She had grapes and we started throwing grapes at each other. A few splattered on the wall. Then I went to try to get her and she pushed me away and I threw the tongs at her.". Vickers added: "F***ing hell. I can't believe this has happened. We were just mucking about in the kitchen. I can't believe how this has happened.".
