Father denies murdering 14-year-old daughter during kitchen ‘play-fight’
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A father accused of murdering his 14-year-old daughter by stabbing her in the heart told the emergency services that they had just been play-fighting while they made their tea, a court heard. Simon Vickers, 50, denies both the murder and the manslaughter of his daughter Scarlett in the kitchen of their home in Darlington on July 5 last year.
He told police who arrived at the scene that they had been playing one minute and the next blood was “gushing” from her chest. The prosecution case was that this was not an accident, jurors heard. Defence barrister Nicholas Lumley KC said Scarlett was the much-loved only child of her parents and that Vickers “had no desire to harm her in any way at all”.
Mr Lumley said: “They had been messing around together in the kitchen, in a normal playful way and Simon Vickers suddenly realised that Scarlett had been injured. “Her body must have come into contact with a sharp knife and she quickly died as a result of a single knife wound.
“He, Simon Vickers, will bear moral responsibility for his daughter’s death for the rest of his life. “However, he denies completely that he did anything unlawful or deliberate to cause that tragic death.”. Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Scarlett suffered a single 11cm wound to the left of her chest which damaged her heart.
Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, was present in the kitchen and tried to save the teenager as she bled to death on the floor, jurors heard. She made a 999 call and told the operator they had been “messing about” and that her partner had thrown something at their daughter “and he didn’t realise”.
