Father ‘stabbed daughter to death while play-fighting in kitchen’, court hears
Share:
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.
![[a picture of 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers, who died at an address in Geneva Road, in Darlington, on Friday, July 6.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_212034577-ecda.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Her father Simon, 50, denies murder and manslaughter and instead told the court he was simply ‘mucking about’ with his daughter in the kitchen before she suffered a tragic accident. 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.’.
