Father who stabbed daughter, 14, found guilty of murder after claiming it was a playfight
Father who stabbed daughter, 14, found guilty of murder after claiming it was a playfight
Share:
Scarlett Vickers died in the kitchen of their family home in Darlington. A father has been found guilty of murdering his 14-year-old daughter after an alleged playfight in their Darlington kitchen left her with an 11cm stab wound to her heart. Simon Vickers, 50, claimed he had accidentally picked up a knife along with a pair of tongs during the scuffle, which had seen his daughter Scarlett playfully throw grapes at him on 5 July last year.
![[The knife used that killed 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers in Darlington (CPS/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/13/dde4a572e901e65678899c3d8c1c0f27Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NDY1MjYx-2.78686500.jpg)
He had denied both murder and manslaughter but has been been convicted following a trial at Teesside Crown Court after the jury deliberated for 13 hours and 21 minutes. Vickers had told police who arrived at the scene that they had been playing one minute and the next blood was “gushing” from her chest.
Despite his claims that this had been an accident, the prosecution argued that the suggestion he threw the knife at her was “practically impossible” and the wound was too deep to have been caused accidentally. His partner and Scarlett’s mother Sarah Hall and other family members looked stunned in the public gallery when the verdict was returned, while Vickers did not visibly react in the dock.
Ms Hall has stood by her partner of 27 years, telling jurors that Vickers loved their only child and would never harm her. 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”.
