Inside Scarlett Vickers' murder from fatal play fight to detail that jailed dad Simon
Inside Scarlett Vickers' murder from fatal play fight to detail that jailed dad Simon
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Simon Vickers described himself as "the unluckiest man in the world" after his daughter Scarlett died from a stab wound to the heart following a play fight-gone-wrong. During his trial, the 50-year-old denied the murder and manslaughter of his only daughter, who was just 14 years old when she died in her family kitchen from an 11cm deep stab wound to her chest.
In Vickers' version of events, he, his partner Sarah Hall, and Scarlett had been "horse-playing" at their home in Geneva Road, Darlington, County Durham, on the night of July 5, when she was stabbed, fatally, in the heart. The defence argued that the schoolgirl's death had been a tragic "freak accident", which occurred when Vickers - who, that evening, had drunk four glasses of wine and smoked half of a joint - accidentally threw a knife that had been lying on the kitchen work surface.
But prosecutors told Teesside Crown Court that the 11cm injury was too deep to have been accidental, asserting that the knife must have been 'held firmly' at the time. Now, Anna Barker, the senior crown prosecutor with CPS North East, has taken aim at the inconsistencies in Vickers' version of events, telling the court: “The account provided by Simon Vickers about how his daughter, Scarlett, sustained a fatal injury is wholly inconsistent with the forensic evidence in this case.
“As part of our case against him, the Crown Prosecution Service instructed a medical expert, whose analysis made it clear that the nature of the wound sustained by Scarlett could only have been caused if the knife used had been firmly gripped as she was injured.".
