Man accused of stabbing daughter in ‘play-fight’ says it was ‘freak accident’
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A father accused of stabbing his 14-year-old daughter during a kitchen “play-fight” has told a court it was a “freak accident”. Simon Vickers, 50, denies both the murder and manslaughter of his only child Scarlett in the kitchen of their home in Darlington, Co Durham, claiming he accidentally threw a knife at her without realising.
Teesside Crown Court has heard Scarlett died after being stabbed through the heart on July 5 last year, with prosecutors saying the 11cm wound was too deep to have been caused accidentally, and the knife must have been “held firmly” at the time. On Monday Vickers told his trial he swiped some tongs towards Scarlett while they were “mucking about” and had no idea there was a knife next to them until he saw blood gushing from her pyjama top.
When questioned by his barrister Nicholas Lumley KC, Vickers said he accepted causing Scarlett’s death but when asked if he intended to cause her any harm, the defendant replied: “No, none whatsoever.”. Vickers told jurors that finally becoming a father was the “best feeling I’ve ever had” as he and Scarlett’s mother Sarah Hall had been trying for a baby for years and previously suffered a miscarriage.
He said: “I spoiled her – as my mum would say, she had me wrapped round her little finger. “The three of us were inseparable, from the moment Scarlett was born there was just the three of us.”. Vickers said on the day of Scarlett’s death he and Sarah had watched a football game on the television, and he had drunk three to four glasses of wine and smoked a cannabis joint.
