The father of Scarlett Vickers has been convicted of her murder. Simon Vickers stabbed the 14-year-old through the heart. He denied murder and manslaughter, telling her trial he was the “the unluckiest man in the world” and the teen lost her life while they were “mucking around” in the kitchen in June last year.
He said: “We were horse-playing. I must be the unluckiest man in the world.” The 50-year-old said he had drunk four glasses of wine and smoked half of a joint during the evening in question. He told the court he accepted causing Scarlett’s fatal chest wound, which was 11cm deep, but had no knowledge of touching the green-handled knife.
The Mirror reports jurors at Teesside Crown Court watched footage of Vickers being booked into custody at Darlington police station after being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He was later rearrested on suspicion of murder after Scarlett succumbed to the fatal injury she suffered at the property in Darlington, Durham.
He was heard saying: “I just want to know how my daughter’s doing. We were mucking about, playing in the kitchen, and for some reason this has gone really weird. We were mucking about. I can’t believe this. Please someone tell me. What’s going on? We are going on holiday to f****** Gran Canaria in six weeks.
“F****** hell. I don’t believe this is happening. We were cooking tea. Just mucking about in the kitchen. I don’t understand how this has happened. Honestly.” Emergency services had been called to the family’s semi-detached home to find Scarlett collapsed on the kitchen floor. He suggested he must have swiped the knife without realising, after attempting to “swing” a pair of kitchen tongs.
Vickers told the jury of a “theory” Scarlett may then have accidentally come onto the knife after it “hit the side of the hot-plate and stuck out over the side of the counter.” Vickers said: “I hadn’t done anything unlawful. I had thrown a pair of tongs as far as I was aware. We were mucking about, harmless fun. There was no knife in any equation whatsoever.”
Prosecutors claimed Vickers must have stabbed his daughter “deliberately with the knife” because the wound was “too deep” to have been caused accidentally. Mark McKone, KC, prosecuting, told the dad during cross-examination: “I will have to suggest to you that you have not told the truth about how Scarlett was wounded.”
Vickers sobbed as he gave evidence, telling jurors he would never have hurt secondary school pupil, Scarlett, his only child with long-term partner Sarah Hall. Asked by his barrister Nicholas Lumley, KC, if he intended to cause her serious injury, Vickers told the jury: “No, never, never in this world. I would have given her my life.”
The dad told how the family had been preparing for a holiday in the Canary Islands and Scarlett had been looking forward to the end of the school term. He denied losing his temper, telling the court he was “relaxed” and “happy”. He said the family were in their small kitchen when he asked them to pick up the thrown grapes because he wanted to bring their Labrador dog inside.
He said: “Sarah started picking the grapes up, Scarlett threw a few more so that’s when I started tickling her. We were at the back door, I was tickling her at the back door. Sarah started nipping me on the back with a pair of tongs, on the butt. I turned around and tried to grab the tongs off her, as I tried to grab them I caught my little finger on them.
“I did shout out. Scarlett said ‘dad, you’re a wimp’. I said ‘how would you like that?’, just mucking about.” Vickers said he then started “wafting” Scarlett’s hair and she pushed him away towards the kitchen counter when he swiped at the kitchen tongs. He added: “As I went to sit on the seat, I heard Scarlett shout ‘ow, ow’.
“There was a delay of a couple of seconds. I looked up straight at her and I said: ‘what’s the matter?’ She was just staring. She had a pink fluffy pyjama top on and all of a sudden lots of blood started coming out. I got off my chair, Sarah had grabbed a towel. It was like ‘what the f***?'”
Vickers broke down as he told the court how he had been refused permission to attend his daughter’s funeral while on remand in prison at HMP Durham. He added Scarlett was “our life, our whole purpose” and a “fantastic daughter”. He told the jury: “I spoiled her. As my mum would say, she had me wrapped around her little finger.”
Mr McKone put to Vickers: “Isn’t the reality that this explanation of a swiping movement towards a pair of tongs, causing a knife to go into Scarlett’s chest by 11cm, is just a lie by you?” Vickers replied: “No, it is not. It certainly is not. The police assume that I have held a knife and stabbed my daughter which is something that just wouldn’t happen.
“Why would I harm my daughter? If someone held a gun to my head and told me to stab my daughter, I would be shot.” Her mother Sarah Hall, who had been cooking spaghetti bolognese in the kitchen with them that night, was emotional in the witness box at times as she gave evidence in support of her partner of 27 years.
Nicholas Lumley KC, defending Vickers, asked her: “Did you have any concerns about his care?” Ms Hall replied: “No, never.” Mr Lumley asked: “If you had thought he had murdered your daughter, would you still be with him?” She replied: “Definitely not, she was my number one, she was my best friend, my girl.”
Ms Hall also said she would not still be with Vickers if she believed he had deliberately harmed their only daughter. Outlining what happened that night, she said Scarlett had come down from her bedroom to talk to them at around 10pm. They were having a “fun” conversation about going on holiday and were excited, Ms Hall said.
She said she and her daughter then tried to throw grapes into each others’ mouths, and Vickers joined in. Ms Hall told the court she started to snip at Vickers in a playful manner with some tongs. Scarlett told her father “don’t be so wimpy” when he complained it hurt.
Ms Hall turned away to start serving their meal, telling jurors: “I was aware they were still mucking around.” She wept as she told jurors the next thing she remembered was Scarlett saying “ow” and she turned around to her daughter. She was just looking at me, I said ‘What’s up’ and then I saw blood coming out of her side.”
Mr Lumley questioned whether she had asked her partner what he had done to their daughter. She said she did not, explaining: “It would never cross my mind that he would ever do anything to her.” She added: “I don’t know how it happened but I know he would never harm her so it didn’t even enter my head.”
Mr Lumley asked her if she had tried to protect her partner when she was interviewed by police. ”No, there was nothing to protect,” she said. “It was an accident, I know he would never harm her. She was my little girl, she was my best friend, she always came first for the both of us.”
Jurors were told by a Home Office pathologist it would be “practically impossible” for a thrown knife to cause Scarlett’s fatal chest wound. Dr Bolton said it was her opinion the knife was being “held tightly” at the time, so when it came into contact with Scarlett, it went into her. “That typically means a firm grip and that arm is braced in a certain way,” she said.
Asked by prosecutor Mark McKone KC if she thought the knife could have been thrown towards Scarlett, Dr Bolton said: “Kitchen knives aren’t designed to be thrown, they aren’t designed to go through the air. So, it is practically impossible for a kitchen knife to be thrown for it to travel in such a way it lands on Scarlett’s clothing and then her skin at 90 degrees.
“It doesn’t simply bounce off or scratch across, and then go 11cm in and apparently come out again.” Mr McKone told jurors: “The knife must have been held firmly in the defendant’s hand at the time of the stabbing, with the defendant having a firm wrist and a firm elbow. The knife must have been firmly in the defendant’s hand to cause that wound, which was 11cm deep.
“The wound is too deep to have been caused accidentally.” Following the verdict senior crown prosecutor Anna Barker said: “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.” She said the medical expert’s “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.”
She said the Crown Prosecution Service had “worked closely with Durham Police to meticulously piece together the tragic events which led to Scarlett’s death.” And she spoke of Scarlett’s loved ones, saying: “Our thoughts remain with her family, for who this must remain a difficult time.”
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.