Scarlett Vickers was just 14 when her dad killed her in the kitchen of their family home during an evening of “family horseplay”. Simon denied both murder and manslaughter after Scarlett was stabbed through the heart. But the father was convicted of the teen’s murder following a trial, where his legal team argued her death was in fact a tragic “freak accident”.
Scarlett died after the incident at their home in Geneva Road, Darlington, County Durham, on July 5 last year. Her “devastated” – Vickers senior and mum Sarah Hall – told Teesside Crown Court that they’d been cooking a meal of spaghetti bolognese when Scarlett sustained a fatal knife wound to her heart.
Prosecutors argued that the 11cm injury was too deep to have been caused accidentally, asserting that the knife must have been ‘held firmly’ at the time. However, Vickers claimed he had accidentally thrown a knife without realising it while “mucking around” with his family in the kitchen.
The Mirror reports he said he only understood something had gone horribly wrong after blood started pouring from Scarlett’s “pink fluffy pyjama top. Grieving mum Sarah stuck by her partner of 27 years throughout the trial and has stated that she would not still be with him had she believed he’d deliberately hurt their only daughter.
Remembering the night of Scarlett’s death, Sarah recalled how Scarlett had come downstairs from her bedroom to talk to them at approximately 10 pm. The conversation was a “fun” one, according to Sarah, with the family excitedly discussing their plans to go on holiday. Sarah says she and Scarlett tried to throw grapes into each others’ mouths, with Vickers joining in.
She then started to snip at Vickers playfully with some tongs, with Scarlett telling her father, “Don’t be so wimpy” when he complained about it hurting. It was then that Sarah says she turned away from Vickers and Scarlett to serve their meal. She told jurors: “I was aware they were still mucking around.”
Vickers said he remembered his teenage daughter coming downstairs, complaining of being bored. He said: “We turned our tea off so we could have a bit of craic and knock about a bit. Scarlett mentioned she was still a bit hungry, and there were some grapes on the breakfast bar. She started eating some grapes.
“I’m not sure who started first… but we all started throwing grapes around for a bit, just mucking about. There were quite a few grapes on the floor, and I said we needed to pick them up because I wanted to bring the dog in… Scarlett threw a few more. That’s when I started tickling her.
“Sarah started grabbing me on the back with a pair of tongs, on the butt. I turned round to grab the tongs off her, mucking about, and she caught my little finger in them. I did shout, ‘Ow’, and Scarlett said, ‘Dad, you’re a wimp’, so I said to her, ‘How would you like it?'” Vickers clarified that Scarlett’s ‘wimp’ remarks were just ‘in jest’.
He said his daughter had, “called me a lot worse than that”. He continued: “(Scarlett) was very proud of her hair; she had nice long hair, and I started wafting it, but she started pushing me when I was trying to get it. She was pushing me in the direction of where the tongs were. I put my hand on top of the tongs and swiped them along the kitchen worktop.
“They hit the corner of this hot plate, and that’s why they flew off.” According to Vickers, it was at this point that he’d intended to pick up the tongs and chase Scarlett with them; however, they flew out of his hand as he tried to grab them. Vickers claimed he “had not touched a knife all day”.
He told jurors that the only utensil he’d touched were the tongs and that he hadn’t seen the knife on the work surface. He said he only realised what had happened when Scarlett exclaimed: “Ow, ow, ow.” Vickers said: “She had a pink fluffy pyjama top on. All of a sudden, blood just started coming out of it. Loads of it.”
Meanwhile, Sarah said: “She was just looking at me; I said, ‘What’s up?’ and then I saw blood coming out of her side.” After calling emergency services, Vickers said he’d tried to help Scarlett while Sarah remained on the phone. Showing emotion, Vickers told jurors: “Scarlett was just laying there, staring, she wasn’t saying anything. Then she started gasping for breath.
“That’s when I started shouting ‘Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett’. Then she stopped breathing, just stopped, nothing. Her eyes just went like dolls’ eyes, everything just stopped.” When officers arrived, Vickers and Sarah were informed that their family kitchen was now a crime scene.
Under cross-examination by prosecutor Mark McKone KC, Vickers stated he must have swiped the knife at the same time as the tongs, asserting: “This could only ever have been a freak accident.” Declaring that he would have “given [his] life” for Scarlett, Vickers added: “I had just thrown a pair of tongs as far as I was aware.
“We were mucking about, it was harmless fun … There was no knife in any equation whatsoever apart from Sarah will have been using it to cut onions at the start of the tea. I now know she had got a knife out and put it next to this hot plate to cut the garlic bread about a minute before this happened.”
Mr McKone reminded jurors that Vickers had smoked cannabis that day and had also been drinking wine. Alcohol, coupled with an incident where his grapes had ended up on the floor where the dog could eat them, could have led Vickers to become irritated, the prosecution argued. The prosecution said that even picking up a knife with the intent to ‘prod’ Scarlett would have been unlawful.
Mr McKone stated: “This has gone beyond horseplay, and Mr Vickers could and should have realised there was a risk in that small kitchen of causing serious injury with a knife.” Nicholas Lumley KC, defending Vickers, said that the prosecution did not have to advance a motive and that there was not one.
Mr Lumley said of Scarlett: “She was finding her independence, supported at every turn by her father and her mother, there’s no hint of disharmony in that house. Neither parent asks for your pity, your indulgence or even for your forgiveness. Both parents are serving life sentences in the sense that their lives are broken, their hearts are broken, and this process will not mend them.”
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