Murder-accused father who 'stabbed daughter in heart' told emergency services they had been 'play fighting'
14 January 2025, 20:31
A father accused of murdering his 14-year-old daughter by stabbing her in the heart told the emergency services they had been play-fighting while they made their tea, a court heard.
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Simon Vickers, 50, denies murdering Scarlett in the kitchen of their house in Darlington last July.
He told police who arrived at the scene that they had been playing one minute and the next blood was "gushing" from her chest.
The prosecution case was that this was not an accident, jurors heard.
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".
Mr Lumley said: "They had been messing around together in the kitchen, in a normal playful way and Simon Vickers suddenly realised that Scarlett had been injured.
"Her body must have come into contact with a sharp knife and she quickly died as a result of a single knife wound.
"He, Simon Vickers, will bear moral responsibility for his daughter's death for the rest of his life.
"However, he denies completely that he did anything unlawful or deliberate to cause that tragic death."
Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Scarlett suffered a single 11cm wound to the left of her chest which damaged her heart.
Scarlett's mother, Sarah Hall, was present in the kitchen and tried to save the teenager as she bled to death on the floor, jurors heard.
She made a 999 call and told the operator they had been "messing about" and that her partner had thrown something at their daughter "and he didn't realise".
Vickers told paramedic Andrew Crow that his daughter had lunged towards him during a bout of play-fighting, the court heard.
Mr McKone said: "Mr Crow said that initially the defendant and Scarlett's mum said they were unsure how the injury occurred and then Scarlett's mum said that Scarlett and her dad were play-fighting and 'chucking' knives at each other.
"Mr Crow said that the defendant picked up a knife off the side counter of the kitchen and said 'We were messing on, we were play-fighting and she lunged towards me and it just went in'."
The paramedic pronounced that she had died at 11.50pm, around an hour after he arrived at the house in Geneva Road.
Pc Adam Tobling saw the parents sitting together on a sofa and both had blood on their hands and clothing and were "visibly upset", the court heard.
Ms Hall mentioned Vickers had picked up a spatula and "not realised the knife was with it".
The Pc said Vickers then added: "We were cooking tea, we were mucking about playing around and started throwing objects at each other."
Read more: Hunt for 'attacker randomly cutting off women's hair' on streets of south east London
Ms Hall said she had got a knife out to cut garlic bread and her partner had picked it up without realising.
Vickers then said that they were "intoxicated" drinking wine after a "nice day" watching football.
Neither parent realised Scarlett was hurt until she yelled, the court heard.
Officers heard Vickers say: "It wasn't even hard, it was nothing, I don't understand."
He made a swiping motion and said: "There wasn't even any effort into it."
After he was arrested, Vickers said at the police station: "We were just playing in the kitchen, I don't know how this happened, one minute I was cooking, next there's blood gushing out of her chest."
Asked in a police interview if he was responsible for his daughter's death, Mr McKone said Vickers replied: "I must be."
He told detectives his partner was cooking, Scarlett threw some grapes at him, he threw some back and he threw some tongs at her.
Vickers said he now knew that he picked up the blade but he did not see it at the time. He told police he asked his partner to ring 999 when Scarlett collapsed because he could not manage it.
Mr McKone said: "He stated that he has a good relationship with Scarlett and that they are always play-fighting and messing on so to play fight like this is quite normal."
The prosecution said its case was that the wound was not caused by a thrown weapon and that the knife must have been firmly in the defendant's hand when she was stabbed.
"The prosecution says that the wound is too deep to have been caused accidentally," Mr McKone said.
Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton carried out a post-mortem examination and found that the kitchen knife breached the chest wall between the fifth and sixth ribs, went through her lower lung and passed into the left ventricle of the heart.
Scarlett died very quickly from blood loss, the pathologist found.
Forensic scientist Gemma Escott studied the knife and judged that material on the blade indicated a stabbing motion had been used, Mr McKone said.
The prosecution said an offence of murder was the unlawful killing of someone with either an intention to kill or cause really serious harm while manslaughter meant the defendant would have realised the deceased might suffer some physical harm as a result of an unlawful and deliberate act.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday.
