Father guilty of murdering daughter, 14, after stabbing her in the kitchen of their Darlington home | British news

A father has been found guilty of murdering his daughter after he stabbed her in the heart at their Darlington home.

Simon Vickers, 50, was convicted of manslaughter at Teesside Crown Court on Monday.

He gave different accounts of what happened in the seconds before he plunged a kitchen knife into his daughter Scarlett’s chest last July.

The 14-year-old died on the scene.

Prosecutors said the 11cm wound was too deep to have been caused by accident and that the knife must have been “held firmly” at the time.

Vickers claimed the incident happened During a family game in the kitchen.

He had been drinking wine and watching the Euro soccer tournament on TV and had smoked cannabis that day.

Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, was making spaghetti bolognese for the family, and when Scarlett came down from her bedroom, they all started throwing grapes at each other for fun.

She said she then snuck up on her partner with pliers and when he complained it hurt, their daughter referred to him as “Wimpy”.

Mrs Hall said she turned away to serve the meal and then heard Scarlett say “OW” and immediately saw their only child bleeding profusely.

She made a 999 call and told the operator they had “messed around” and her partner had thrown something at their daughter “and he wasn’t aware”.

Prosecutor Mark McKone KC told jurors that paramedic Andrew Crow said that initially Vickers and Ms Hall were unsure how the injury occurred.

“Then Scarlett’s mother said that Scarlett and her father were playfully fighting and ‘chucking’ knives at each other,” he continued.

“Mr Crow said the defendant got a knife from the kitchen counter and said ‘We were messing around, we were playing games and she lunged at me and it just went in’.”

Vickers, giving evidence in his defence, insisted it had been a “freak accident”.

He claimed he had pushed what he thought were pliers along a work surface into Scarlett’s chest, not realizing it was a knife.

Home office pathologist dr. Jennifer Bolton told the jury how the knife went into the teenager’s chest meant it must have been held in one hand with force.

Scarlett’s mother – the only other person in the kitchen at the time – stood by her partner of 27 years and told the court Vickers loved their daughter and would never harm her.

But the jury took 13 hours and 21 minutes to convict Vickers of murder by a majority of 10-2, rather than the less serious alternative of manslaughter or clearing him.

Vickers was visibly unresponsive in the dock, while Mrs Hall and other family members in the public gallery looked stunned by the verdict.

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