Father jailed for at least 15 years after murdering daughter, 14, in 'kitchen play fight'
10 February 2025, 10:59 | Updated: 10 February 2025, 11:23
A father who stabbed his teenage daughter to death in the kitchen of the family home during a "play fight" has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in jail for her murder.
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Simon Vickers, 50, was found guilty of murder by a jury at Teesside Crown Court in January following the death of his 14-year-old daughter, Scarlett.
The court heard how Mr Vickers stabbed his daughter through the heart in July last year.
He had given several different accounts of what happened in the seconds before he plunged a kitchen knife 11cm into his daughter Scarlett's chest at their home in Darlington.
After Vickers was sentenced, the Crown Prosecution Service said exactly what happened may never be known.
Despite claims her death was an accident, a jury took just 13 hours and 21 minutes to convict him of murder by a majority of 10-2, rather than the less serious alternative of manslaughter, or to clear him.
Sentencing Simon Vickers, Mr Justice Cotter said: "Scarlett was just 14, a normal, healthy girl with a long life ahead of her when it was cut short by you.
"She died in the kitchen of her own home within minutes of having been stabbed," he continued.
"It went from an ordinary, happy family Friday night to tragedy within seconds due to what must have been your loss of temper.
"There is no other plausible explanation. You have never given a truthful explanation of what happened."
During sentencing, the defendant's team told how Scarlett's mother continued to support the defendant despite the murder conviction.
Read more: Father guilty of murdering daughter, 14, after he stabbed her in the heart during family play-fight
The prosecution also told the court how Mr Vickers had previously slashed a man in the face when he was younger.
Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, said Vickers had a conviction for wounding with intent in 1993 when he was 19, slashing a man across the face with a Stanley knife.
He was sentenced to two years' detention for the attack.
Christopher Atkinson, Head of the Complex Casework Unit for CPS North East, said: "It is difficult to understand what motivated Simon Vickers to take the life of his daughter, Scarlett.
"In the absence of any plausible explanation on his part, we may never fully understand the circumstances which led to her tragic death.
"What is abundantly clear is that the account provided by Simon Vickers was wholly inconsistent with the forensic evidence in this case.
="Crucially, the medical expert we instructed to examine Scarlett's injuries made it clear that they could only have been caused had the knife been firmly gripped as it made contact."
Nicholas Lumley KC, defending, said: "Each of those left behind by Scarlett have been left serving life sentences of their own from which none of them will ever be free."
He added: "Sarah Hall (Scarlett's mother) remains resolute in her belief that the father of her only child did not intend Scarlett any harm and his parents are of the same view.
"None can believe that he will now be known as Scarlett's murderer."
During the trial, Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton explained to the jury that the way the knife went into Scarlett's chest meant it must have been held in a hand, with force.
In his closing speech Mr McKone said the prosecution accepted that Vickers was "devastated" and loved his daughter.
But the blow could not have been caused by it being accidentally swiped across a work surface and so deeply into her body.
Before the jury was sent out to consider their verdicts, Mr McKone said: "If you accept that Mr Vickers has lied about how Scarlett was killed, this must be because he has something important to cover up.
"This suggests that he does not have a truthful account which he considers to be innocent for you to even consider.
"In other words, Mr Vickers has not got an innocent explanation for wounding Scarlett when the knife was held in Mr. Vickers' hand."
