A Teesside Crown Court jury heard the father of Scarlett Vickers picked up a knife and stabbed his daughter in the chest after the family was reportedly playing around in the kitchen
The parents of schoolgirl Scarlett Vickers who died after she suffered a fatal wound to her heart are serving “life sentences,” jurors were told.
Simon Vickers, 50, has denied the murder and manslaughter of his 14-year-old daughter, at their home in Darlington, County Durham, last July. The prosecution at Teesside Crown Court claims he picked up a knife and stabbed her in the chest after the family indulged in horseplay while her mother, Sarah Hall, Vickers’ partner of 27 years, cooked spaghetti bolognese.
They say he has changed his account of what happened, having claimed he accidentally threw a knife at her, with an expert pathologist saying that the weapon must have been held due to the nature of the wound. In his closing speech to the jury, Nicholas Lumley KC, defending Vickers, said the prosecution did not have to advance a motive, but there was not one.
The experienced barrister described it as one of the “saddest and most serious cases”. He reminded the jury how Scarlett’s mother referred to the close family group as the three S’s.
Mr Lumley said of the teenager: “She was finding her independence, supported at every turn by her father and her mother, there’s no hint of disharmony in that house.” He added: “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.” Mr Lumley said: “You must decide whether the loss of their daughter’s life makes him a murderer.
“You must decide whether the loss of their daughter’s life makes him guilty of manslaughter. Both require him to have deliberately armed himself and to have attacked his daughter.”
Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, said that Vickers loved his daughter and he was “devastated” by her death and he said the jury would have sympathy for the family. He said that Vickers had lied about what happened that night.
“The prosecution submit that Mr Vickers did not and could not have stabbed his daughter through the heart accidentally,” Mr McKone said. Vickers could not have accidentally swiped the knife along the work surface into her chest, the prosecution has said.
Mr McKone reminded the jury Vickers had smoked cannabis on the day and had been drinking wine. Alcohol coupled with an incident where his daughter and his partner threw grapes at each other in the kitchen, with some ending on the floor where their dog could eat them, could have led him to become irritated, the prosecution said.
The prosecution said even picking up a knife with an intent to “prod” his daughter was unlawful. Mr McKone said: “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.”
Mr Justice Cotter sent the jury out to consider their verdicts before they were sent home to carry on deliberations on Thursday morning.
