Simon Vickers, 50, insists he meant no harm to daughter Scarlett, who suffered a stab wound to the heart(Pictures: North News)
A dad’s claim that his 14-year-old daughter died in a freak accident when he mistakenly threw a knife at her during a play-fight in the kitchen is ‘practically impossible’, a court has been told.
Simon Vickers, 50, insists he meant no harm to daughter Scarlett, who bled to death on the kitchen floor after being stabbed in the heart at their home in Darlington on July 5 last year.
Jurors at Teesside Crown Court have been shown bodyworn footage of Vickers telling officers they were ‘mucking about, playing around and started throwing things at each other’.
Prosecutor Mark McKone said Vickers told detectives he went to hurl some tongs at Scarlett – ‘throwing them almost blindly over his left shoulder or arm’ – but unwittingly grabbed the knife and launched that as well.
But giving evidence today, Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton told the jury it was her view the knife must have been ‘held tightly’ when it caused the 11cm wound that killed Scarlett.
‘That typically means a firm grip and that arm is braced in a certain way,’ she said.
Asked by prosecutor Mr McKone if she thought the knife could have been thrown towards Scarlett, Dr Bolton said: ‘Kitchen knives aren’t designed to be thrown, they aren’t designed to go through the air.
‘So, it is practically impossible for a kitchen knife to be thrown for it to travel in such a way that it lands on Scarlett’s clothing and then her skin at 90 degrees, so it doesn’t simply bounce off or scratch across, and then go 11cm in and apparently come out again.’
Vickers denies murder and manslaughter.
Scarlett Vickers, 14, who died at home in County Durham after suffering a stab wound to the chest (Picture: North News)
The knife which caused her fatal wound (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service/PA)
Opening the case to jurors earlier in the week, Mr McKone said the prosecution case was that this was not an accident as the wound was too deep to have been caused accidentally.
Scarlett’s mum, 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 and that they were ‘intoxicated’ drinking wine after a ‘nice day’ watching football.
Neither parent realised Scarlett was hurt until she yelled, the court heard.
Flowers left in tribute to Scarlett outside the family home (Picture: North News)
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.
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’.
The trial continues.
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