Father who stabbed daughter to death previously jailed for slashing man’s face

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Father who stabbed daughter to death previously jailed for slashing man’s face

A father convicted of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

previously slashed a man across the face with a Stanley knife, it has emerged.

Simon Vickers was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 15 years, on Monday for the ******* of his only child, Scarlett.

At the sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court, it was revealed he had a previous conviction for wounding with intent in 1993, when he was 19, and was sentenced to two years’ detention.

Vickers was

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

following a trial at which he claimed his daughter died in an accident while they were play-fighting.

The sentencing judge said Vickers’s account about how he “accidentally” swiped a kitchen knife into his daughter’s chest in the kitchen of their family home was “unconvincing and wholly implausible”.

The 50-year-old defendant had given differing versions of what happened in the seconds before he plunged the blade 11cm into her chest, piercing her lung and heart.

Her mother, Sarah Hall, was the only other person in the kitchen of their

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

home at the time. She stood by her partner of 27 years, telling the court that Vickers loved their child and would never harm her.

However, jurors convicted him by a majority of 10 to two.

Scarlett Vickers was described in court as a ‘normal, healthy woman with a long life ahead of her’ – Durham Constabulary

Dr Jennifer Bolton, a Home Office pathologist, said the injury must have been caused by a knife held with force and was not accidental.

Mr Justice Cotter accepted the defendant was “devastated”, that he was a “broken man” and that there was no premeditation or intention to kill.

The judge said: “You have lost your only child at your own hand and you will always live with that awful fact…

“Only you know precisely what happened in that kitchen on that Friday evening which led to you fatally stabbing your only daughter in what should have been the safety of her own home.

“It was a momentary but devastating act of anger.”

The court heard how Ms Hall was making spaghetti bolognese on the evening of July 5 when she and her daughter began throwing grapes at each other in jest.

Ms Hall grabbed some tongs and snipped at her partner of 27 years. When he complained he had been hurt, Scarlett implied her father was being “wimpy”.

During the trial, Ms Hall claimed that during the play-fighting, she turned away to serve the family’s evening meal and then heard Scarlett say “Ow”. She said she then looked at their child and immediately saw blood pouring out of her.

Ms Hall 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 a paramedic that his daughter had lunged towards him during a bout of play-fighting, the court heard.

Scarlett bled to death at the scene.

Mr Justice Cotter said the offence was aggravated because Scarlett was a child who should have been safe in her own home.

Vickers had

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that night but the judge was not sure whether alcohol had contributed to the crime, which he was convinced was caused by “a flash of anger”.

He added: “Scarlett was just 14, a normal, healthy woman 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.

“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.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Flowers left outside the family’s home in Darlington in July last year – North News / NNP

Mark McKone KC, prosecuting, told the court about Vickers’s previous 1993 conviction for wounding with intent when he attacked a man’s face with a Stanley knife.

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 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 *********.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Father #stabbed #daughter #death #previously #jailed #slashing #mans #face

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up