A father has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years for murdering his 14-year-old daughter.
Simon Vickers was found guilty last month of killing his daughter Scarlett Vickers after stabbing her in the heart at their home in Darlington, County Durham, in July 2024.
The 50-year-old, who denied charges of manslaughter and murder, gave different accounts of what happened in the seconds before he plunged a kitchen knife 11cm into her chest.
Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, was the only other person in the room, and stood by her partner, previously telling Teesside Crown Court that Vickers would never have harmed her.
The jury, by a majority of 10-2, convicted him of murder after 13 hours of deliberations, rather than the less serious alternative of manslaughter, or to clear him.
Ms Hall and other family members in the public gallery looked stunned when the verdict was delivered.
Vickers himself did not react in the dock.
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During the trial, he insisted his daughter’s death had been a “freak accident”.
He claimed he had swiped what he thought were tongs along a work surface, into her chest, and never realised it was a knife.
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Prosecutor Mark McKone KC had told jurors that Scarlett’s death was not an accident.
Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton explained to the jury that how the knife went into Scarlett’s chest meant it must have been held in a hand, with force.
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