Father’s Disturbing Defense: From “Harmless Fun” to Tragedy in Shocking Fatal Stabbing of Daughter

A British father accused of fatally stabbing his 14-year-old daughter at their residence testified that the two were “playing around” and enjoying “innocent fun” when she suffered the deadly wound.

Simon Vickers, who faces charges of murder and manslaughter regarding the death of Scarlett Vickers in Darlington on July 5, described the entire incident as a “freak accident,” as reported by the BBC on Monday.

“We were engaging in harmless fun. There was no knife involved,” Simon Vickers, aged 50, informed the jury at Teesside Crown Court. “I was merely throwing a pair of tongs as far as I was aware.”

However, the father accused of murder acknowledged that what he believed were tongs turned out to be a knife that inflicted a 4-inch laceration on his daughter’s chest, leading to her demise from blood loss within the home.

“Then she simply ceased to breathe,” he testified. “There was nothing. Her eyes just became like a doll’s eyes.”

Vickers mentioned that he had consumed approximately four glasses of wine while he, Scarlett, and her mother, Sarah Hall, viewed a soccer match on TV prior to the tragic event, but he insisted it was purely an accident.

Hall testified that she had removed the knife to slice garlic bread and put it next to the tongs.

“We would never injure our daughter,” she expressed to the jury. “She was our life, our reason.”

Simon Vickers testified that the trio was “inseparable” and characterized Scarlett as “playful” and “typical” — referring to her as a “wonderful daughter.”

“I spoiled her. She had me completely under her control. I enjoy seeing her joyful, bringing a smile to her face.”

Yet, the incident has astonished and shaken the tranquil town in Northern England, with Vickers taken into custody following the deadly stabbing and subsequently denied the opportunity to leave prison for the teen’s funeral.

During testimony the previous week, a forensic pathologist remarked that it was “virtually impossible” for a knife thrown as the father described to have resulted in the teen’s lethal injuries, reported another BBC article.

Prosecution witness Jennifer Bolton indicated that an eight-inch kitchen knife similar to the one that killed Scarlett is not meant to be thrown, and it would have struck the girl at a 90-degree angle, rather than penetrating her torso.

She concluded that the knife was being held “firmly” with a strong grip when it impacted the victim.