Dad 'killed daughter in play-fight stabbing'

A father fatally stabbed his 14-year-old daughter during a play-fight in their kitchen, a court has heard.

Scarlett Vickers suffered a 4in (11cm)-deep wound to her chest and "bled to death" at her family home in Darlington in July, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Her parents Simon Vickers and Sarah Hall told police the family were "mucking about" as they normally did and throwing food and utensils at each other while making dinner in the kitchen.

Mr Vickers, 50, denies murder and manslaughter, with his barrister saying he loved his daughter with all his heart and her death was a "tragic accident".

Opening the trial to jurors, prosecutor Mark McKone KC said the only people present on 5 July were Scarlett and her parents and the account of what happened had come from the two adults.

A paramedic overheard Ms Hall saying Scarlett and her father were "play-fighting and chucking knives at each other", Mr McKone said.

Ms Hall said she had got a kitchen knife out to cut garlic bread and Mr Vickers had inadvertently grabbed it while reaching for a spatula to throw, the court heard.

Mr Vickers said Scarlett "lunged" towards him and the blade of the kitchen knife "just went in", the court heard.

"It wasn't even hard, it was nothing," Mr Vickers reportedly said, before adding: "There wasn't even any effort into it."

He later told police they had enjoyed a "nice" day watching football and drinking wine and were "mucking about" while making some food.

As he was being booked in at Darlington Police Station later that night, Mr Vickers told officers he did not know how it happened, adding: "We were just playing in the kitchen.

"One minute I was cooking, next there's blood gushing out her chest.

"We were mucking about and for some reason this has gone really weird."

Scarlett was declared dead at her Geneva Road home shortly before midnight, about an hour after paramedics arrived.

In his police interview, Mr Vickers said it was normal for the family to play-fight and it had started that night with Scarlett throwing grapes at him.

When asked if he was responsible for causing his daughter's death, Mr Vickers replied "I must be", the court heard.

He said he thought he had picked up tongs and thrown them over his shoulder "almost blindly", the court heard, but "obviously" it was actually the knife.

Mr McKone said the prosecution's case was that Mr Vickers must have been "firmly" holding the knife when Scarlett was "deliberately" stabbed, adding the wound was "too deep to have been caused accidentally".

He said Scarlett very quickly "bled to death in her own home" and Mr Vickers had given differing accounts of what happened, especially around whether the knife had been thrown or if he was holding it.

Mr McKone said there were "no prosecution eyewitnesses to the killing" and Ms Hall was not being called to give evidence.

Representing Mr Vickers, Nicholas Lumley KC said both the defendant and Ms Hall "loved their daughter with all their hearts" and he had "no desire or wish to harm her in anyway at all."

Mr Lumley said Mr Vickers would bear "moral responsibility" for the death of the couple's only child "for the rest of his life" but he denied doing anything unlawful or deliberate.

It had been an ordinary Friday night and Mr Vickers could "only explain her death as being the result of a tragic accident caused in the very close confines of their little family kitchen", Mr Lumley said.

The trial continues.

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