How a forensics expert helped convict father who claimed he accidentally killed his daughter in a play fight

“I must be the unluckiest man in the world,” were the words used by Simon Vickers, a father who had watched his daughter bleed to death after suffering a 11cm stab wound to her chest.

Describing 14-year-old Scarlett as the “love of his life”, Simon Vickers told police that they had only been play fighting in the kitchen when he accidentally stabbed her with a kitchen knife.

Despite him telling the jury it was a “freak accident”, his defence was blown apart by the forensic evidence, which indicated it would have been “practically impossible” to inflict such an injury without using force.

After deliberating for over 13 hours, he was convicted of murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years.

For the Vickers family, the 5th of July last year had started no differently to usual. Simon and his partner of 27 years, Sarah Hall, had watched a football game on the television, drank a few glasses of wine, and Vickers had smoked a cannabis joint.

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Yet it would soon turn to a nightmare after a family scuffle turned into a horror scene. After emerging from her bedroom to say she was bored, Scarlett and her father began throwing grapes at one another, while Ms Hall cooked bolognese.

“Then I went to try and get her and she tried to push me away,” he told police. “I grabbed the tongs and threw them at her. That’s it, that’s all it was.

“She just shouted ‘ah, ah ah’ and fell to the floor.”

During his recorded police interview, he insisted that he had not seen the knife at the time, and had not realised he had thrown a blade in her direction.

Vickers then said: “We are going to Gran Canaria in six weeks.

“We were cooking tea, mucking about in the kitchen, I don’t understand how this happened, honestly.”

However, the prosecution said its case was that the wound was not caused by a thrown weapon and that the knife must have been firmly in the defendant’s hand when she was stabbed.

“The prosecution says that the wound is too deep to have been caused accidentally,” prosecutor Mark McKone KC said.

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Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton carried out a post-mortem examination and found that the kitchen knife breached the chest wall between the fifth and sixth ribs, went through her lower lung and passed into the left ventricle of the heart.

Scarlett died very quickly from blood loss, the pathologist found.

Dr Bolton said it was her opinion that the knife was being “held tightly” at the time so that when it came into contact with Scarlett, it went into her.

“That typically means a firm grip and that arm is braced in a certain way,” she said.

Asked by prosecutor Mark McKone KC 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.”

Forensic scientist Gemma Escott also studied the large knife and judged that material on the blade indicated a stabbing motion had been used.

The prosecution accepted that Vickers loved his daughter and he was “devastated” by her death, but had lied about what happened that night.

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During their inquiries, police examined the family’s phones and found no evidence of ill treatment, and jurors were told that Scarlett’s school had no concerns about her home life and there was no social services involvement.

Taking to the witness stand, Vickers had told jurors that finally becoming a father was the “best feeling I’ve ever had” as he and Scarlett’s mother had been trying for a baby for years and previously suffered a miscarriage.

He said: “I spoiled her – as my mum would say, she had me wrapped round her little finger.

Also speaking in his defence, Ms Hall described the trio as “inseparable” and stressed that she never had any concerns that her partner would harm their daughter.

“We had a very happy family life, we all loved each other very much, we lived in a little bubble,” she said.

“Simon treated Scarlett very well, he was a very hands-on dad, he loved her very much.”

Becoming emotional in the stand, she said: “She was my little girl, she was my best friend, she always came first for the both of us.”

She appeared stunned in the public gallery when he was convicted of murder, while Vickers remained emotionless in the dock.

Durham Police Detective Superintendent Craig Rudd said: “Scarlett Vickers would have celebrated her 16th birthday this year.

“She had her whole life ahead of her. Yet it was cruelly cut short by her own father – a man who was meant to protect her.

“We may never know why or what caused Simon Vickers to do what he did that night.

“Sadly, today’s verdict will not bring Scarlett back, but he will now face the consequences of his actions.”

Following the conviction, Anna Barker, senior crown prosecutor with CPS North East, said: “The account provided by Simon Vickers about how his daughter, Scarlett, sustained a fatal injury is wholly inconsistent with the forensic evidence in this case.

“As part of our case against him, the Crown Prosecution Service instructed a medical expert, whose analysis made it clear that the nature of the wound sustained by Scarlett could only have been caused if the knife used had been firmly gripped as she was injured.

“We have worked closely with Durham Police to meticulously piece together the tragic events which led to Scarlett’s death. Our thoughts remain with her family, for who this must remain a difficult time.”

Sentencing Vickers, Mr Justice Cotter said there was no evidence to suggest they had "anything other than a normal, loving family life".

The judge said that night Vickers had drunk more than four glasses of wine and had smoked cannabis.

Dealing with how Scarlett came to suffer an 11cm wound through her lung into her heart, the judge told Vickers: "Exactly what happened, only you know."