A father’s claim that his teenage daughter was accidentally killed when he threw a knife during a kitchen play-fight was branded ‘practically impossible’ by a pathologist, a court heard.
Simon Vickers, 50, is accused of murdering his 14-year-old daughter Scarlett in the family’s home in Darlington, Co Durham.
The teenager died from catastrophic blood loss after the knife caused an 11cm-deep wound and pierced her heart.
Vickers denies murder and manslaughter, and claims the pair were just ‘mucking around’ when tragedy struck last July.
He told police in interview that he was ‘messing’ with Scarlett when he mistakenly threw a kitchen knife, believing it to be a pair of tongs.
But home office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton today told jurors that it was ‘practically impossible’ for a fatal wound to be caused in such a way. She said she believed the knife was being ‘held onto tightly’ with a ‘firm grip’.
Giving evidence, she said: ‘If someone were to throw a knife, it has to travel in such a way that it reaches the body at 90 degrees. In Scarlett’s case, it’s then got to continue travelling into the body for that 11cm.
‘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.’
Simon Vickers, 50, is accused of murdering his 14-year-old daughter Scarlett (pictured) in the family’s home in Darlington, Co Durham
Prosecutors claim Vickers, who denies murder, must have stabbed his daughter ‘deliberately with the knife’ (pictured)
Teesside Crown Court was told that Vickers and his daughter had been ‘play-fighting’ in the kitchen and suddenly blood was ‘gushing’ from Scarlett’s chest. Jurors heard that Vickers appeared ‘heavily intoxicated’ to a police officer who arrived at the home.
In a 999 call made by Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, told an emergency operator: ‘We were messing about, having a fun-fight. My partner threw something and he didn’t realise.’
Ms Hall said in the frantic call: ‘My daughter, she’s on the floor, she’s losing quite a bit of blood. I don’t know what happened.
‘She’s going in and out of consciousness.’
Vickers could be heard in the background screaming: ‘Scarlett, Scarlett, talk to me Scarlett.
‘Oh my God, she’s gone blue.’
He later told police, recorded on a body camera: ‘I was mucking about. There wasn’t any effort into it.
‘What the f*** is going on? We were mucking about. This is unreal.’
Andrew Crow, the paramedic who was first on the scene at 10.50pm on July 5, told the trial how Vickers appeared ‘cool and collected and didn’t show any emotion at that time’.
He said: ‘Mum appeared more distressed than dad. Mum seemed more panicked with what was occurring. Dad didn’t appear to show emotion at that time.’
Floral tributes and balloons (pictured in July) were left outside the teenager’s house after the tragedy
Emergency services were called to the family home in Geneva Street on July 5 last year
Mr Crow added: ‘Initially he said nothing and when mum said they didn’t know what had happened, it was said more or less together they had been messing about and they had been chucking knives at each other.
‘The dad held the knife in his hand and said they had basically been play-fighting and the patient had moved towards him and it had gone in.’
Anthony Brierley, a paramedic who also attended the semi-detached home in Geneva Road, told the trial: ‘He said that they had been playing, throwing knives around.’
He said he noticed a wine bottle on the stairs and ‘formed an opinion that drink had been involved,’ and added: ‘The events of that day will live with me for the rest of my life’.
The prosecution allege that the wound was ‘too deep’ to have been caused accidentally and the knife must have been firmly in Vickers’s hand.
Opening the case on Tuesday, Mark McKone, KC, said: ‘The defendant’s account in interview does not fit with what the pathologist has said.
‘Therefore the prosecution submit that the defendant must have been lying to the police about what had happened.’
In defence, Nicholas Lumley, KC, said Vickers ‘had no desire to harm’ Scarlett.
He said: ‘They had been messing around together in the kitchen, in a normal playful way, and Simon Vickers suddenly realised that Scarlett had been injured.
‘Her body must have come into contact with a sharp knife and she quickly died as a result of a single knife wound.
‘Simon Vickers will bear moral responsibility for his daughter’s death for the rest of his life.’
The trial continues.
