A father who murdered his 14-year-old daughter during a ‘play-fight’ could face an increased sentence on Thursday after his case was referred for being ‘too lenient’.
Simon Vickers fatally stabbed his daughter Scarlett in the heart while they were playing fight in the kitchen with her mother.
In February, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years after being found guilty of her murder, with sentencing judge Mr Justice Cotter claiming the killing was a “momentary but devastating act of anger”.
Vickers, 50, gave various accounts of what happened in the seconds before stabbing Scarlett’s lung and heart with a kitchen knife 11cm deep at their Darlington home on July 5, last year, during his trial at Teesside Crown Court.
The Solicitor General has referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, and the case will be heard by three senior judges in London this Thursday.
Vickers’ trial heard that Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, was making spaghetti bolognese on the evening of July 5, 2024, when she and her daughter threw grapes at each other for fun.
Ms Hall grabbed some tongs and snipped at her 27-year-old partner, and when he complained about being hurt, Scarlett implied her father was “wimpy”.
Ms Hall told jurors that during the playfighting, she turned away to serve the family’s evening meal and heard Scarlett say “ow”.
She stated that she noticed their only child was bleeding profusely, with Scarlett bleeding to death on the scene.
Ms Hall called 999 and told the operator they had been “messing around” and that her partner had thrown something at their daughter and “didn’t realise.”
Vickers told a paramedic that his daughter lunged at him during a bout of play-fighting, according to the court, but a jury convicted him of murder by a 10-2 margin in January.
Mr Justice Cotter sentenced him, saying the defendant’s version of events – that he had accidentally swiped the knife across the work surface and into his daughter’s chest without realising – was “unconvincing and wholly implausible”.
Victims had drunk wine and smoked cannabis that night, but the judge was unsure whether alcohol had contributed to the offense, which he believed was caused by “a flash of anger.”
The court heard: “It stole one young, precious life, ruined your life, your wife’s life and Scarlett’s relatives and friends.”
He went on to say, “You’ve never accepted exactly what happened, even though you’ve admitted that your actions caused her death.
“Your beloved daughter deserved to be told the truth. “You did not do so.”
The hearing before Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, Mr Justice Goose, and Mrs Justice Eady is scheduled to begin at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday at the Royal Courts of Justice.