A dad who stabbed his daughter in the heart during a ‘play fight’ in the kitchen will not have his ‘lenient’ sentence increased, senior judges have ruled.
Simon Vickers, 50, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years in February for the murder of his 14-year-old daughter, Scarlett Vickers, at their home in Darlington on July 5 last year.
His sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General, whose lawyers argued today that it ‘failed to adequately reflect the overall seriousness of the offending’.
Barristers for Vickers opposed the bid, arguing the sentence should remain the same.
In a ruling, three senior judges ruled that Vickers’ sentence was not ‘unduly lenient’ and should not be increased, stating it is ‘properly to be described as merciful, but it is none the worse for that’.
Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Mrs Justice Eady, said: ‘This was a justifiable and humane resolution of a very difficult sentencing exercise.’
During his trial at Teesside Crown Court, Vickers, 50, had given different accounts of what happened in the seconds before he stabbed Scarlett.
Jurors were told Vickers had been drinking wine, watching the Euros tournament on television and had smoked cannabis on the day of Scarlett’s murder.
Scarlett’s mum Sarah Hall was making spaghetti bolognese for the family, and when the teenager came down from her bedroom, they threw grapes at each other for fun.
The mother said she then snipped at her partner with tongs, and when he complained that it hurt, their daughter called him ‘wimpy’.
Ms Hall said she turned away to serve the meal and then heard Scarlett say ‘ow’. She then saw that their only child was pouring out blood.
Louise Oakley, for the Solicitor General, said: ‘Exactly what then happened only the offender knows.
‘What is clear is that the offender must have picked up a kitchen knife and deliberately stabbed his daughter in the chest.
‘The offender continues to deny this is what happened.’
Ms Hall made a 999 call and told the operator they had been ‘messing about’ and that her partner had thrown something at their daughter, and he ‘didn’t realise’.
Vickers told a paramedic that his daughter had lunged towards him during a bout of play-fighting, but then denied saying this at his trial at Teesside Crown Court.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Cotter said the version of events that the defendant told the jury – that he had accidentally swiped the knife across the work surface and into his daughter’s chest without realising – was ‘unconvincing and wholly implausible’.
Justice Cotter said: ‘It stole one young, precious life, ruined your life, your wife’s life and Scarlett’s relatives and friends.
‘You have never accepted exactly what happened, although you have accepted it was your actions that caused her death. Your beloved daughter deserves that you tell the truth. You have not done so.’
After Vickers was found guilty, his history of serious violence was revealed for the first time.
He was found guilty of wounding with intent and detained for two years in 1993, when he was 19, after slashing a man in the face with a Stanley knife.
Ms Oakley said in written submissions that Mr Justice Cotter was faced with ‘an extremely difficult sentencing task’ involving ‘an unprecedented burst of anger by an otherwise caring parent’.
But she continued that the judge should have given Vickers a longer sentence because he used a knife against a child in their own home, and because of the previous conviction for wounding with intent from 1993.
She said: ‘It is submitted that the level of mitigation available to the offender in this case for his lack of premeditation and the absence of an intention to kill should not be given as much weight as some other cases, given he deliberately picked up and used a knife for no reason whatsoever.
‘Scarlett posed no threat to the offender.’
Giving judgment, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said that Vickers, Ms Hall and Scarlett were ‘a happy family who doted on each other’ and that their lives were changed ‘catastrophically’ by the killing.
But he continued that Vickers’ actions ‘were completely out of character for the man he had become’, and that there was ‘substantial mitigation available’.
He added that the ‘quasi-mathematical’ approach of the Solicitor General to the sentence was ‘inapposite’.
Vickers, who attended the hearing via video link from HMP Gartree in Leicestershire, showed no reaction as the ruling was handed down.
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