The British dad who claimed he stabbed his 14-year-old daughter to death in a “freak accident” while “mucking about” has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for murder.
Simon Vickers, 50, was found guilty last month of killing Scarlett Vickers on July 5 inside the family home in Darlington, with a UK jury deliberating for 14 hours before handing down the verdict.
Now, Vickers is headed to prison, the BBC reported.
“It went from an ordinary, happy family Friday night into tragedy within seconds due to what must have been [Vickers’] loss of temper,” Justice Barry Cotter said, according to the outlet.
Cotter called it a “momentary but devastating act of anger” that ended “one young, precious life.”
The jury rejected the father’s claim that he thought he was hurling a pair of tongs at his daughter in their kitchen but instead threw an 8-inch knife that struck the teen in the chest.
Forensic pathologist Jennifer Bolton, the key prosecution witness at the trial, provided damning testimony that it was “practically impossible” for a knife thrown as Vickers claimed could have caused the fatal injury.
Instead, Bolton said the knife that killed the teen was being held “tightly” when it struck her chest.
Vickers and Scarlett’s mother, Sarah Hall, said the family had been watching soccer on TV before the fatal incident, with the dad admitting that he smoked weed and drank several glasses of wine.
