Last July, 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers was killed in what her mother, Sarah Hall, described as a ‘play-fight’ with her father, Simon Vickers, after she was stabbed in the hearth and died from ‘catastrophic bleeding’.
Following a high profile trial, Mr Vickers was found guilty of his daughter’s murder after refusing to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Despite what many may think Ms Hall’s relationship with her husband would now look like, she has in fact stood by Mr Vickers throughout the course of the tragic case.
The mother of a teenage girl who was stabbed to death by her father has called for his release from prison despite a court finding him guilty of their daughter’s murder.
In February, Mr Vickers was handed down a life sentence with a minimum jail term of 15 years.
This is a sentence though which is totally unjust in the eyes of his wife, who remains unequivocal in stating that Mr Vickers would ‘never harm’ their daughter.
In fact, Ms Hall even gave evidence in support of her husband during his ten-day trial before jurors found him guilty of murder with a ten to two majority.
Now, eight months on from the death of her girl child, Ms Hall has spoken to the BBC pleading for Mr Vickers’ release from prison and branded the decision to convict him as ‘absurd’.
Describing the night their daughter Scarlett was stabbed in the kitchen of their Darlington home,
Ms Hall claimed all had been normal as she and her husband watched football from the living room sofa and Scarlett chatted with friends in her room.
Both Ms Hall and Mr Vickers had consumed wine that evening, with Mr Vickers also smoking some cannabis for what Ms Hall claims was to help with back pain from his factory job.
At about 10pm that night, the trio gathered in the family kitchen as Ms Hall dished up her and her husband’s late dinner.
She and Scarlett had been engaging in a ‘fun fight’ throwing grapes into each other’s mouths.
Mr Vickers joined in and began ‘mucking about’ with the couple’s teenage daughter as Ms Hall drained off pasta in the sink.
During the couple’s ‘play fight’, Ms Hall had nipped her husband with a kitchen tongs, leading to her and Scarlett ‘jokingly’ calling him a wimp.
Vickers responded by saying ‘how would you like it’ as he swiped the tongs across the kitchen counter.
A knife had been placed beside the tongs, with Ms Hall believing that the tongs caught the sharp blade before accidentally wedging itself outwards against a granite chopping board.
With the blade now protruding out from the counter, Ms Hall claims Scarlett ran towards her father in a bid to wrestle the tongs off him, but instead accidentally ran into the blade.
This a claim at odds with the main piece of evidence used to convict Mr Vickers of murder – the testimony of pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton who said the injury could only have been caused by the knife being held firmly in Mr Vickers’ hand.
Dr Bolton went on to describe his defence as ‘practically impossible’ during Mr Vickers’ trial.
There were also a number of inconsistencies in Mr Vickers’ version of events, having initially said he threw the knife thinking it was a spatula but then telling paramedics and police on the scene that his daughter had ‘lunged’ at him.
The blade pierced Scarlett and went four inches deep into her chest, hitting her heart and causing catastrophic bleeding.Â
