An alleged thug stabbed her 14-year-old daughter with an 11cm gash in her heart during a match in a Darlington kitchen.
Simon Vickers, 50, claims he accidentally picked up a knife during the melee and playfully threw it at his daughter Scarlett on July 5 last year Grapes.
He denied both murder and manslaughter but was convicted following a trial at Teesside Crown Court after a jury deliberated for 13 hours and 21 minutes.
Vickers told police who arrived at the scene that they had been playing for a minute and the next blood was “gushing out” from her chest.
Simon Vickers, 50, stabbed his 14-year-old daughter during a fight in the kitchen (Durham Police/PA)
Although he claimed it was an accident, prosecutors argued it was “almost impossible” that he threw the knife at her and the wound was too deep to have been caused accidentally.
Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton explained to the jury that the way the knife entered Scarlett’s chest meant it must have been held with force.
His partner and Scarlett’s mother Sarah Hall and other family members were left stunned in the public gallery when the verdict was returned, while Vickers was unresponsive in the dock.
Ms Hall stood with her 27-year-old partner and told jurors Vickers loved their only child and would never hurt her.
Defense barrister Nicholas Lumley KC said Scarlett was a much-loved child of her parents and Vickers “had no intention of harming her in any way”.
Knife used to kill 14-year-old Scarlett Vickers in Darlington (CPS/PA)
Mr Lumley said: “They had been making a mess in the kitchen, in a normal playful way, when Simon Vickers suddenly realized that Scarlett was injured.
“Her body must have come into contact with a sharp knife and she died rapidly as a result of the single knife wound.
“He, Simon Wickswill bear moral responsibility for the death of his daughter throughout his life.
Jurors heard Ms Hall attended the kitchen and tried to save the teenager as she bled to death on the floor.
She called 999 and told the operator they had been “messing up” and her partner had thrown something at their daughter “and he didn’t realize it”.
He was found guilty of murder at Teesside Crown Court (Owen Humphreys/PA) (PA)
After Vickers was arrested, Vickers said at the police station: “We were just playing in the kitchen, I don’t know what was going on, one minute I was cooking and the next it was from her welling up from my chest.”
Asked by McCone during a police interview if he was responsible for his daughter’s death, Vickers responded: “I definitely am.”
Her mother, who had been in the kitchen with them that night cooking pasta, was emotional in the witness box as she gave evidence in support of her partner.
She said: “We have a very happy family life, we all love each other very much and we live in a little bubble.
“Simon was great to Scarlett, he was a very hands-on father and he loved her very much.”
Vickers had been drinking before the incident, watching European football matches on television and smoking that day.
During their inquest, police checked the family’s phone and found no evidence of the illness, and jurors were told Scarlett’s school had no concerns about her home life and no social services were involved.
Prosecutor Mark McKone KC said before the jury was sent out to consider the verdict: “If you accept that Mr Vickers lied about the manner in which Scarlett was killed, it must be because he had some significant cover-up.
“It shows he doesn’t have a true account, which he believes is innocent, to even consider.
“In other words, Mr. Vickers had no innocent explanation for injuring Scarlett when the knife was in Mr. Vickers’ hand.”
A post-mortem examination found the kitchen knife violated the chest wall between the fifth and sixth ribs, passed through her lower lung and entered the left ventricle of the heart.
Pathologists found that Scarlett died rapidly from blood loss.
