Thomas Schreiber tells a court he went “completely crazy” during an argument with his mother.
Image source, FAMILY HANDOUT
A man accused of murdering one of the UK’s richest men and attempting to murder his mother told a court he went “completely crazy” during the attack.
Sir Richard Sutton, 83, was stabbed to death in April at his home near Gillingham, Dorset, and his partner Anne Schreiber was seriously injured.
Thomas Schreiber 35, denies murder and attempted murder.
He told Winchester Crown Court that he “saw the knife and heard a voice in my head shouting ‘attack, attack'”.
Schreiber, who has admitted manslaughter, recounted the events leading up to the killing on 7 April at Moorhill, the house he shared with his mother and Sir Richard.
It was the anniversary of his father’s death, and he had planned to have a toast with the two of them to commemorate it, he told the court.
He said he was “sat very peacefully” with Sir Richard in his office when his mother returned home, following a visit to her late husband’s grave.
“Mum came in and took one look at me and said ‘you’re drunk, just like your father’. I shouted: ‘I’m not drunk.’
“She stormed off, I stormed off after her and punched her in the arm or the back.”
Image source, ElizabethCook/PA Media
Schreiber said he was “extra sensitive” when it came to the topic of his father, and he had been confronted by his mother in an , angry way”.
As he followed her into the kitchen he said he noticed a knife on the kitchen island.
“I picked up the knife and started stabbing my mum, and Richard came in and I think he tried to stop me and I started stabbing him, and I just couldn’t stop attacking my mum and Richard.”
He added, becoming tearful: “My mum at one point shouted: ‘Will you stop? Will you stop?’ And I couldn’t stop.
“And I started stabbing Richard and just going absolutely crazy and stabbing him and mum, and him and mum, and going between both of them.”
He said during the attack he “wasn’t thinking, I couldn’t physically control myself”.
“We were supposed to have a nice drink together… It was calm, it was gentle. That wasn’t on the cards, that wasn’t going to happen.”
He said afterwards he sat on a sofa “in complete horror, in complete shock”.
He later left the house in Sir Richard’s Range Rover, with a suitcase that had already been packed for a cancelled holiday.
He left Whatsapp voice notes to friends, ex-girlfriends and family members saying goodbye, and attempted to stab himself in the heart and slit his wrists as police arrested him.
Earlier in the day, the jury was shown internet searches that Schreiber had made leading up to the killing.
They included topics about attention deficit disorder and cognitive behavioural therapy, but also “how to fight dark reoccurring thoughts”, “12 clues a relationship with a parent is toxic”, “five ways to free yourself from dark and oppressive thoughts”, and “revenge on gold digging mother”.
“I was looking for answers on how to cope,” he told the court.
Sir Richard was listed at number 435 in the Sunday Times Rich List last year, with an estimated family fortune of £301m – a rise of £83m on the previous year.
The trial continues.
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