Mother tells court she still has nightmares about ‘spoiled’ son’s knife attack

This is the moment a man accused of murdering his mother’s partner who is one of Britain’s richest men was stopped by armed police after leading them on a 135mph chase across England.

Thomas Schreiber, 35, allegedly murdered Sir Richard Sutton, 83, and stabbed his mother Anne Schreiber following months of resentment over inheritance and at how he thought they had treated his late father. 

The attack happened at Sir Richard’s £2 million Moorhill estate near Gillingham, Dorset, which he shared with the Schreiber family following the separation of the defendant’s parents. Anne Schreiber was paralysed in the attack and remains in hospital seven months later.

Now, a jury has been shown footage of the suspect being chased at 135mph before armed police seized him.  

The footage shows the Range Rover being driven by Schreiber pursued along the A303 and M3 into central London before colliding with a police car in what has been described as a ‘hard stop’ in Chiswick, west London.

Body-worn video also shows Schreiber, who had been tasered, being dragged from the Range Rover before officers remove his clothes to locate where he had stabbed himself in the chest.

Schreiber is heard repeatedly calling out: ‘Please kill me now, please just shoot me,’ and adding: ‘I am asking you to put a bullet in my f****** head.’

An officer replies: ‘Mate, that’s not going to happen, stop asking.

The 35-year-old has previously admitted the manslaughter of Sir Richard, and pleaded guilty to driving a Range Rover dangerously on the A303, A4 and M3.  

A video interview with Anne has revealed how the attack took place. The 66-year-old said she had returned from the supermarket at about 6pm and had just fed the dogs in the kitchen, when her son came in and attacked her with a ‘nice and sharp’ kitchen knife. 

She added: ‘He certainly didn’t look like he was going to help me peel potatoes, let’s put it that way.’  

In a video interview shown to the court, recorded at Salisbury Hospital on June 29, 2021, the 66-year-old is sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a pink top and grey scarf, holding a pillow.

She told the court that she had returned from the supermarket at about 6pm and had just fed the dogs in the kitchen, when her son came in and attacked her with a ‘nice and sharp’ kitchen knife.

She said: ‘I am quite happy, possibly singing a little tune, but I am in a good mood when Tom comes in to the kitchen.

‘Tom comes into the kitchen. Tom looks unusual, I think that is the best description, his eyes are quite, weird is not the word, almost frightening look, because they look terribly, terribly determined.

‘I say ‘What’s the matter?’ or ‘Are you all right?’, and I see a knife and I remember saying ‘Don’t be so silly’, because he gives me an indication.’

She added: ‘He stood with his knife, he certainly didn’t look like he was going to help me peel potatoes, let’s put it that way, it was definitely a threatening posture.’

Ms Schreiber continued: ‘I believe that he stabbed me, I received some stab wounds from him and I remember looking at the knife in me and being surprised that it doesn’t hurt.

‘I am also remembering me saying ‘What are you doing?’ or something ridiculous like that, and being very surprised that it doesn’t hurt more.

‘Then I believe, I may be wrong, that Richard comes in from the other living room, shouting and screaming, he was definitely alive because I did see him.’

She added: ‘I remember him stabbing me again and then I do not know what happens to Richard.

‘I honestly can’t say that I have seen Richard being stabbed by Tom, but I know I am, that’s for sure.

‘He also goes behind me towards the island, and I do believe he stabs me on the back at that time, and I am afraid that is as far as my memory goes.’

The defendant sat with his head facing down for much of his mother’s evidence, looking up occasionally at the screen.

She continued: ‘He was definitely not himself, I would swear on oath that the man who came in my kitchen could have been a total stranger, he looked not out of normal but unusual, because I was shocked when I saw him.

‘His eyes were very unusual, his face was screwed up in an extraordinary grimace, he looked very, very out of control.’

She added: ‘I have some awful nightmares relating to this time, in my head, but they are not real so I can’t use them – I was trapped and he was my captor but they are not real.’ 

Mrs Schreiber said Sir Richard had been in his study or living room while she was in the kitchen when Schreiber began attacking her.

She said: ‘I think I’m just cooking quite happily, might even be singing a little although I don’t really have any voice to sing with. But I’m in a good mood.

‘I’m standing with my back to the door… when Thomas comes in to the kitchen where we have a big island.

‘I heard a kerfuffle… to make me turn around and go towards the island in the middle of the room where Tom is standing.

‘Thomas looked unusual… His eyes were quite weird… I would say almost frightening to look at because they looked terribly, terribly determined.

‘I received some stabs from him and I remember looking at the knife in me and being surprised that it didn’t hurt more.

‘Then I believe – I may be wrong – but I believe Richard comes in to the kitchen from his other living room shouting and screaming.

‘He was definitely alive then because I did see him… I 100 per cent believe he was alive then.

‘I remember seeing him at least making an entrance, talking in a loud voice.

‘I don’t know what happened to Richard.

‘You want the truth and honestly I can’t say that I saw Richard being stabbed by Thomas but I know I am [being stabbed] that’s for sure.’ 

Describing her son, Ms Schreiber said: ‘He is always a person, I wonder where have I gone wrong, also in some ways I have failed him.

‘David didn’t fail him, he spoiled him a terrible amount, and so did I, but with the love oozing on to him and having two older siblings.

‘It’s very difficult when you talk about bringing up children, it’s almost as if I have given Tom an enormous amount of love, and I certainly loved him, I have spoilt him.

‘He was a very attractive little boy with blond hair, he had a furious temperament.

‘He can be very aggressive, especially towards me, I did seem to take the brunt, I couldn’t get away with very much before he jumped on me.

‘He was also very aggressive towards his beloved dad, David, who he absolutely adored.’

Ms Schreiber said that the defendant had strangled her while driving home from a party, about two years earlier.

She said: ‘I didn’t retaliate at all, I just waited until it was all over, he can then turn round and be as good as gold, it’s a weird combination, he jolly well knows when he has his hands round your throat though.’ 

Anne also gave fresh evidence to the court from hospital while sat in a wheelchair and said she could now remember Sir Richard trying to stop her son stabbing her.

Speaking to the jury via a video link, Mrs Schreiber said she struggled to recall many of the events of that evening but could recall her husband trying to protect her from her ‘volatile’ son.

During the cross examination, Schreiber’s lawyer suggested to her that shortly before the attack she had accused her son of being ‘drunk just like your father’.

She told the court she could not remember but agreed it was likely there had been an argument in which Schreiber said ‘I’m not f***ing drunk’ and called her ‘a gold digging b****’.

Beginning her life evidence, Mrs Schreiber described her current condition, saying: ‘I’ve got a bit of a wobbly head… I’m absolutely fit as a fiddle, it’s just my head falls off a bit from time to time.’

Asked if Schreiber found it difficult to adjust to the move to Moorhill because she was moving in with another man, she replied: ‘Yes he did find it difficult…

‘Thomas did not like my friend and lover Richard Sutton to be part of his life… he would probably have preferred to live in his own house.’

Asked if she could remember cooking in the kitchen before the attack she said: ‘Yes absolutely I remember all that.’

But when asked what happened in the five to ten minutes beforehand, she said: ‘I would love to help you out… my memory… is rather limited…

‘I remember Thomas coming in to the kitchen… I was cooking and my back was turned… and Thomas came in to the kitchen… I believe that my [partner] Richard Sutton was tucked up in his lounge chair.’

She added: ‘It sounds really pathetic but sometimes I have a perfectly all right memory of this week, and other times I really struggle again.’  

Sir Richard  had a knife plunged 12cm into his heart while Mrs Schreiber, 66, was stabbed so many times during the ‘vicious assault’ she was left paralysed from the neck down and breathing through a ventilator.

The Moorhill estate in the hamlet of Higher Langham near Gillingham, Dorset, was left covered in blood and looking like a ‘warzone’ following the frenzied attack.

Today at Winchester Crown Court, Schreiber’s ‘best friend’ James Reid gave evidence about chilling messages sent in the lead up to the killing. The court heard Schreiber wrote to 64-year-old Mr Reid ‘I’m thinking of revenge morning and night’ and said he wanted to ‘go out with a bang’. 

In March 2021, he said: ‘I’m so sad to report that my mind is consumed with hatred of the very worst kind towards my family. They really hurt me betrayed me and destroyed all trust.

‘Simply put I contemplate murdering them all morning day and night. It’s not what I want to think about but it’s the truth. I want them to suffer.’

He added: ‘I think and strategise every single day about how best to murder my mother and co… that’s how bad my mind is at.’

As far back as September 2020, Schreiber was spewing hatred about his family and Sir Richard to his friend on WhatsApp.

He wrote: ‘Sir f***ing Richard (again) raised his hand at me tonight as mum stood by him and watched. I pushed him back and told him to go f**k himself and his prejudiced ways.

‘F***ing nightmare, especially as I was cooking them an incredible roast duck recipe that took me two hours in total to make.

‘This b******t will never stop, these people are toxic c***s and the tragic thing is that it’s my own family.

‘It really is time to walk away. I have a plan which I’m working on. There are many holes in it but it’s a plan nonetheless. Revenge is at its heart which I’m sure I’ll regret but it’s about time.

‘Because of the tory, capitalist controlling security people like this live behind they will always be protected from their crimes and misdemeanours.

‘I’ve had enough of this security and watching people behaving as if they’re invincible.

‘No one is invincible. I intend to show that I am not invisible and that I won’t take this anymore. It’s one thing to walk away and another to walk with and go out with a BANG!

‘No one will be hurt physically.’

The court previously heard how Schreiber living with the couple at the sprawling country estate became a ‘vicious triangle’ as Sir Richard became ‘consumed’ with trying to get rid of the aspiring painter.

His daughter Caroline Sutton even revealed the hotelier paid Schreiber £100,000 for a house deposit in a desperate attempt to get him to leave his home.

Sir Richard, who last year was listed at number 435 in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated family fortune of £301 million, was killed following rows with Schreiber about the inheritance of a family chandelier and a day at the races.

The 83-year-old owned a sprawling property empire and more than 7,000 acres of land, including the five-star Sheraton Grand on London’s Park Lane and the Athenaeum hotel in Mayfair.

Schreiber has admitted manslaughter over the hotelier’s death but denies murdering him. He pleads not guilty to the attempted murder of his mother.

He has also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on the night of the killing, after he fled in a Range Rover and was captured by police after a 135mph high speed chase from Wiltshire to London.

Sir Richard’s body was found on the landing, after he was initially attacked downstairs and limped upstairs where Schreiber is said to have stabbed him a further five times in the chest with a kitchen knife.

The prosecution say Schreiber repeatedly knifed his ‘toxic and gold digging’ mother and Sir Richard after fantasising for months about their murders.

Sir Richard had two children by his first wife Fiamma, and five grandchildren.

Mrs Schreiber, a Danish-born physiotherapist who has a practice in Milborne Port, Dorset, has three grown-up children including son Thomas.

The defendant denies murder and attempted murder and the trial continues.