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

The mother of a man accused of the murder of millionaire hotelier Sir Richard Sutton has told a court that she still suffers nightmares about her son’s attack which also left her paralysed.   

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 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. 

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 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.’

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.’ 

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.