By Ashley Young-
A son raging with anger over feelings of betrayal and ill treatment attempted to kill his own mother, but killed her millionaire partner.
In what appears to have been a premeditated attack sparked by deep feelings of hate and revenge,Thomas Schreiber, 35 launched a knife attack on his mother and her partner, the millionaire businessman Sir Richard Sutton, (pictured)on the anniversary of his father’s death, after feeling maltreated and deceived, the court heard.
A murder trial heard he was seething over feelings of ill treatment by the couple, and was bitter with the way his mother’s seperation with his late father was handled.
Thomas Schreiber, 35 of Gillingham, Dorset, is accused of the murder of Sir Richard Lexington Sutton and attempted murder of Anne Schreiber at their home in North Dorset on the night of Wednesday, April 7.
The history of accumulated feelings of anger translated to profpund hate was reflected in voice messages the defendant left for his friend which was played to thew court.
The jury heard that on September 21, last year, the defendant sent a message which stated: “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.”
The prosecutor says earlier in the year, on January 26, the defendant sent a message to a friend which said “to tell you the truth I actually want to murder Louisa Richard and mother, it’s that bad.
“They’ve shown their true colours since the fight a few months ago pushing everything under the carpet and burying their heads in the sands of guilt.
“Everything is festering under the surface, eating away at me like a cancer. Continuous lies fakery and betrayal is the order of the day here at home.
“I despise the feeling of hatred and how it takes a hold of me. Even with meditation and exercise it’s always there in the subconscious unconscious mind eating away at me.”In a message on March 9 to a frined, the court hears he wrote “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.
“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.”
State Of Mind
Adam Feest QC, prosecuting, told jurors there was no dispute that Schreiber killed Sutton and seriously injured his mother, but he said the defendant’s state of mind would be a key element for the panel to consider. Schreiber denies murder and attempted murder.
Giving the court a background, Feest said Sutton had been estranged from his wife, Lady Fiamma Sutton, for almost 20 years while Anne Schreiber and her husband, David Schreiber, separated in about 2002-03. This, the prosecutor said, was caused at least in part by David Schreiber’s alcoholism, which put a strain on their marriage emotionally and financially.
In the summer of 2003 Anne Schreiber and her three children were invited by Sutton to move to his Dorset mansion, Moorhill. David Schreiber moved into a cottage on the estate where he lived until his death in 2013.
The prosecutor said Schreiber believed his sisters were given more financial support than him and his difficulties were exacerbated by problems he was having with relationships and holding down jobs.
Mr Feest QC says the first thing that the defendant’s girlfriend became aware of anything that evening was when she received a notification from her bank that £30,000 had been transferred into her account with a message “love from Thomas”.
Messages were played which expressed the defendasnt’s regret of killing him, admitting that he let his emotions got the better of him.
A voice message left to a close friend of the defendant was also played in court. The defendant can be heard saying “I’m so sorry, I’ve made a mistake and let my emotions get the better of me. This is the last time you’ll ever hear from me.
He goes on to say: “I’ve let my anger get the better of me and I’ve killed my mother and I’ve killed her partner. I can’t stop the hatred and it’s become too much, the denial and the deceit and the lies and I had to take actions, it’s awful and I’m so sorry.”
Mr Feest QC: “What else, other than to kill his mother, could he have intended to do as he stabbed her time and time again?” There was no injury to any of the major organs but despite that these wounds had caused “extensive and sustained blood loss”, the court heard.
Mr Feest QC says medical notes refer at different points to 13 or 15 separate injuries.Mr Feest QC said there were at least nine wounds to her back, which were each “briskly bleeding”.The court is told when Ms Schreiber was taken out of theatre she had been given around 27 litres of blood products – the human body holds between four and six litres.
Mr Feest QC said it was difficult for medical staff to quantify the total number of her wounds inflicted on the woman.
On arrival at hospital in Bristol, she was “cardiovascular compromised”, the court is told.”Had it not been for the intervention of the police officers and paramedics at the scene, she would not have survived those injuries,” says Mr Feest QC.Her first memory of that day she will say is of being in the kitchen at the sink with her back to the door, Mr Feest QC says.
The jury heard how she turned away from the sink towards the door because she had heard a commotion or kerfuffle coming from that area. She described this as shouting and noise.
“Upon turning in response to what she had heard, Anne Schreiber saw her son, she will tell you, in the kitchen and (she) went towards the large island where he was standing,” says Mr Feest QC.
Ms Schreiber noticed that her son looked unusual, his eyes looking “almost frightening to look at because they looked terribly, terribly determined”, the court heard. The prosecutor went on that she described his eyes also appearing wild and him looking not abnormal but “very, very unusual, very, very out of control”.
Her son was holding a knife, which she thought was a kitchen knife from the knife block and was about 15 centimetres long, the prosecutor said.
Mr Feest QC said that Ms Schreiber recalls the defendant lifting the knife up and he must have stabbed her, although “she does not recall actually being stabbed, but remembers looking at the knife in her and being surprised that it didn’t hurt more”.
Ms Schreiber’s account is that the kitcken was the only location of the attack upon her and this was supported by the fact her blood, all over the kitchen, was nowhere else in the house, the prosecutor said.
Anne Schreiber is the only eye-witness of the events that night but police did not obtain her account until the end of June based on medical advice, the prosecutor tells the court.Sir Richard, Anne Schreiber and Thomas Schreiber were the only people at Moorhill during this period, says Mr Feest QC.”It is around that time that everything must happen,” says the prosecutor.
When police examined the property on the morning of April 8 they found the landline in the study on off its hook. The running time for it showed the handset had been off the receive since shortly after 6.30pm, the court it told.
Mr Feest QC tells the jury they will need to focus particularly on the time period from around 6.30pm on April 7 at Moorhill.
Apprehensive
In a message exchange between the defendant and his girlfriend at around 4pm on April 7, there was a discussion about him thinking about the Queen song “I Want to Break Free” and him feeling apprehensive of the imminent future, the court is told.
The court is told Thomas Schreiber sent a message to his sister Rose, saying: “Raising a glass to Dad who passed away 8 years ago today. RIP.
“You remember right? Your real father David, not the one who “bought you” who you call your father #cupboardlove.”
The day before, April 6, 2021, the defendant had been mistaken about the date of his father’s death, the court is told.
Gold Digging And Deceit
A message thread with a friend in February 2021 ended with the defendant writing “it’s hard to explain the deep emotion of family and with what’s happening is betrayal, gold digging, deceit and extreme selfishness. when its your own mother followed by siblings it’s very hard to accept that”, Mr Feest QC tells the court.
On the night of April 6, the day before the fatal episode, Mr Feest QC said the defendant searched online for “how to overcome deep-seated desires for revenge”.
In March 2021 there were internet searches for revenge on “gold-digging mother” and “gold-digging family”, says Mr Feest QC.The prosecutor said talking about his mother in a message to a another person, the defendant said: “She is a selfish, manipulative gold-digging *****”
“As the pandemic progressed, these feelings and the underlying hatred he felt towards his mother and Sir Richard
Discussing a discussion that stuck in the defendant’s girlfriend’s mind, Mr Feest QC said: “In March 2021, she recalls the defendant asking her if he were to do something to his mother and Richard what would she do. She
In early 2021, in response to his girlfriend asking about his mother, she recalled the defendant saying: “I would like to get a gun and shoot a bullet in my mum’s face and Richard’s.”
He went on to say: “When I do something wrong its GBH and when they attack me I just deserve it, that’s what mum said to me this morning, I deserve it.”
The defendant said “we are talking pure hatred, in their eyes last night was pure hatred”.A lengthy voice note message sent by the defendant to a friend is played to the jury.Sharing his thoughts on this incident the following day, November 16, 2021, in messages with others, the defendant said he was “the scapegoat”.
Anne Schreiber suggested to Louisa that she might have one of their grandmother’s chandeliers during a discussion at a family gathering. At that suggestion it seems the defendant lost his temper, Mr Feest QC says.
The prosecutor begins by looking at the second episode of violence in the years/months leading up to the fatal incident in April.
The prosecution shows this expresses a pervasive feeling of being picked on by the defendant which fed into all other emotions he had.
“Feelings of revenge, feelings of hatred and no doubt a context for what happened on April 7,” says Mr Feest QC.Mr Feest QC is talking through some message exchanges the defendant had with a friend over the gift situation.In late 2020, Sir Richard offered a gift of £10,000 to the defendant to buy a new vehicle.
Mr Feest QC said Sir Richard’s take was the defendant appeared ungrateful while the defendant felt this was another example of him being treated unfairly compared to his sisters.Sir Richard expressed frustrations about the defendant not looking for work and livng rent free at Moorhill, the court is told.
Mr Feest QC says Ms Pagliuca described the defendant using derogatory terms about Sir Richard, such as “stupid old person”, and didn’t appear to pay him any respect.
“She felt he seemed like a wounded young man with the problem about his father and that the family had dropped his father in order to go with a person like Sir Richard,” says the prosecutor.”It was clear to Sathia that he felt alone against his family but also there was a deep rooted hatred against them,” says Mr Feest QC.The prosecutor said the defendant’s girlfriend Sathia Pagliuca found he would have highs and low.”A complicated family background,” says Mr Feest QC.
In March 2019, the defendant underwent a course to try to deal with some of his issues about the family.The defendant had a “tussle” with his sister Rose before his sister Louisa and her husband Joe intervened.
The argument continued before Sir Richard intervened, who swung at him with his fist but missed. The defendant reacted by swinging back at Sir Richard and hitting him.