The last evening Thomas Schreiber would spend with his mother Anne and her aristocratic partner, Sir Richard Sutton, began with a deceptively civilised air given the carnage to come.
Smart in shirt, cufflinks and Russell & Bromley boots, aspiring artist Schreiber, 35, put out champagne glasses and bowls of pistachios.
They were spared from the violence and chaos that seemed to have erupted at the home of one the wealthiest men in Britain on April 7.
First came a ‘commotion’ in the study of the £2million Dorset estate where police believe landowner, Sir Richard, 83, was attacked by Schreiber as he sat at his desk in his green leather swivel chair.
Minutes later, Anne, 66, turned from the kitchen sink to see her son – with a ‘wild’ and ‘determined’ look in his eyes – holding a 20cm knife from a block on the island.
She said, walking toward him: “Don’t be silly!” Then, she asked him: “What’s the matter?” As he plunged his blade into Anne, he said “What are you doing?” Later, police found one of the cufflinks that Anne had dropped on the stone floor with her 15 stab wounds. Anne is currently paralysed.
Thomas Schreiber is pictured here with Anne, his mother who was injured by her son’s wild attack
Undated handout photo of Thomas Schreiber, who was found guilty by Winchester Crown Court for the murders of Sir Richard Sutton, a millionaire hotelier and attempted murder of Anne Schreiber. Issue date: Friday December 17, 2021.
Schreiber’s bloody boot-prints would lead detectives upstairs where they found Sir Richard – who had managed to escape the initial onslaught – with appalling facial injuries and fatal stab wounds. His heart was punctured by one blow.
Nearby, lay his broken walking stick. He’d failed to rescue Anne when the top snapped in his kitchen ‘warzone. Schreiber was able to make defensive cuts with his hands, which showed that he had tried to defend himself against him.
Sir Richard’s Range Rover was missing from the garage. A fleeing Schreiber left hysterical messages for family and friends. He admitted to the attacks, and threatened to kill himself. After being led by police to chase him from Higher Langham towards London, Schreiber attempted to stabbing himself and then begged for officers to execute his death sentence.
Schreiber would later claim he’d been overcome by ‘demons’, an alcohol-fuelled ‘madness’ – a voice in his head saying ‘attack, attack’ when all he’d wanted was ‘a hug’ from his mum.
Yesterday, however, a Winchester Crown Court jury rejected Schreiber’s plea for manslaughter based on diminished responsibility because of an “abnormality in mental function”.
They found him guilty instead of Sir Richard’s murder and his attempt to kill his mother.
Undated family photo from Sir Richard Sutton, and Anne Schreiber
Damning messages he sent to worried friends in the nine months leading up to the stabbings, the court heard, spoke of a festering hatred for Sir Richard, who Schreiber called ‘a stupid old fool’, a ‘c***’ and his mother’s ‘bastard partner’.
As for his mother, Schreiber described her as ‘a psychotic, evil, selfish, gold-digging bitch c*** whore’. Schreiber spoke about his desire to “get a gun, shoot a bullet into my mom’s face and Richard’s.
Restaurant supervisor Sathia Pagliuca, Schreiber’s girlfriend of six months, told the court she’d fled her flat, terrified, and dialled 999 when Schreiber begged to see her after transferring £30,000 to her bank account following the attacks.
The Mail today can tell the whole story about the tragedy. It was triggered by deep-rooted anger Schreiber felt since 2002, when his parents Anne and David divorced. He was 16 years old.
It was Sir Richard’s concern at Schreibers increasingly unpredictable behavior in lockdown that caused him to tell his trusted housekeeper, “Something terrible will happen.”
Tragically, it happened, the 8th anniversary of David Schreiber’s passing, aged at 73. It was also just hours after Schreiber, a defendant, had placed daffodils in his father’s tomb at St Mary’s Church Stalbridge, Dorset.
His mother had never forgave him for leaving his bankrupt, alcoholic father. He began a new relationship with Sir Richard, their wealthy friend. The killer accused of buying his affections.
“Tom thought that the world was his father’s and Anne and David were separated, but it wasn’t the most happy time,” Schreiber’s godmother Isabel de Pelet (arts patron) told the Mail. Evidently, Tom felt profoundly affected by the breakup of his family unit. It’s been an awful shock. Tom was a charismatic young man that I used to admire. He seemed incapable of killing anybody.
Schreiber’s premature birth made him ‘fit in the hand of David’ at birth, Isabel recalls. He grew up to be a sensitive, fighting child.
Anne described David as an ‘attractive, blonde little boy’ and told the court she and David had a lot of love for their son.
Even as a child, however, he had a ‘ferocious temperament’, lashing out at both parents – though she took the brunt of it.
Photo of Sir Richard Sutton, dated 08/04/21. Thomas Schreiber (Gillingham, Dorset), is being accused of killing the millionaire hotelier, and paralysing his mother.
Family and friends often wondered if Schreiber was predisposed to permanent damage in his struggle through life. He drifted from one job after another.
Certainly, he idolised his Wellington College educated father, who – born into a prominent military family originally from Suffolk – served as a cavalry officer in the Army before going to into business. Locals recall David Schreiber, who was described as “theatrical”, as being a bon vivant.
He divorced his first marriage which had three children. Friends say he was attracted to Anne Thea Ramlaus-Hansen who came from Denmark when he was 18.
He was fifteen years older than him when he married Rose in 1982. The two had daughters Louisa, Rose and Thomas.
After being a successful London art dealer, David had started a candle company for churches.
Michael Keane, former business partner said, “He was charming, but he wasn’t a very good manager.” He enjoyed a small amount of alcohol. David worked later as a translator and writer, but his addiction to alcohol led him into financial ruin and bankruptcy.
Chiswick High Road police responded to an incident where a vehicle had been stopped around 22:30 pm on Wednesday, 07/04/2021. The vehicle’s lone male passenger was found to have suffered serious injuries from his own actions by police officers.
His marriage to Anne – a physiotherapist described by friends as ‘determined and capable’ – came under strain and in 2002 hit crisis when they faced losing their Grade II listed farmhouse in Stalbridge.
Family friend Sir Richard, who heard about their troubles, offered his help with a generous act of kindness that he would spend the rest of his life for.
He was divorced from Lady Fiamma in 2000 and was living alone. The wife was back in her homeland, Italy. She had a new boyfriend.
Landowner and hotelier Sir Richard, who could trace his family tree back to Norman times, had a family fortune estimated at £300million and was described by those who knew him as the ‘perfect country gentleman’.
The Sheraton and Athenaeum were his property assets.
Rose Schreiber was Schreiber’s younger sister. She told the court, “Richard had a lot of generosity. He owned a large house all by himself. On more than one occasion, he stated that he would love to have everyone there. My mother was very cautious regarding my father’s (deteriorating) mental health and alcoholism. If he continued to drink, there would be no way for dad to move in to Moorhill.
“She did not want Richard’s generousity to be used.” Dad refused to go, so she told him: “You are not allowed to come with me unless you quit drinking.” Richard laughed and offered him rehabilitation.
Schreiber said that the divorce of the family had devastating effects on him. He told court that it was painful to watch his father cry during the chaos as their family left.
While his sisters grew to love Sir Richard, Schreiber – as he witnessed his father’s further decline – grew to loathe him and his mother. An old friend who has been close to the Schreibers over 30 years said that Anne and David were generous, kind and madly in love.
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook, Thomas Schreiber with Joe Stone QC (right), appearing in Winchester Crown Court. On April 7, 2021, Sir Richard Sutton was murdered and Anne Schreiber is accused of attempted murder.
“It is clear that they parted because of Richard’s drinking habits and the financial pressures he brought with his bankruptcy. Anne never went looking for another man, although it’s understandable that she wants to be with Richard. He provided financial security for her.
The woman says that David loved her as much as Anne and she did until his death. Although Tom was an extremely polite young man who loved his mother, I don’t think he ever forgave his father for his actions.
David Schreiber’s anger at Anne’s relationship with Sir Richard led to bitter letters from the family labeling her a gold digger’. According to the court, his “toxicity” was transferred to his son.
Sir Richard was still compassionate towards David and offered him a bungalow in his estate as his condition deteriorated.
Rita Sherward Hudson was Sir Richard’s housekeeper for 28-years. She told the Mail that ‘Everything Sir Richard did was just born out of kindness. Anne was able to care for her dying husband when he tried to assist his family. He provided David with shelter and Anne gave him a bed.
“David’s behavior and language while he was drinking could have been horrible. I can’t even count how many times I was called upon to remove him from his home because he was abusive and drunk.
It would have been a horrible feeling of history being repeated when Thomas Schreiber, who was depressed and jobless, accepted Sir Richard’s and Anne’s invitation to live in Moorhill for three months to get his life back on track.
He had held more than 30 jobs over the years, including one in sales for Peter Jones’ London shop. However, he was unable to find a stable career. After two years of drifting around Australia, his family and friends noticed an increase in his mental health upon his return to the UK early in 2019.
Moving into the spacious annexe over the garage in Sir Richard’s home, he bitterly resented being dependent on the baronet, who paid each of Anne’s children a £1,000-a-month allowance.
The lockdown caused tensions in the relations between them and trapped them in a vicious triangle that would result in their deaths. Over the next weeks, Sir Richard was frustrated by their inconsiderate, lazy guest.
Video footage from police showing Thomas Schreiber being arrested and chased at high speed on April 7, 2021
Caroline Sutton, Sir Richard’s daughter, told the court her father wanted Schreiber to leave so badly he gave him £100,000 for a house deposit, but ‘Tom wouldn’t go’.
Following a day spent at Wincanton Races with the entire family, Christmas 2019, violence broke out. Rose was attacked by Schreiber after she claimed that he had been selfish in not driving them home.
Sir Richard attempted to intervene during the resulting “tussle”, taking aim at Schreiber but was unsuccessful. Schreiber’s return punch sent Schreiber to the ground and left him with a blackeye.
Schreiber who was struggling with alcohol issues, accepted to go to a residential therapy program for four days in March 2020. However, violence flared once more during an argument with sister Louisa regarding who would inherit the chandelier.
After the siblings had their slaps, Richard took a hard knock to Schreiber’s face with his walking sticks, and it broke.
According to the court, Schreiber was ensconced in a sham marriage, unable to forgive Sir Richard and obsessed by thoughts of revenge.
He wrote to a friend in January: “To tell the truth, I really want to kill… Richard and my mother. It’s so bad.” Everything is festering under the surface, eating away at me like a cancer….’
He wrote to another friend March that he was so upset to say his mind was consumed by hate of the worst sort towards his family. Simply put I contemplate murdering them all morning day and night….I want them to suffer.’
Schreiber, who acted on these wishes, will be sentenced Monday to life imprisonment