A millionaire restaurateur was stabbed to death by her own grandson after she became concerned with how much cannabis he was smoking, a court heard.
Sue Addis, 69, who owned the popular Brighton restaurants Donatello’s and Pinocchio’s, was attacked by grandson Pietro as she lay in the bath at her £1million home.
In a brutal attack, he stabbed her at least 17 times with two knives, causing fatal injuries to her chest and neck.
Lewes Crown Court heard he allegedly called 999 and said: ‘I’m calling to turn myself in. There’s been a murder.’
Sue Addis, 69, was attacked by grandson as she lay in the bath at her £1million Brighton home
In a brutal attack, Pietro Addis, now 19, stabbed her at least 17 times with two knives
Today, Pietro Addis, now 19, who admits killing his grandmother but denies murdering her went on trial.
The court heard Addis attacked his grandmother during the third pandemic lockdown on January 7 in 2021.
The jury heard the teenager was from a well-known family who ran a chain of Italian restaurants in Brighton.
A student at a catering college in Brighton, he had ambitions to become a chef and worked at the family restaurant.
Mrs Addis was a hugely respected figure in the Brighton business community and first opened Donatello’s and Pinocchio’s in the 1970s.
Her three sons Leo, Stefano and Mikele all worked at the restaurants which were among the most popular in the seaside resort and attracted celebrities like actor Bill Nighy, model Katie Price, actress Michelle Collins and a host of Premier League footballers.
The court heard Pietro had been diagnosed with ADHD and had been prescribed medication for the condition.
But as well as taking the prescription medication he had also started smoking cannabis and taking anti-depressants, and his behaviour had deteriorated.
Mrs Addis, 69, ran the popular Brighton restaurants Donatello’s and Pinnochio’s which were visited by stars including Bill Nighy (pictured above with Mrs Addis) and Katie Price
Police officers at the home of Sue Addis in Brighton where she was found dead in January 2021
He began to skip college and often failed to turn up for work at the family restaurant.
The court heard he would smoke one or two cannabis joints an evening, three or four times a week.
The teenager had been living with his father, Leo, and his stepmother during lockdown in Brighton but after a massive argument he moved out and went to stay with his grandmother.
His father believed the ADHD medicine he had been prescribed was largely to blame for his son’s problems and would flush the drugs down the toilet.
This led to arguments in the house and in late December, after one particularly bad row, it was decided the teenager would go and live with his grandmother at her £1million home in Withdean, Brighton.
His grandmother had told friends, Sue Eastman and Denise Taylor, she was increasingly concerned about his cannabis use.
She also wrote to Dr Daphne Keen, the psychologist who diagnosed his ADHD in 2018, that her grandson was continually smoking ‘weed’, which when combined with his drugs had made him listless and slow.
She told her: ‘He is suffering paranoia and we are all getting annoyed with him rather than helping. He still says he can’t do anything without the Elvanse [his ADHD drug] but with the weed as well he has become impossible to reason with.
‘He just wants to sit in his room all day and it is an effort to get him to do anything.’
As well as using cannabis, Addis was also taking Xanex, an anti-depressant.
Friend, George Cameron, noticed a huge change in the teenager in the months leading up to the killing.
He told police his friend had become ‘negative and despondent’ and had also become quite paranoid.
In the days leading up to the alleged murder Addis had also been acting very strangely.
He had begun banging on his grandmother’s bedroom door at night telling her he loved her.
The court heard Pietro’s parents split up not long after his birth and his mother died when he was six years old.
In the summer of 2019, Pietro began smoking cannabis.
‘It seems that Pietro was selling clothes to fund his cannabis habit,’ Mr Scamardella said.
Rossano Scamardella QC, prosecuting, said that on the day of her death Mrs Addis returned from working at Donatello’s around 4pm and began searching online for treatment for her grandson.
Police officers outside Mrs Addis’ home where she was found dead in 2021 having suffered 17 stab wounds
He said: ‘She was researching ‘the Priory, Ticehurst’, which is a private clinic/hospital for addiction and mental health treatment.
‘She also searched ‘Brighton to Ticehurst by car’ – presumably to see how far away it was. Police enquiries of the Priory indicate that no enquiry was in fact received from Mrs Addis, but it seems as though she was considering in-patient treatment for her grandson at a specialist centre.’
He continued: ‘What then followed in the lead-up to her death is unclear. Only the two of them were at the house and nobody other than Mrs Addis and Pietro were witness to the events immediately before he stabbed her to death as she lay in the bath.’
After the killing Addis dialled 999 and said: ‘There’s been a murder.’
When asked how it had happened, he said ‘No comment’ but when asked how sure he was that his grandmother was dead he told police ‘100%’.
Mr Scamardella said: ‘Pietro Addis is charged with the murder of his grandmother, Susan Addis. He admits killing her. His case is that he was suffering from paranoid psychosis at the time, diminishing his responsibility for the killing and he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter to reflect that position.’
‘It is the Crown’s case that Pietro suffered no such psychosis at the time of the killing, and he in fact bears complete responsibility for the murder of his grandmother.’
He said: ‘The issue in this case is whether, at the time Pietro killed his grandmother, he was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning that arises from a recognised medical condition and it substantially impaired his ability to understand the nature of his conduct and/or form a rational judgment and/or exercise self-control and that explains his act of killing his grandmother.’
He said the jury will hear evidence the teenager’s behaviour and presentation in the months prior to Mrs Addis death ‘are likely to be evidence of the effects of smoking cannabis.’
A post-mortem examination revealed 17 stab wounds to the body: two to the neck, four to the chest, five to the abdomen, four to the left arm and two to the left leg.
Death occurred as a result of the stab wounds in the neck and two of the stab wounds to the chest.
Forensic officers found three knives at the scene. The first was a large black handled knife found near a bathmat found near the bath. The second was a smaller black handled knife found underneath Mrs Addis’ body when she was lifted from the bath. Finally, the police found a third knife inside a jacket recovered from Pietro’s bedroom.
Addis has admitted manslaughter but denied a charge of murder.
The trial continues.
