Teen knifed wealthy gran to death in bath after cannabis binge
A MILLIONAIRE restaurateur was stabbed to death by her grandson after he became hooked on cannabis, a court heard yesterday.
Sue Addis, 69, was attacked by Pietro Addis, then aged 17, as she lay in the bath at her £1million home, it was said.
Jurors were told the teenager stabbed her 17 times, causing fatal injuries to her chest and neck, before leaving her to die.
Afterwards, he allegedly called 999 and said: “I’m calling to hand myself in.There’s been a murder.”
Addis, 19, is on trial charged with the murder of his grandmother during the third pandemic lockdown on January 7 last year.
He admits manslaughter but denies her murder.
Argument
The teenager wept in the dock at Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, as jurors heard details of the horror.
Addis had been living with his father, Leo, and his stepmother in Brighton during the lockdown.
A student at a catering college, he had ambitions to become a chef and worked at one of the family’s restaurants. Mrs Addis was well-known in the city as the owner of Donatello and Pinocchio.
But Addis became a habitual cannabis user, smoking the drug every day, it was said.
After an argument at home, it was decided the teenager would go and live with his grandmother at her cottage in Withdean, Brighton.
But, after moving in,Addis continued to smoke joints, the court heard. His grandmother wrote to Dr Daphne Keen, a psychologist who had diagnosed his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2018, saying her grandson was continually smoking “weed” which, when combined with his medication, made him listless. 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 Elvanse [his ADHD drug] but with the weed as well he has become impossible to reason with.” Rossano Scamardella QC, prosecuting, said: “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. However, 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.”
The trial continues.