Heston’s sister smashed OAP mother’s head against a car
... but she walks free from court
THE sister of TV chef Heston Blumenthal punched her elderly mother in the face, pulled her hair and slammed her head into a car, a court heard.
Alexis Blumenthal admitting attacking 76-year-old Celia twice when she was drunk – even trying to push her down a stairwell.
Blumenthal, 49, who has a personality disorder and alcohol problems, walked free from court yesterday with a ten-week prison sentence suspended for ten weeks.
Sentencing, District Judge Tim Pattinson said: ‘Your mother was a vulnerable woman... and you were under the influence of alcohol, which is an aggravating feature. The most apparent feature was a breach of trust.’
The first assault took place in her mother’s home in September. Blumenthal went upstairs to her mother’s bedroom, punched her in the face several times and tried to push her down a stairwell, Oxford magistrates’ court heard. In the second attack in October, the pair had been arguing outside the older woman’s car when the defendant grabbed her head and slammed it into the side of the vehicle.
Blumenthal changed her plea in court at the start of her trial last month to admit both attacks. Yesterday, after hobbling into the dock with a walking stick, she was ordered to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation and pay £500 in court costs and a £115 victim surcharge.
She was also banned from going to her mother’s home in Watlington, Oxfordshire.
Twice-married Blumenthal, of Thame, Oxfordshire, was arrested in October when she failed to appear in court, and released on bail provided she attended her hearing in December. The judge said yesterday: ‘I accept that you have a number of difficult problems of your own including alcohol problems and what was described as an emotionally unstable personality disorder.’
He added: ‘In spite of all these things I must say that these are very serious offences. They both involve persistent and repeated violence. The September offence involved several punches to the head including a blow to the left cheek which was extremely painful for your mother and caused a large bruise and, no thanks to you, did fortunately not cause a fracture. The October offence involved repeated slamming, as it was described, of your mother’s head against the door frame.’
Blumenthal sobbed in the dock last month when her mother described her alcoholism in a victim impact statement read out in court.
She said her daughter had come to live with her after returning from South Africa in 2013, where she had lived for 20 years.
She said the ‘verbal and violent abuse’ began after she started hiding bottles of alcohol from her daughter.
Mrs Blumenthal said: ‘It was as if she had the strength of ten men. There would be times when I would wake up to her standing beside my bed. I do believe that the rages were so bad that if she had access to a knife she would have used it against me. By August, her behaviour had become too much, and I did not want to live in fear any more.
‘I kept thinking, “Is she standing outside my house? Has she let herself in and is she going to attack me again?”’ Defending, Francis Howard said Blumenthal’s offending was ‘to do with resentment and grievances based on her childhood and her mother’.
‘Strength of ten men’