Sue Addis death: The question jurors faced after teen stabbed his restaurateur ... trends now
On a January evening two years ago, Pietro Addis dialled 999 and told the operator: ‘I’m calling to hand myself in.’ Asked what he had done, the 17-year-old simply replied: ‘There’s been a murder.’
When police arrived at the property, they found the naked body of a woman in a bloody bath. Sue Addis, 69, was the teenager’s grandmother with whom he had been living in her £1.8 million Brighton home.
She had been stabbed 17 times, including suffering four wounds of such severity that each was life-threatening on its own.
Sue Addis had taken on a maternal role in Pietro’s life after he lost his mother to cancer when he was just six. And of all his family, he was said to have loved her the most.
All of which makes the events that unfolded in 2021 so incomprehensible.
Sue Addis, 69, was stabbed 17 times at her Brighton home in January 2021, including suffering four wounds of such severity that each was life-threatening on its own
Why Addis killed his grandmother formed the basis of a two-week trial at Lewes Crown Court that had one question at its heart: Was the teenager ‘bad’ or ‘mad’?
In the months leading up to the killing, Addis had stopped taking the medication he had been prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He had also started smoking cannabis heavily, as well as taking other drugs including cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and Xanax, an anti-depressant.
Friends noticed a dramatic change in the teenager’s behaviour. He often failed to turn up to work and became depressed, withdrawn and paranoid.
His concerned grandmother sought advice from a psychiatrist and elsewhere. On the day she died, she researched how to get him into the Priory chain of mental health and addiction clinics for treatment.
Prosecutors alleged that Addis, now 19, knew what he was doing when he attacked her, and that he did so in anger, previously becoming so enraged he would punch walls or even himself. One theory was that his gran might have suggested that he go for in-patient treatment, causing him to lash out.
Addis, who did not give evidence, admitted the killing but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, on the basis that he had been suffering from temporary paranoid psychosis.
Yesterday, the jury accepted the explanation, unanimously clearing him of murder. Addis was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing, with Judge Christine Laing KC describing the incident as a ‘deeply sad and distressing case’, and adding: ‘Mrs Addis was a warm and generous person who was supportive of her family and would do anything for them.’
Mrs Addis' grandson Pietro was later arrested by officers
Not only were her family her life – when her brother fell sick in Australia, she flew there to donate her bone marrow – they were also at the heart of a £6 million chain of Italian restaurants that made her one of Brighton’s most recognisable figures.
As the company’s success grew, it became a cornerstone of the community, with donations to charities and sponsorship of Brighton and Hove Albion FC.
It also had an impressive celebrity clientele, frequented by the likes of Tony Blair, actor Bill Nighy and model Katie Price.
Born in 1939 on the island of Sardinia, Sue’s husband Pietro Addis Snr
