'I pay your wages, I ask you to kill me' - man accused of millionaire's murder to police

• Moment high-speed chase ends and police arrest Thomas Schreiber

A man accused of murdering his mother's partner and trying to kill her told police "I pay your wages, I ask you to kill me" as he was arrested, a court has heard.

Thomas Schreiber is on trial for the murder of millionaire hotelier Sir Richard Sutton and the attempted murder of his mother Anne Schreiber - who was Sir Richard's partner - on April 7 this year. 

During the trial at Winchester Crown Court today (December 7), the jury heard the 35-year-old had shouted at his mother for failing to get Sir Richard to buy him more things.

The court heard he was given an allowance as well as money for a car and a house. 

The fatal incident happened at Sir Richard’s Moorhill estate near Gillingham, Dorset, which he shared with the Schreiber family following the separation of the defendant’s parents.

Thomas Schreiber has previously admitted the manslaughter of Sir Richard and pleaded guilty to driving a Range Rover dangerously on the A303, A4 and M3.

Juliet Pentolfe, who was Sir Richard’s personal assistant for six years, said on one occasion she walked in on Schreiber angrily shouting at his mother.

“Tom was shouting at his mother saying she was living with one of the wealthiest men in England and why couldn’t she get him to pay for things – I had thought Tom meant for himself," she said.

“He [Sir Richard] was not happy about Tom living at Moorhill, he was not happy because he was not contributing to living there.”

Ms Pentolfe said the defendant, who lived in an annexe at the Moorhill estate, referred to her as a “facilitator” for organising things for him, including a trip to stay in a hotel and a visit to the races for him and his mother, paid for by Sir Richard.

The trial heard he had been upset with Sir Richard for only offering him £10,000 to buy a car which would not cover the cost of the vehicle he wished to buy.

Ms Pentolfe added Sir Richard paid the defendant a monthly allowance of £1,000 and had also given him £100,000 to buy a property. The court heard Schreiber’s two sisters had received similar amounts.

PC Kane Ellafi told the court he was involved in detaining the defendant after his car was stopped in central London following a 135mph police chase.

Describing the defendant, he said: “He pulled out a knife and immediately turned it towards himself and plunged it in his chest and continued to stab himself a number of times.”

He said a colleague then tasered the defendant “to stop him from killing himself” after which Schreiber shouted: “Just kill me, I pay your wages, I ask you to kill me.”

The jury was also shown body-worn video footage of armed police officers arriving at Moorhill on the evening of the killing. PC George Bryant told the court he found Ms Schreiber with a “large laceration to the chest area and several small ones to the upper left side”.

He added she had a cut to the face which exposed her jaw and he found “numerous” lacerations to her back.

PC Bryant said the amount of blood lost meant at first he thought Ms Schreiber had been shot “with bird shot from a shotgun”, but he later realised there were only knife wounds.

Ms Schreiber suffered up to 15 separate injuries including wounds to the back of her head, arm, chest as well as to her neck, shoulder and back, including a partial severing of the spinal cord, the court has heard.

Schreiber denies murder and attempted murder and the trial continues.