The grandson of Brighton restaurant boss Sue Addis has been sentenced to 15 years for killing his grandmother at Lewes Crown Court this morning (Friday 5 May).
Pietro Addis, 20, was told that he would be jailed for 10 years with an extended sentence of five years by Judge Christine Laing, the honorary recorder of Brighton and Hove.
The judge said that he would be expected to serve at least two thirds of the 10-year prison sentence before being considered for parole.
If he was released and committed any further offence before serving the rest of the 15 years on licence, he would be returned to prison to serve the full term.
Addis admitted manslaughter after he stabbed Mrs Addis 17 times in the bath of her home in Cedars Gardens, Brighton, in January 2021.
In March, a jury of four men and eight women unanimously cleared him of murder which he denied on the ground of diminished responsibility. Four of them were in court for the sentencing today.
The court was told that Addis had admitted manslaughter on the basis that his responsibility was diminished by a brief and transient paranoid psychosis.
But today the court was told that a psychiatrist’s report, to help he assess the level of future dangerousness posed by the defendant, highlighted concerns about possible further drug use.
Pietro Addis, of Radinden Manor Road, Hove, was 17 when he killed Mrs Addis who ran Donatello, in Brighton Place, and Pinocchio, in New Road, both in Brighton.
The jury was told that the teenager, whose family had just moved to Ring Road, Lancing, had used cannabis and other drugs.
These included Xanax and more than the prescribed dose of Elvanse, his amphetamine-based medicine for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The judge said: “Drug usage was undoubtedly an issue.”
It was the subject of family arguments – but Pietro Addis’s drug use had dropped before he stabbed his 69-year-old grandmother 17 times in the bath at her home.
His barrister, Sarah Elliott, told the court that Sue Addis had tried to seek help for Pietro Addis’s deteriorating mental state, adding: “There was no evidence that Pietro was resistant to that.
“He told one of the psychiatrists that he wanted help but they were unable to get him help.”
But given the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, it had been hard to obtain help and Miss Elliott added: “Had help been available, the circumstances may have been very different.”
It was the only, and understandable, outcome. We have lost one of the most fantastic ladies whom many of us have ever met, or will ever meet, in our lives. I try to blame ‘drugs’ but I find it very, very difficult to do so. A strong element of ‘spoiled brat’ comes into the case and he old enough to understand that. I, personally, will never quite get over her loss.