A police presence remained this week outside the home of Sir Richard Sutton, 83, found dead at his North Dorset mansion nine days ago.

Crime scene and forensic officers were still inside Moorhill on Tuesday, the day after Sir Richard’s stepson appeared in court charged with his murder. Thomas Schreiber, 34, was arrested in London hours after Sir Richard was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. His partner Ann Schreiber was also attacked and airlifted to hospital in Bristol, where she remains. Her son has also been charged with attempted murder and dangerous driving.

More flowers were laid outside the family home in Higher Langham over the weekend, including a bowl of mixed bulbs.

A card read: ‘From Ann at Waitrose. A lovely man. Our thoughts are with you.’

Four other bouquets were also laid at the end of the drive to the house, which Sir Richard moved into in 2014.
Moorhill is typical of the tiny, scattered hamlet of Higher Langham, an isolated, extended property behind closed gates worth £1m or more.

One resident, John Murray, who is aged in his 70s, said: “We don’t even register as being big enough to be a village.”

The home is right on the border of Buckhorn Weston and Gillingham parishes.
Barry von Clemens, Mayor of Gillingham said that the only time that Sir Richard had any involvement with the town was in putting a planning application for gates at his house.

“It’s very sad news. Our thoughts are with the family at their sad loss,” he said.

While his partner Ann owned and ran The London Clinic in Sherborne, an osteo and physiotherapy practise, Sir Richard was rarely seen.
But when the couple were driving through the narrow lanes, they would stop and say hello, say neighbours. Said Sandra White: “They were friendly if you saw them out and about but they didn’t mingle a huge amount, which is fine.”

North Dorset MP Simon Hoare knew Sir Richard from business dealings long before the two of them moved to North Dorset. Said Mr Hoare: “He was a charming man. He had a very good sense of humour, he was politically astute and genial. If you wanted to conjure up a picture of a country gentleman then that was him.”

Sir Richard ranked 435 on the Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune of £301m. He owned several hotels and 7,000 acres of land in Dorset, Berkshire, London, Lincolnshire and Aberdeenshire. He had farming and property businesses.

He is divorced from his first wife, Fiamma Sutton, and has two children, son, David, 61, and daughter, Caroline, 55. Ms Schreiber has three children from a previous marriage, two daughters, Louisa, 39, Rose, 35 and her son Thomas.

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