A restaurateur died after being stabbed in the chest and neck by her grandson, a post-mortem investigation has found.
Sue Addis, 69, died in her bathroom in Cedar Gardens in January 2021 after she was attacked by Pietro Addis, 17 at the time.
A post-mortem investigation found that she was stabbed 17 times, with the cause of death being given as “stab wounds to the neck and chest”.
Addis, now 19, is standing trial for the alleged murder of his grandmother. He admits killing Mrs Addis but denies murder.
Dr Charlotte Randall, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the jury at Lewes Crown Court that Mrs Addis had been stabbed 17 times, with two stab wounds to the chest and two to the neck considered “life-threatening”.
Mrs Addis also sustained wounds to the abdomen as well as her arm and leg.
Earlier the court heard from Dr Peter Misch, a psychiatrist instructed by the defence, who told the jury that he believed Addis had been suffering from a “delusional belief” that his grandmother was going to kill him.
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Dr Misch argued that Addis was suffering from a “brief, transient paranoid psychosis” which got better without any medication.
The psychiatrist added: "In his mind it was the delusional belief that his grandmother was threatening him in a very serious way.
"It became delusional in the sense that he could not rationalise his way out of it."
Under cross examination, Dr Misch agreed that Addis’s use of cannabis and other drugs was having a negative effect on his mental health.
The court heard that the teenager regularly smoked cannabis but that his use had dramatically decreased in the weeks before the incident.
Following the attack, Addis phoned emergency services to “turn himself in”, saying: “There’s been a murder.”
Mrs Addis was a popular figure in Brighton. She owned Italian restaurants Donatello in The Lanes and Pinocchio in New Road.
In statements read out to court, she was described as a “warm and generous person who was very supportive of her family”.
The case, presided over by Judge Christine Laing KC, continues and is expected to last around two weeks.
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