‘A CHARMING MAN’

One of Britain’s Richest Aristocrats Stabbed to Death at His Country Estate

Britain’s landed gentry is shocked to discover that one its wealthiest members was murdered in a double knife attack.

LONDON—One of Britain’s richest men has been stabbed to death at his luxurious country estate in an attack that is reported to have also left a woman fighting for her life.

Sir Richard Lexington Sutton, 83, who was listed just above Mick Jagger and George and Amal Clooney in the Sunday Times Rich List, was a member of the British aristocracy imbued with a hereditary title as a baronet.

The hotelier, who owned five-star properties on Park Lane and Piccadilly in Mayfair, was attacked on Wednesday night. Police arrived at the $2 million mansion in Dorset, South-West England to find Sutton dead. A woman in her 60s was airlifted to a hospital in Bristol, where she was in a critical condition.

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The Dorset Echo reported that the alleged attacker fled the scene in a Range Rover and was tracked by officers as it sped across four counties before it was stopped over 100 miles away in Hammersmith, West London.

It was reported that the 34-year-old suspect was known to Sutton, who was worth over $400 million. Once he was apprehended by police in London, the man was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Sutton’s property company released a statement confirming that the country gent had passed away. “We are deeply saddened and devastated by the sudden death of Sir Richard Sutton,” it read. “Sir Richard was a caring, generous and warm family man, who genuinely regarded those who worked for him as part of his extended family.”

The violent demise of a member of Britain’s landed gentry has stunned neighbors among the walled gardens and stone-built houses of Higher Langham, which is no more than a hamlet nestled among the green fields of Northern Dorset.

A local Conservative Party lawmaker told the local press that he had known the landowner well. “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,” said Simon Hoare. “This is not the sort of thing you expect to see happening in North Dorset nor the sort of thing we are used to seeing here.”

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Nico HinesGlobal Editorial Director

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