The sister of celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal was today given a suspended sentence after she admitted slamming their mother’s head against a car.
Alexis Blumenthal, 49, from Thame in Oxfordshire, launched a four-year campaign of rage against the pair’s 76-year-old mother, Celia.
She grabbed her by the hair and punched her a number of times, before pushing at the top of a flight of stairs, at a house in nearby Watlington.
Her elderly mother was forced to cling on to the banister to stop her from falling all the way down.
Heston Blumenthal (pictured) runs the three-Michelin starred restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire
Another attack saw Alexis ‘slam’ her mother’s head against a car on a street in Thame.
A court heard that her Celia became so scared of her own daughter that she had to have a lock fitted on her bedroom door.
In a victim statement Celia said that her daughter had carried out a campaign of ‘verbal and violent abuse’ over the last four years, largely due to her alcoholism.
District Judge Tim Pattinson today said she had problems including alcohol issues and an emotionally unstable personality disorder.
He added that her offending had breached the trust of her mother and said: ‘She should have been able to trust you to behave towards her in a considerate manner.’
Alexis admitted attacking her mother at Oxford Magistrates’ Court in December 2017 and was sentenced today.
Katie Jeanes, prosecuting, described the first incident in September last year, and said: ‘The defendant and Celia Blumenthal, who is her mother, had been to the Shepherds Crook public house.
‘Mrs Blumenthal’s daughter had been drinking before they returned to her mother’s address at about 5pm or 6pm in the evening.’
She said it had been a few hours later when Celia had gone to bed and her daughter took her medication upstairs, that the first altercation took place.
Ms Jeanes explained: ‘The defendant grabbed hold of Mrs Blumenthal’s hair and punched her several times and the last punch caught her on the left cheek causing bruising and pain.
‘The defendant pushed her in the back with open hands. Mrs Blumenthal had to hold onto the stair banister to prevent herself from going down the stairs.
‘In total Mrs Blumenthal thinks the defendant must have hit her six or seven times and she described her daughter as ‘being in a frenzy’.
‘On October 7 this year the police were contacted by a member of the public, referred to as Mrs Lambert, after she saw an incident in the town centre of Thame, involving the defendant and Mrs Blumenthal again.’