A man repeatedly stabbed his girlfriend in the head when she attempted to leave him shortly after winning the lottery.
While most couples dream of winning millions in the lottery, everything fell into a downward spiral when 49-year-old Emma Brown from the UK won more than $7 million in the lottery.
As the court heard, Brown’s boyfriend of 12 years, 45-year-old Stephen Gibbs, changed the day his partner had won the lottery. Instead of helping her realize her dreams of traveling, the man allegedly turned into a possessive control freak who installed a tracking device in her car and began following her everywhere she would go.
“Gibbs became a changed person in 2017 when Ms Brown had the good fortune of winning the national lottery,” Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.
“It was a significant amount of money and meant she could become financially independent of the defendant.
“This altered the nature of the balance of their relationship and it caused arguments between the two of them.”
Making the rift between them even bigger, Biggs went on to accuse Brown of cheating on him with her former friend, Scott McKenzie, and threatened to “cut his throat” should he catch them together.
Things took another turn for the worse when Biggs accused Brown of seeing McKenzie when she met with one of the cleaners working at the property she had bought with her winnings.
“It was an innocent visit but when she got home Gibbs questioned her about where she had been. He was jealous and worried about her past and there was a mention of Macca, which was Mr McKenzie’s nickname,” Bennett added.
In response, Brown allegedly attempted to end their relationship and walk away only for Gibbs to grab her by her neck and slam her against the wall. The man then retrieved a knife from the kitchen before stabbing Brown in the head and face several times.
“He told her he was going to cut his own throat and she was trying to stop him when he turned his anger on her, still holding the knife,” Bennett said.
“She was on the patio outside and can remember thinking she was going to be killed as the knife went into one of her eyes.
“She told Gibbs: ‘Tell my mother I love her’ as he stabbed her in the face from close-up seven times. She thought they were going to be her dying words.”
Following his gruesome act, Gibbs called his brother and best friend and confessed to the crime saying: “I’ve done something stupid, I’ve stabbed Emma, I think I killed her.”
Fortunately, Brown survived the brutal attack. She might never again, however, be the same, whereas the ordeal has left her afraid of socializing with other people.
“We were together for 12 years, I never thought he was capable of doing something like this to me. I used to be the life and soul of the party but now I can’t face being in a group of people. But I am conflicted because I’m also scared of being alone,” she said in her victim statement.
“I’ve been left with a lazy eye which has affected my confidence – I don’t know if I will fully recover from what has happened.
“We were together for 12 years and were happy – I don’t hate him and I do have good memories of the time we had together which makes what happened all the more shocking. I feel pity for him more than anything else.”
Now, Gibbs has been found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison with an extended sentence of five years.
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