Lottery Winner Stabbed in Face, Jealous Partner Gets 18 Years for Attempted Murder

Posted on: December 8, 2021, 08:38h. 

Last updated on: December 8, 2021, 09:03h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More

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A British man who stabbed his lottery-winning partner seven times in the face when she told him she planned to leave him was sentenced to 18 years in prison for attempted murder Monday.

Stephen Gibbs, 45, a floor fitter from Barry, Wales, showed no emotion as Judge Richard Twomlow of Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court delivered his sentence.

Twomlow described Gibbs as a “significant risk to the public.”

Previously, the court heard that Gibbs had been with his partner, Emma Brown, for more than ten years. But the dynamics of the relationship changed in 2017 when Brown won over £5 million on the UK National Lottery.

Prosecutors said this meant Brown was no longer financially dependent on control freak Gibbs, who resented the newfound freedom and zeal that came with his partner’s windfall.

He nixed her ambition to use the money to travel the world because he said he didn’t like traveling. Meanwhile, he became convinced she was having an affair and installed a tracking device on her car, prosecutors said.

Lottery Curse

According to court documents, Brown returned to the house she shared with Gibbs on January 30 this year to find him drunk in the kitchen.

He questioned her about where she had been and accused her of cheating on him with an old schoolfriend. Brown said she wanted to end the relationship.

Gibbs grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall, before producing a knife from the kitchen drawer. He stabbed her repeatedly in the face, arms, and stomach.

She remembers the sight of a knife she thought was going into one of her eyes,” prosecuting attorney Ieuan Bennett told the court.

Bennett claimed Gibbs believed Brown was dead when he left her face down in a pool of blood. A neighbor heard her calling for help and alerted authorities.

Police found Gibbs in his car with the bloodstained knife on the passenger seat.

Brown was taken to the hospital where she required plastic surgery. She lost 75 percent of her vision in the attack and has been left scarred and unable to move her right arm.

Gibbs Previously Stabbed Child

The lottery winner, who gave much of her money to good causes, said in a victim impact statement she was a changed person.

I used to be the life and soul of the party, but now I don’t want to be in a large group,” Brown said. “I will carry this with me for the rest of my life. I struggle to deal with the fact that we were together for 12 years and we were happy.”

Gibbs initially denied trying to kill Brown, but he changed his plea to guilty in September.

In July 2005, Gibbs was sentenced to ten years in prison for stabbing another former partner and her 11-year-old son after she had ended their relationship.

After that attack, he tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself and then jumping off a parking garage.