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A British carpenter from Ilfracombe, Devon, who scooped a £3.6 million lottery prize has walked free from a Tenerife court after admitting to a brutal attack on his girlfriend. Sean Henderson, 40, assaulted Suzanne Childs at the five-star GF Gran Costa Adeje resort in Costa Adeje around 9.30pm on Thursday January 22, just weeks after his life-changing win.

 

The couple had jetted off on their first holiday together to celebrate Henderson's National Lottery Set For Life jackpot from December 23. The prize guarantees him £10,000 every month for 30 years. But what started with high hopes quickly soured. Ms Childs, 42, a mother of three from the same town, described how the money seemed to change him overnight. "When he won, I thought, 'this is amazing - what a great life we're going to have together'," she told reporters. "But it was like a switch flipped and the real Sean came out."

 

Tensions boiled over after a night of heavy drinking. Ms Childs said Henderson became verbally abusive from the first evening, accusing her of being a scrounger after his cash. Things turned physical when she spilled water on his arm while trying to calm him. "He exploded. I saw how angry he was and started running away, but he chased me, grabbed my arm and threw me head-first into the wall," she recounted. "I was absolutely petrified. The force of my head hitting the wall made me fear I'd fractured my skull or suffered brain damage."

 

She suffered injuries to her head, face, arm, knee and thumb, with the room left strewn in blood and broken glass. Ms Childs crawled out, reached the lift and got help from another couple. Hotel staff called police and an ambulance. Henderson was arrested and held for 48 hours before confessing to gender-based assault at the Violence Against Women Section of the Court of First Instance of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

 

Last Monday, on his 40th birthday, he received a six-month suspended prison sentence for two years, a restraining order barring him from within 500m of Ms Childs or the hotel, and an order to pay compensation. Prosecutors had sought nine months behind bars, but Spanish courts often suspend sentences under two years for first-time offenders. Hours later, Henderson posted a poolside photo on Facebook clutching sparkling wine, captioned "Happy 40th to me!!" to a cover of the Rolling Stones' "I'm Free."

 

Ms Childs flew home alone on January 27 and reported the attack to Devon and Cornwall Police. "There's not enough money in the world to stay with someone who's abusive," she said. "I'd rather be with someone dirt poor and kind than rich and violent." Henderson had previously shared plans to buy a house, spoil his son and keep working flexibly as a carpenter. For now, his win has brought more notoriety than celebration.

 

 

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