EXCLUSIVE: How $22MILLION Powerball winner’s life spiralled into crime, drugs and debauchery after he hit the jackpot – and the sad reason why money could not buy his happiness
- Joshua Winslet was only 22 and living in New Zealand when he won Powerball
- He moved to Adelaide and embarked on a life of drugs, crime and debauchery
- Judge said he was targeted by bullies as a schoolboy due to two rare conditions
- Had multiple operations as a young child to correct physical abnormalities
- Despite his parents managing his winnings, he indulged in ‘hedonistic’ lifestyle
- Became a drug addict and allowed others to use his Adelaide home as a drug den
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Pictured: Joshua John Winslet, 27
A young man who pocketed a whopping $22million Powerball windfall before spiraling into a life of drugs, crime and debauchery was mercilessly bullied at school due to physical ‘deformities’.
Joshua John Winslet was only 22 and living in New Zealand when he learned he was the sole winner of the enormous division one prize in 2017 – but it only took three years for his life to completely unravel.
In August 2020, police raided his home in New Port, Adelaide and found 27.3g of MDMA – some of which was found in a bowl in the fridge, near a box of Red Bull – 2.27g of cocaine, along with a Mauser handgun and ammunition in his bathroom.
Winslet, now 27, pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence, and was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail, with a non-parole period of 18-months in SA’s District Court in August this year.
The time behind bars was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, with supervision.
During sentencing, Judge Heath Barklay detailed the extent of Winslet’s drug addiction – supplying to his addict friends, and letting them trash his house and essentially use it as a squalid drug den.
Joshua John Winslet (pictured) was 22 when he pocketed $22million when he won Powerball in 2017
Police raided his Adelaide home in 2020 and charged him with supplying MDMA and possession of an unlicensed firearm (Pictured: a bowl of white powder in the plumber’s fridge)
The judge also told the court about the many operations Winslet had to endure as a small child to treat Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome – two rare and incurable conditions he battled since birth.
Duane syndrome occurs when the eye muscles do not develop properly, which results in difficulties rolling one or both eyes outward or inward.
Goldenhar syndrome causes abnormalities in the formation of the bones in the face and head, which can lead to facial asymmetry, a partially-formed or absent ear, benign cysts on the eye, spinal issues, and can impact internal organs.
In Winslet’s case, the latter condition meant he was born with a singular horseshoe-shaped kidney, and an irregular heart beat which stopped him from being able to play contact sports.
He also underwent plastic surgery when he was very young to try and correct his physical abnormalities.
‘As a result of your physical deformities, you were the source of bullying throughout your time at school,’ Judge Barklay said.
In the squalid house Winslet owned was a framed photo of Winslet’s winning lotto entry (pictured)
Police photos showed the state of Winslet’s party house, including tables crammed with beer bottles, soft drink can and bongs
As a result, he left school in Year 10 and studied at Adelaide University Senior College for six months.
He then did a plumbing apprenticeship, which he finished when he turned 20, and moved to the South Island of New Zealand to find a job when the company he worked for failed.
Soon after that, he found out he won Powerball and the millions were placed in a trust fund – which was managed by his parents.
He used a large portion to buy multiple properties in South Australia and New Zealand, but he somehow managed to use the cash to fuel his drug habits.
Shocking photos from inside the property showed a bowl of white powder inside a largely empty fridge, bagged MDMA, cocaine and marijuana, nangs (nitrous oxide bulbs), several large bongs and countless empty drink bottles and cans.
Floors were filthy and beds were left unmade. Piles of garbage, including empty soft drink cans and takeaway food containers, accumulated in every room
The court released photos of Winslet’s trashed ‘party house’ showing countless nangs (nitrous oxide bulbs) laying on a marble tabled beside cigarettes, bottles of spirits, soft drink cans, half-drunk glasses of wine and candles
Hung on one of the walls was Winslet’s winning lottery ticket while in other rooms empty bottles, cans and dirty plates cover almost every available surface.
In another room, rubbish and clothes were strewn on a floor beside an electronic drum kit and floor-to-ceiling projector screen.
Elsewhere, the homes floors were filthy, and beds were left unmade as garbage, including empty soft drink cans and takeaway food containers accumulated in every room.
The court heard sudden wealth turned him into ‘a free ride’ for other drug users who were allowed to ‘run amok’ in his home.
Judge Heath Barklay said Winslet ‘lost motivation’ for life and preferred a ‘hedonistic lifestyle’ slipped into regular drug use after his win.
In another room, rubbish and clothes strewn on a floor beside an electronic drum kit and floor-to-ceiling projector screen
‘Because of the money that you had won, there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy yourself,’ he said.
‘You had lots of money so you could afford to buy large amounts of drugs, which you would use yourself and supply to your so-called friends from time to time.’
One ‘friend’ stored a firearm and bullets in his roof, which Judge Barklay said the placement in a home where heavy drug use was normal increased the chances the weapon would be used for ‘an unlawful purpose’.
The court heard Winslet’s arrest was ‘a wake up call’.
The Lotto curse: Meet the Aussies whose lives were destroyed when they won millions after being caught in vicious battles over the cash, preyed on by swindlers and even MURDERED
Winning the lottery isn’t just seen as the answer to most Australians’ money worries, it’s become a metaphor for the best luck imaginable in life.
But for some who hit the jackpot, their millions became a curse beyond their wildest nightmares, leading to downward spirals, poverty and even death.
And while many do enjoy lifestyles the rest of us can only dream about, research has found 70 per cent of lottery winners end up broke with a third declaring bankruptcy.
Sydney man Bazil Thorne (pictured) won £100,000 in a Sydney Opera House lottery in 1960, the equivalent of $1.7million today. Tragically his son Graeme was kidnapped and murdered
Graeme Thorne was kidnapped for a $43,000 ransom after his father won the lottery. He was murdered the same day
The decline tends to follow a clear pattern. The joy of winning and commitment to be careful and help others gives way as the temptation of the endless amount of money becomes too great to resist.
Usually it’s self-inflicted. Most winners begin to spend so quickly – on everything from drugs, alcohol and sex to poorly-considered investments – that their millions evaporate.
A Perth man, Sherif Girgis, was 23 and working part time at a cinema in 2007 when he scored $30million – at the time the biggest lotto win in Western Australian history.
Mr Girgis made a series of investments under the guidance of real estate agent and City of Joondalup deputy mayor Russell Poliwka.
He bought a pub, a defunct nightclub called Crush, an 80 foot catamaran for $880,000 and a block of land with waterfront views.
The bundle of investments was later found to be overpriced.
Though his ventures began to lose money and by 2012 he had just $5million left.
Sherif Girgis, 23, was working part time at a cinema in Perth when he scored the biggest lotto win in Western Australian history in 2007
In 2014 he launched legal action against Poliwka demanding nearly $3.5million. He was awarded $2million.
The court accepted Poliwka provided ‘misleading or deceptive representation’ and ‘negligent advice’.
Mr Girgis made a series of investments under the guidance of real estate agent and City of Joondalup deputy mayor Russell Poliwka (pictured)
Lottery wins can also badly affect the winner’s judgement.
Newly married Kiwi man Trevor Cooper, who worked in a supermarket before winning $27million in 2012, was sadly divorced by 2015.
Mr Cooper, who went from pricing other people’s groceries to entering his new expensive off-road cars for prize money, went as far as buying the South Auckland mansion he was married in.
Read Related Also: Man Killed By Wife And Her Lover After Telling Friend He Feared Attack: Police
He quickly bought 12 properties too, mostly with his new wife, Sharie Mitchell – before the marriage crumbled and he fell out with his mother, Shirley.
She told the NZ Herald her son didn’t make a prenuptial agreement with his new wife, Ms Mitchell.
Sometimes the misfortune from a lottery win is caused by the jealousy and greed of family, friends or even strangers.
The saddest such case in Australia, and the one that changed the rules around announcing the identity of lottery winners, concerned the death of eight-year-old Sydney boy Graeme Thorne.
He was kidnapped for a £25,000 ransom after his father Bazil Thorne won £100,000 in a Sydney Opera House lottery in 1960, the equivalent of $1.7million today.
The kidnapper, Stephen Bradley, a Hungarian immigrant and poker machine factory worker, lured Graeme into his car, then tied him up in the boot.
He panicked when he opened the trunk and found the boy unconscious. He bashed him, then wrapped his body in a rug and dumped it in a vacant lot at Seaforth.
Kevin and Tania Parkes (pictured) were overjoyed when they won Powerball – along with 248 others
Mr Ing (pictured) claims he bought a ticket in the winning Powerball syndicate in February
Police would late track down Bradley after finding the rugmaker and identifying one of his dog’s hairs in it.
Police later said Graeme Thorne probably died within 24 hours of being kidnapped, from asphyxiation, a skull fracture, or a combination of both.
Bradley was found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars. He died in Goulburn jail in 1968.
Since the Thorne case, lottery winners in Australia can request anonymity.
But that didn’t help Tamworth’s Maria Devrell, who was killed by a family friend she handpicked to help her manage her $5million OzLotto win in 2011.
Trevor Cooper (pictured centre), who worked in a supermarket before winning $27million in 2012 was newly married and then divorced by 2015. He didn’t sign a prenup agreement with his wife
One of the expensive off-record vehicles Mr Cooper started racing when he quit his supermarket job after winning $26million
She was killed in an argument with Peter Kelly, a financial advisor and friend to Ms Devrell and her husband, David for 25 years, over failed property investments in Fiji and the NSW Central Coast.
Infuriated by what he believed was her mismanagement of the winnings, Kelly bashed her with a plastic-covered rubber mallet, then strangled her in her home.
He was discovered by police attempting suicide, and found guilty of her murder, then sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Tamworth’s Maria Devrell was killed by a family friend she handpicked to help her manage her $5million OzLotto win in 2011
Kelly later told police he was ‘sick’ of hearing Ms Devrell, who had a gambling addiction, ‘complaining and blaming everyone [else] for her problems’.
After killing his friend, Kelly callously spent a weekend away with her husband, who knew nothing of her death.
A Sydney tradie, who wanted to remain anonymous after a $30million Powerball win in 2020, warned the massive win made his life easier but not happier.
After a week of ‘sh***y’ 14-hour shifts on a regional site he had a few beers and checked his ticket only to be blown away by finding he had won the $30million prize.
His experience was that once word got around his family and circle of friends he had plenty of ‘weird’ conversations with people who ‘came out of the woodwork’.
People who had lost contact with him 15 years ago suddenly wanted to be friends again.
At least one relationship soured, with a former friend who he said ‘did not take it well’.
‘If you’re not happy, and you want to win the lottery (to change that) you’re going to be terribly mistaken,’ he told news.com.au.
The most recent public case of a dispute over a lottery win returns to court in Perth in August.
Two newsagents who organised tickets for a huge $63million Powerball syndicate win are disputing one man’s claim to a $262,000 share.
A man known as ‘Mr Ing’ claims he bought a ticket in Tania and Kevin Parkes’ ‘pay off your mortgage’ Powerball syndicate in February 2022.
But they claim to have sold him a ticket in a different syndicate, which was unsuccessful.
The Parkes lodged a dispute to stop Lotterywest from transferring the winnings he claimed.
Disputes over syndicates are not uncommon.
In 2010, the friendship of three Melbourne mates who fluked a $13million Lotto win disintegrated when they couldn’t agree on how to split it.
Eugene Te Pairi, Garry Garlick and Brad Pretty ended up in court, where they blew $1.5million in legal fees, after their original agreement collapsed.
After American Andrew ‘Jack’ Whittaker (pictured right) scored an incredible US$315million on Powerball in 2002 his life descended into one calamity after another. Among his many woes, his grand-daughter Brandi (pictured left) died with drugs in her system
The three pooled $340 for a part at Mr Pretty’s house at Carrum, near Frankston in 2010, from which they slapped $26 on a quick pick ticket.
Mr Te Pairi and Mr Garlick alleged Mr Pretty received the prize but refused to pay them what was agreed.
The trio eventually settled out of court.
Mr Te Pairi and Mr Pretty were friends for 20 years before the win ruined their friendship.
In the US, Florida labourer Abraham Shakespeare (pictured centre) won $30million in 2006 at age 40
Lotto winners in America have also suffered similar fates to those in Australia.
After American Andrew ‘Jack’ Whittaker scored an incredible US$315million on Powerball in 2002 his life descended into one disaster after another.
He pledged over $10million to Christian charities, established a foundation to feed and house low-income families.
But he also bought a Lamborghini and drove through his neighbourhood throwing fistfuls of cash to passersby.
Mr Abraham was shot dead three years later by a woman who befriended him, Dee Dee Moore (pictured)
The $700,000 in cash he left in his car was stolen. He turned to gambling and strip clubs and both his daughter and granddaughter died, the latter with a serious drug problem.
In 2016 his house burned down. It was uninsured. He died three years later after a long battle with cancer.
In the US, Florida labourer Abraham Shakespeare won $30million in 2006 at age 40 and was shot dead three years later by a woman who befriended him, Dee Dee Moore.
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