A MILLIONAIRE from Kent who was interrupted by his 10-year-old daughter as he bludgeoned his wife with a rounders bat has been cleared of attempted murder.

Philip Cowell, 44, beat partner Faith about the head as she slept after she told him their 13-year marriage was over.

Cowell, of Old Cheyne Court, Old Romney, near Hythe, then started to smother her with a pillow but was caught in the act by eldest child Florence and had to break off the attack to usher her out the door.

But jurors at the Old Bailey accepted his story that he only intended to hurt her, and cleared him of attempted murder.

Cowell had already pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He will now have to wait until May 12 to find out his sentence.

The jury had been told the property developer, who ran the Yew and Ewe pub in Brookland, with his wife, had driven off with a shotgun to kill himself but was talked out of it by armed police.

He wrote in a suicide note: “I know I’m not going to get away with anything less than attempted murder.”

It was claimed he plotted to murder her and pretend she had committed suicide by drowning herself off Dungeness.

Two weeks before the attack Cowell secretly instructed agents to sell the pub against his wife’s wishes.

On June 26 she discovered his plan and told him the marriage was over.

Cowell told the court: “She said 'If you sell the pub our relationship is over. As of tomorrow I am leaving and taking the children with me’.”

He drove her car and clothes to the beach and jogged home in the middle of the night.

Armed with a bat he beat her around the head repeatedly. She woke up as he stuffed a pillow over her face.

James Counsell told the court: “Fortunately for her, their 10-year-old daughter had been disturbed by the commotion and came into the room at that point.”

Cowell then called an ambulance and during the recorded message the couple could be heard struggling over Cowell’s licensed shotgun as a child screams in the background.

He eventually drove off with the gun in his Izuzu Trooper 4x4 to a field five miles away.

He gave himself up after repeatedly threatening to shoot himself in a 90-minute stand-off with police.