Ian Griffin was jailed after his partner was found dead in a hotel bathtub with over 100 injuries
Ian Griffin in December 2014(Image: PA)
A man who bludgeoned his fiancée to death in a Paris hotel is back in prison after assaulting his dad and threatening to burn a couple’s house down. Ian Griffin, a former businessman from Warrington, was jailed for 20 years for murdering his millionaire partner Kinga Legg in a suite at the Bristol Hotel in Paris in May 2009.
Griffin previously ran tanning salons and gadget shops across the north west of England but was declared bankrupt in 2006, three years before the death of his girlfriend. The pair had been making their way to Monaco with the intention of marrying, but Griffin was also seeing an entrepreneur, Tracy Baker.
A court heard how Griffin attacked Ms Legg and left her in the bathtub of the suite before fleeing to England in his Porsche 911.
He was then arrested and was finally extradited to France in 2011, after initially refusing to give his consent to extradition when he appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court.
In his original trial he argued he could not remember attacking Ms Legg, who ran a business exporting more than 300 million tomatoes a year from Poland to supermarkets.
He claimed the couple had argued over dinner at a French restaurant after she would not give him anti-depression pills, to which he had become addicted, and did not intend to kill her.
But prosecutors said the fact his victim had more than 100 bruises, including 17 on the skull, showed he “wanted to kill her”. They also slammed him as a “gigolo” who lived off his wealthy girlfriends.
Ian Griffin(Image: Men)
Griffin, who appeared in court in a wheelchair having apparently developed a severe neurological disease in jail, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December 2014 after living on bail for more than a year. In April 2016 he successfully appealed to have his sentence reduced, with a judge knocking off six years. He was released following a closed hearing in October 2016.
Now, nearly a decade after his release, has been back before the courts in Merseyside.
At around 7.20pm on May 1 last year, Cheshire Police officers were called to reports of a domestic incident at an address on Delph Lane in Warrington.
Officers arrived to find Griffin’s dad, Bernard Griffin, 84, had suffered serious injuries and Griffin was arrested on suspicion of assault.
Griffin was later charged and admitted to inflicting grievous bodily harm to his dad as well as threatening to burn down the house of James Hart and Catherine Brown.
Mr Hart and Ms Brown are believed to be the neighbours of Griffin’s dad, with the offence said to have happened the day before the assault on April 30, 2025.
Kinga Legg
Griffin, who appeared in court last month, will appear in Liverpool Crown Court on May 21 for sentencing.
He was also charged with threats to kill, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, sending malicious/offensive/obscene communications which have been ordered to remain on file.
It remains unclear how long Griffin has been living in Wilmslow following his conviction for murder in France.