Businessman who murdered his heiress fiancée in luxury Paris hotel suite jailed again for 'degrading' assault on his own 83-year-old father

A British businessman who battered his wealthy girlfriend to death in a luxury French hotel before going on the run was today jailed again for a vicious and 'degrading' attack on his elderly father.Ian Griffin, 57, moved back to the UK after serving only 22 months of a 14-year sentence for the murder of Kinga Legg, 36, in the £1,000 a night Hotel Le Bristol in Paris.Griffin, who owned tanning and gadget shops, rained over 100 blows on the Polish supermarket heiress and left her naked body in a bath tub in May 2009.He fled the scene in his Porsche and went on the run in the UK where he was found living in a tent in woodland near Macclesfield not far from his parents’ home in Cheshire after a huge manhunt.Griffin was later extradited to France and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment which was reduced on appeal to 14 years. But he only served 22 months in custody before being released after a three-day hearing behind closed doors before five French judges.The businessman returned to live in a summer house at his parents' home near Warrington, where he attacked his father Bernard, then 83, after drinking in a local pub in May 2025, a court heard today.Bernard Griffin was on a phone call to his other son Adrian and was heard to say: 'Oh heck, he’s here and it’s not looking good.' Ian Griffin outside court in Paris before he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail Convicted killer Ian Griffin, 57, was today jailed for four years over a 'degrading' attack on his elderly father Kinga Legg, 36, who was found dead in the bath in a Paris hotel suite in 2009Adrian feared for his parents' safety and called police, who rushed to the address to find Bernard with a bloodied face from a severe facial injury.Liverpool Crown Court was played body-worn camera footage in which Bernard, sitting on a sofa with a bloodied face, tells officers: 'He’s beaten me up with his fists. 'He came in and started beating me up.'Am I glad to see you, he would have killed me.'He is terrible, he is a different person when he has had beer. I feel like I have been in a fight.'Mr Griffin Snr told police that the attack had lasted between 30 minutes and an hour and that he had been punched and dragged to the floor and that his son had also stamped on his legs.He said it only stopped when his son forced him to sign a piece of paper giving 50 per cent of his earnings to his wife Janet, Ian's mother.Mr Scott said further footage from Mrs Griffin's mobile phone 'highlighted the degrading treatment of his elderly father'.Griffin was heard on the footage screaming abuse at his father and accusing him of 'buying MGs while she scrambles around for £100 a week'.He was also heard to tell his father: 'I will break your motherf*****g face'.Griffin also warned him: 'I am going to lose it, I swear I am going to lose it. I can feel it coming.' Heiress Kinga Legg suffered 100 injuries in a 'frenzied' attack by Griffin in May 2009Prosecutor Andrew Scott told how police had been called the day before after Griffin had hurled abuse at his parents' neighbours.James Hart told how Griffin had screamed abuse at him and his partner, Catherine Brown, and had threatened to 'burn and bomb the house down with your wife in it'.Mr Hart told police he had not done anything to provoke Griffin and believed his threats to be genuine.Following the attack on his father, Griffin told police he was not responsible and was elsewhere in the house at the time.He maintained there had been a third party in the house, whom he refused to identify.'It is ridiculous to accuse me of assaulting my father as I am the carer for both of them,' he told police.Griffin also accused his father of seeing other women and said that he had wanted to ensure that his mother was left something.Mr Scott told the court that the attack was 'degrading and gratuitous'.Griffin, who appeared in a wheelchair via a video link from HMP Liverpool, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to grievous bodily harm against his father and threats to destroy or damage property belonging to the neighbours.He represented himself at the hearing and told the court that he previously had a successful career in the film industry and had worked with Quentin Tarantino on the film Kill Bill.Judge David Swinnerton responded: 'I hate to put the other side of the coin, but you did murder your fiancée.'Griffin told the court he was 'dreadfully sorry' for attacking his father.'It was one in a million and it will not happen again. I have been a great son, I really have.'Griffin said he blamed drugs he had been taken for a medical condition 'which make me feel funny'.His mother Janet told the court: 'He has been a very good son. 'Whatever we needed , he would do. I think it was the medication which was the problem. It came out of the blue.'Speaking over the link, Griffin told his mother: 'Love you, Mum. Sorry.'Mrs Griffin replied: 'It’s all right love. Love you.'In a victim personal statement, Bernard Griffin said he did not want any more contact with his son and was fearful of what would happen on his release from prison.Judge Swinnerton jailed Griffin for a total of four years with a one-year extended licence period.He told Griffin: 'You repeatedly punched and kicked your father and left him bruised, bloodied and battered.'Your father was a particularly vulnerable victim.'He said that a pre-sentence report said Griffin posed a high risk of further violent offending against his father.Judge Swinnerton said that his conviction in Paris for the murder of his fiancée satisfied him that he presented such a risk.Griffin's murder trial in France was told he was a 'kind of gigolo' who relied on girlfriends for money. Ms Legg had a flourishing tomato export firm, which supplied the likes of McDonald's and Tesco.The month before she was killed, she sent a text message to a friend saying: 'Just in case I die, you'll have proof with the copy of this text. 'He made me take so many sleeping pills I don't know if I'll ever wake up.'Another, sent a few minutes later, said: 'He beat me - he beat my head against the ground.'She was found to have suffered 100 injuries in a 'frenzied' attack – after which Griffin, then addicted to alcohol and anti-depressants, tried to clean the blood-stained £1,000-a-night hotel suite.Griffin called reception twice to say the couple would be extending their stay and put a 'do not disturb' sign on the bedroom door before fleeing.He then fled to Britain in a Porsche 911 and went into hiding for five days, sleeping in a tent in woodland, before being arrested.